April minutiae

It’s hard to know for sure, because I’ve had about an hour and half sleep and am looking at the spreadsheet while my baby rocks around the room at 5am (we’ve been up since 1:30am). But, if I’m going by the numbers, April was not a very good month for me. That is, nothing went wrong, but I performed fairly poorly all things considered.

The bad thing about promising to do something you have never done before is that you don’t know how it will turn out. I promised a monthly report on the minutiae of my life. I did it with the hopes I would shame myself into performing better in some key areas. I’m not sure it’s working.

So, let’s just get this over with and hope the baby is ready to sleep by the time I hit publish.

Exercise: After three months of laziness, I finally got back in the gym. I didn’t get started until I got back from a roadtrip in the middle of the month, but in the last couple of weeks, I’ve managed to fit in about 17 hours of exercise/activity, including about about 12 miles of running/cardio work, four weights sessions, and eleven rounds of disc golf. It’s finally starting to feel good again.

Freelance writing goals: I achieved absolutely nothing in this area in April. Zero point depressing zero.

Books read: The Invisible Man, Same Kind of Different as Me

Movies watched: Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple OnionĀ ; Lewis CK: Chewed Up; Willy Wonka & Chocolate Factory; The Informant! ; Blow; Heat; Men Who Stare at Goats; District 9

Documentaries watched: Kurt and Courtney; Dear Zachary

Best meal(s): I cooked nothing spectacular, nor ate at any real fantastic places. I still very much enjoyed my pie from Frank Pepe’s Pizza in Connecticut.

Travel days: 9

Live poker hours: 15.5 Due to a variety of factors, mostly work, I didn’t play much in April. I had one good session at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, but one bad session in a local game. I ended down for the month, but still up (barely) for the year.

Online poker hours: I probably put in 20 online poker hours this month (something I promised myself I wouldn’t do, but did anyway). It’s still a massive time suck. In May, I hope to play only on Sundays. Hope away, Brad. Hope away.

Personal grade for the month: B- Outside of the land of minutiae, I got some good work done, made some money, and got back in the gym. Still a long way to go before I start ending the month proud of myself.

Brad Willis

Brad Willis is a writer based in Greenville, South Carolina. Willis spent a decade as an award-winning broadcast journalist. He has worked as a freelance writer, columnist, and professional blogger since 2005. He has also served as a commentator and guest on a wide variety of television, radio, and internet shows.

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2 Responses

  1. Da Goddess says:

    Regarding your movie list:

    Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion – didn’t see that one, I don’t think but I’ve seen just about everything else. Zach just made an appearance on my blog today (I wrote about him days ago). Zach is to blame for us meeting in the blogosphere. True story.

    Lewis CK: Chewed Up – didn’t see, but I want to. It’s on the list. Funny thing — Lewis and Zach were in a show together on HBO. It got cancelled. (This list isn’t going anywhere promising, is it?)

    Willy Wonka & Chocolate Factory – which version? Oh, Johnny Depp, most likely. Not bad, but Gene Wilder was better. I think they need to make a sequel. Zach should play one of the Oompa Loompas. He has the hair for it.

    The Informant! – I like the movie, but it would have been better without Matt Damon. Perhaps someone else could have brought more pathos to the role. Someone like…well, never mind.

    Blow – good movie!

    Heat – also a good movie! Why are you just watching these now? Or are you revisiting them? Did Zach make you do it? You know there are all sorts of subliminal messages in anything he does, right? Or it’s part of his whole PsyOps program.

    Men Who Stare at Goatsn – the one goat reminded me of Zach. But seriously, I loved the movie. Just saw it a couple weeks ago. I’ve been on a movie kick. I’m averaging 5 a week. Not this week though. Too busy.

    District 9 – haven’t seen it. Was it any good? Is there any room in there for a man who looks like a sea captain?

    Documentaries watched: Pageant. Awesome! Drag queens making you laugh and cry and then laugh again. I wanted to befriend them all.

    Suggested movies: go get Blood Into Wine. Excellent! Also, rent Goodbye Solo. Just…you’ll thank me later.

  2. otis says:

    Joanie–Willy Wonka was the Wilder version. Still much better.
    Blow and heat were just re-watches for the 80th time.
    District 9 was good and worth a look