Setting Goals and Giving Swag

I hate New Years resolutions. I've always believed that if there's something you want to do, do it now; why wait for an arbitrary start date to start eating healthy or quit smoking? While I still maintain that the right time to improve yourself is always now, I'm going to have to recant a bit of my ravings I've made to friends, because I've found a good reason to use January 1st as a start date.
A former writing student of mine shared a video her brother made. In it, he chronicles himself doing a backflip every single day for an entire year. Compared to some things people promise to do on the first day of the year, a backflip may not seem like much.

But the fact is that he stuck with it (along with some acceptable cheating after a surgery) for an entire year. 365 video clips of a backflip are crammed in to one video, and he gets to know that he stuck with something and didn't let school, work, or illness get in his way. It inspired me.

So here's my proposal to my four readers: I'm giving you something to read every single day for the rest of 2013. The fact that it's a public thing should help keep me accountable, but I want to take it a step further. For every day that I miss, I'll have a giveaway!



Now don't expect a new PC game just because a raging virus kept me semi-comatose in bed for a few days. But considering that this is a pretty geeky blog, the giveaway prizes (apologetic bribes?) will be things that relate to my hobbies. Maybe it'll be a pack of Magic cards, perhaps offering to paint a model for free.

Here's how it will work: if I don't make a post by 11:59 pm CST, you have three days to yell at me. Email me at Ray@RayofPaint.com or post to my wall on Facebook  and tell me what date I missed. After three days, I'll choose a random accuser and get them set up with a gift of apology. Just make sure you've liked my Facebook page!

So that's my commitment to my friends and myself. One blog post everyday, or else.

See you tomorrow!

edit: I'm too good at this. If I don't miss a post, I'll try to do a giveaway anyway.