Date: 8-6-2014

Due Date: 8-6-2015

Resolution: I've always had a skeptical interest in alternative medicine but have never really given it a try.

Well...

Years ago I bought a bunch of acupuncture needles from Amazon.com and a couple of friends and I had a self-acupuncture party. So I've experienced what it feels like o be stuck with an acupuncture needle but I don't think I've experienced any of the benefits.

Some time within the year, I'll head into a legitimate acupuncture facility to see if they can do something about my sinuses that have been giving me problems lately.

Date: 8-7-2014

Due Date: 8-7-2015

Resolution: ...and by real… I mean from real socks…

Date: 8-8-2014

Due Date: 8-8-2015

Resolution: My hair's been thinning in the front since my mid-twenties. I've given up caring about the loss a long time ago. I usually just keep my hair pretty short or wear a hat.

Now that I have a day job, hat-wearing is no longer an option. The place that I work has a huge mirror running across the back of the store. Even though I'm comfortable with my hair loss, I now have to stare at my bald spots every time I walk across the store.

Being that novelty is my solution to most of my world problems; I figure may as well add a little fun to my mild insecurity.

Who knows?

The ironic comb-over may just be the ironic mustache replacement that we're definitely due for.

Date: 8-9-2014

Due Date: 8-9-2015

Resolution: I've never been much of a fighter. As a big guy, I've never had many people try to start trouble with me. I've been sized up by several small Napoleon Complex guys but I've always seen this as a no-win situation.

The best-case scenario is that I beat up a little guy. The worst case, I get beat up by a borderline dwarf.
Because of this I never really learned to fight.

I'm perfectly fine with my passive ways, but my lack of experience makes me the perfect guinea pig for this experiment.

For the next year, I'll be working on a text-based martial arts training regimen.

One year from today I will spar with a fully trained opponent to test what I've learned.

Date: 8-10-2014

Due Date: 8-10-2015

Resolution: Though I played a big part in picking and arranging my tattoos, all the imagery already existed. All I did was say, "Put this picture here, with that one there and make this instead of that."

Luckily I've always found tattoo artists with the talent to interpret and pull off my demands.

I've had an evolving idea for sleeves that I want. This concept requires all original artwork and so far I've been unable to communicate the vision that I have in my head.

Though I don't feel that my skills are anywhere near up to par quite yet, now that I'm learning to draw, I plan to have at least a rough sketch of this idea by this time next year.

Date: 8-11-2014

Due Date: 8-11-2015

Resolution: Since starting this whole resolution thing, I've gotten much better at keeping my place tidy and getting rid of things I don't need. That said, I still have a problem with all my little cubby holes.

I live alone so all the storage space is mine to hide my belonging that I plan to "get to later." (AKA leave things hidden until I forget about the space, let alone the clutter.)

I don't have a hoarder mentality; in fact, I love getting rid of stuff. I just don't have the time or a strategy to take care of these out of sight, out of mind belongings.

This book claims to have the solution to this problem and all it takes is ten minutes a day for twenty-eight days.

You know how I love this sort of challenge.

So, within the next year, I will buy this book and test its claim.

Date: 8-12-2014

Due Date: 8-12-2015

Resolution: When I was a kid I saw a documentary about Nostradamus hosted by Orson Wells. I was alone when I saw it so there was no one around to answer my fears.

I spent the rest of my childhood believing the world was going to end as soon as one of these prophesies came to fruition. It seemed every couple of months there was a prediction that California would sink or the Russians would attack. My world always seemed to be on the verge of destruction.

I think this is partially to blame for my weird outlook on life. When my grandpa died I found a leather-bound copy of The Prophecies of Nostradamus. I have yet to read it and think it’s time.

Over the next year, I will read The Prophecies of Nostradamus in an attempt to find at least one prediction of an upcoming event.

Date: 8-13-2014

Due Date: 8-13-2015

Resolution: Considering that I just started to learn to draw a couple of months ago, this resolution has nothing to do with fantasies of making a career change.

I don't even know if I'd ever feel confident or comfortable enough to tattoo an actual person.

Right now I'm just interested in art in any form.

When I was searching Amazon for potential resolutions I found this $40 tattoo starter kit. Then I saw the Learn to Tattoo DVD in the top right corner of the image and I was sold. Especially when I also saw you can purchase tattoo practice skins.

I doubt I'll ever actually tattoo a person, but, who knows, if I start now maybe this will eventually lead to fantasies of making a career change.

Date: 8-14-2014

Due Date: 8-14-2015

Resolution: NatureBox.com is a sponsor of many of my favorite podcasts. I believe I first heard about them via My Brother, My Brother, and Me.

Well, after years of badgering, I've finally decided to give in and give NatureBox a shot.

Being that I'm an adventurous eater I'm going to order the monthly random snack pack and report my findings.

If you are interested in playing along order your package through NatureBox.com/mybrother and you'll get some kind of discount.

Date: 8-15-2014

Due Date: 8-15-2015

Resolution: I mainly just want an excuse to draw Predator Penguin every day. Not only is he my new favorite thing, but I also feel the repetitive practice is helping with my overall ability to draw. I figure adding a quote a day will keep this from becoming off-puttingly monotonous.

Feel free to submit any of your favorite quotes.

Date: 8-16-2014

Due Date: 8-16-2015

Resolution: When I first thought of doing this "Word of the Day" resolution, I was going to buy one of those daily desk calendars.

Then I realized it's August.

I decided instead to turn to the internet.

I figured, why waste the money on an old or new calendar that I'd only be using for the daily word and not its true intent?

When I saw that Dictionary.com had its own word of the day, I was sold. Dictionary.com is one of my favorite online reference sources, actually, it's their Thesaurus but that's still theirs.

For the next year, I'll be checking in with Dictionary.com to get the word of the day to then sneak somewhere into the blog. I'll note the word in the Daily Breaker but it will be your job to find it in the blog.

Date: 8-17-2014

Due Date: 8-17-2015

Resolution: Now that I've completed Richard Simmons thirteen week Project Hope workout as part of Resolution #109 I need a new workout to start my day.

I listen to a lot of Joe Rogan's podcast and he swears by kettlebell workouts. Based on what he says all you need is 25 minutes to get a pretty good workout.

Being that some of the Richard Simmons workouts would end up taking about two hours, this 25-minute aspect is very appealing to me. These resolutions are piling up and I don't really have the time to spend two hours on anything, but I do need to continue to workout.

I'm not really sure what to expect from a kettlebell workout, but I look forward to throwing a heavy ass weight around.

Hopefully, I don't end up demolishing my apartment with this one.

Date: 8-18-2014

Due Date: 8-18-2015

Resolution: Today, as I tried to figure out my resolution I thought, "What's a better way to work through a mid-life crisis than revisiting my birth?" That's when I found The Big Book of Me.

Within the next year, I will take this appropriately narcissistic titled baby journal and fill it out from cover to cover to see if I can find any new insight on life.

Date: 8-19-2014

Due Date: 8-19-2015

Resolution: Because it's me, I have to clarify, this does not mean that I'm going to be living on an all-butter diet for the next year.

In general, I don't eat all that much butter but when I do, I love it.

And what's better than butter?

Fresh homemade butter.

At least that's my theory. I haven't made butter since elementary school and am only assuming that it's hard to mess up.

It's just a matter of shaking milk in a jar right?

I'll soon find out as I experiment with different recipes and churn my own butter for an entire year.

Date: 8-20-2014

Due Date: 8-20-2014

Resolution: This afternoon I woke up to this comment from a good friend about my latest Predator Penguin drawing, "I can't wait until you get into watercolors, it's going to be amazing!"

So, I figure I'll give it a shot.

Date: 8-21-2014

Due Date: 8-21-2015

Resolution: The other day I resolved to make my own butter. The only problem is, as I pointed out in said resolution, I don't really use butter all that much.

One of my favorite things to put butter on is fresh sourdough bread. Unfortunately, I don't know of any establishments within walking distance of my apartment where I can buy fresh sourdough bread.

To resolve this problem, rather than just use this homemade butter to grease my cookware or on the rare occasion that I make pancakes, I figured I'd learn something new and figure out how to make my favorite of the breads.

Date: 8-22-2014

Due Date: 8-22-2015

Resolution: Yesterday, while stocking the shelves at work, I was in the eye and ear care section and I noticed that we are now selling a new style of eye-patch. For some reason this got me thinking about right-brain thinking versus left-brain thinking.

Just to the left of the eye patches is our ear-plug section. This led to another one of those, "You put your chocolate in my peanut butter," moments that led to this resolution.

I'm going to buy an eye patch and some ear-plugs and over the next year, I'm going to perform a creativity experiment.

The experiment?

Randomly throughout the year when I have back to back days off, I'm going to cover my right eye and plug my right ear one of the days and then do the same to the left side on the next. I will go about each day performing my resolution tasks per usual and note any differences I experience.

Date: 8-23-2014

Due Date: 8-23-2015

Resolution: Part of me feels that I was supposed to be left-handed. I have a theory that my early wrong handed training led me to become dyslexic.

To this day I don't instinctively know my right from my left. I have to grab at an invisible pencil to first figure out which way is right. I've gotten pretty quick but there's still a process.

I also eat left-handed, snowboard goofy-footed, and can throw a ball with my left hand without looking like a spaz.

I used to know a lot more left-handed tricks when I was younger. This was back when I was more into the anomaly and actually trained to do things with either hand.

When I discovered that I like to write both hands were getting enough action typing. I lost interest in their individuality. I also pretty much stopped doing anything worth experimenting with my hands’ abilities.

Now that this resolution experiment has me doing a lot more work with my hands my interest in testing what my left hand can do has returned.

So, I'm going back into training!!!

Date: 8-24-2014

Due Date: 8-24-2015

Resolution: I don't even want to guess what I was searching for when I discovered this photo several years ago. I bet it was actually something innocent like "Naked Guy Punting a Child." Actually, I think someone else posted on Facebook.

Its absurdity led "Man Attacked by Babies" to quickly become my favorite statue that I like to share at least once a year.

The other day I was trying to find a miniature replica and couldn't find anything.

Lucky for me the whole resolution thing has evolved to be more and more about me learning different forms of art.

I've already resolved to attempt to figure out sculpting to create a Buddha statue for my eventual Zen Garden. So, I figured since actual sculpting is out of the question, I'd use this as my opportunity to learn Lego Sculpting.

I also just want an excuse to play with Legos as a childless adult.

Date: 8-25-2014

Due Date: 8-25-2014

Resolution: I think cheese is my favorite thing on the planet. I wouldn't say that I was a connoisseur. I've only been to one cheese tasting event and have never tried fresh cheese.

I could go on a tour of a dairy or track down an establishment that sells fresh cheese to get samples, but this is a year of learning and that's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to learn to make cheese.