#132 - 30 Day Challenges, Dominion Box, and the Break

Motto: Have a holly, jolly Christmas, a happy, slappy Hanukkah, a hippy, trippy Kwanzaa, and/or a pleasant end of the year, non-religious vacation.

Way back when I was first starting the October project (a.k.a. "The Hugening") I wrote to you about a Google Engineer by the name of Matt Cutts who has been doing self-imposed 30 day challenges for the past few years. In October, I tried my hand at a 30(ish) day challenge, and found out I really enjoyed it! Melissa and I have resolved to do 12 challenges in 2014. One challenge per month, to be decided upon on the 1st of the month and reviewed at the end of the month.

We are starting January off with a challenging challenge: the Paleo Diet.

The Too Long; Didn't Read of the Paleo Diet is that humans now are essentially the same creatures as we were in the Paleolithic era. The "food" we eat today is not at all what our bodies are expecting - and it causes significant health problems. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many more noninfectious diseases can be avoided through proper diet... of which Paleo is one of the most stringent.

So, for the next 30(ish) days: Melissa and I will slowly forget what "sweet" tastes like.

The holidays have come and gone. I spent a lot of time with everyone I care about most and I couldn't be more grateful for it all.

I'd like to talk for a moment about Dominion.

Dominion is the non-collectable, collectable card game. It's a nerdy game, but I don't mind the stigma. It's fun. It's easy to pick up on, as complex or simple as you want to make it, and infinitely replayable. I've been playing it a few times a week since I was introduced to it by my great friend Danielle a couple of months back. I bought the original "Dominion" base game the same day she showed me how to play it. Within two months, my dominion of Dominion cards looked like this:

There are 8 expansions to the original Dominion game. I now have 5 of them. You can see (some of) the boxes stacked up on the counter in the background of the photo above. The box that Dominion comes in is huge and mostly full of air. Add on another 5 expansions, and the possibility of portability becomes prohibitively preposterous.

So I decided to fix the problem.

I made that box. This is what it looks like on the inside.

I'm not going to bore you with the organizational details, but I will say it's suits my needs perfectly. The empty row is intentional, and will be used some day, when I get around to picking up the last three expansions to the game (if, for no other reason, a sense of completeness).

I have many cameras.

GoPro, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, Canon Vixia, and those are just mine. I also have access to another few if you include Melissa's cameras. One of these days I want to do some sort of a project that involves 7 or 8 camera angles. That would be sweet.

Top 5: Goals for the Break

5. Think of 12 Solid Life Changes for the Plan (7/12)
4. Update the Second-a-Day Video (0/1)
3. Make a Box to Store Dominion In (DONE)
2. Read a Book (0/1)
1. Finish this Post (DONE IN THE NICK OF TIME)

Quote:
“LOOK AT HOW BAD WE ARE DOING AND LOOK AT OUR NAMES”
- Lance, who was adamant about his name selection being an important factor in the success of his Halo team -