With Christmas squarely behind us, our thoughts inevitably turn to plans for the new year. For most that means we will be declaring, and ultimately giving up on, some sort of resolution. I've always been the kind of person who is far more effective at getting things done if I feel beholden to someone else to get results. That said, I thought I'd share my resolutions here, and perhaps it would help me keep them. I've got a week until they officially take effect, and I intend on not starting them until Jan. 1 to make them official. To that end, you're going to see some changes in this space in the coming year. Most notably, you're going to notice that I will use this space as a personal accounting of my exercise and diet program. A year from now, you will see far less of me than you do now. I haven't decided whether the updates will come regularly or sporadically, but there will be some kind of kickoff next Saturday. I'm going to outline my rules, I hope you'll do your best to hold me to them. Secondly, I'm going to use this space less and less for silly updates ...

My holiday was a mixed bag at best. Here are the highlights. Christmas eve was spent at my father's side of the family. My Aunt and Uncle were, as always, stoned. My other aunt spent the evening bitching about one thing or another and my mom filled in the gaps with inane commentary about everything from her sister's heart surgery to their cat's reaction to the new banister my father built. This was, by far, the hardest day of the holiday season. Complete and utter boredom mixed with some movie where a Mexican family was celebrating Christmas by eating tamales and hitting a pinata made me think of certain people. Christmas day was all right. I got a ridiculous amount of gift certificates to Best Buy which paid for the iPod I bought this morning. Other than that, I got some boxer shorts and t-shirts, a set of poker chips and some other assorted clothes from my parents. In exchange, I bought my father a gift certificate to Home Depot and my mom a year's membership to a Web site that will allow her to trace our family's geneology. It's actually quite and interesting and useful site, there's just one snag: ...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife I grew up hating the holidays. My family celebrated in all the traditional ways and I got my fair share of cool toys, so it wasn't like I hated it because we were poor or I was neglected or anything. I hated it because my family is crazy. Don't get me wrong, 99.9% of the time they're crazy in that endearing, "this is my family and I love their quirks" kind of way. Around Christmas time, however, the quirks turn to pure insanity and then the usually fun-loving bunch that is my family turns into wild-eyed crazy people running around yelling at each other. This was especially true when I was growing up as a kid. Most holidays we'd come back to Michigan to spend with my family and so putting together the travel arrangements, packing a week's worth of clothes, gifts and two kids into a mini-van and trucking it halfway across the country was quite a task. Patience ran short and so did tempers, and those experiences, year-after-year, colored my views on this season. Something funny happened a couple years ago, however, and for better or worse a girl kind of changed my idea of the ...

I've been away for awhile here, and it seems a lot has happened in the last couple days, so I'll just hit you with the highlights and fill in the details as I have time. Here goes: - Every time I hang out with Loc from now on I'm going to feel like a rapper traveling with an armed posse. Now that he's officially a cop, he has to travel with his gun on him at all times. I was afraid that if I got into a fight at my hockey game last night he'd have to arrest me. How crazy would that be? - Bleeder is my new favorite Alkaline Trio song. - I think I've made it to the stage where I don't miss EB as much as I miss the feeling of being in a relationship. That's a good thing, I suppose. Right? I think I've hit a new stage in the process. - My friend was in a very serious car accident this week, and I'm so thankful for how incredibly lucky she is to be alive. I've just recently become close to her and losing her to something like that would have been just devestating. She's taking it as ...

With Thanksgiving ending just minutes ago, I guess it would be appropriate for me to say what I'm thankful for. Here goes: Friends: I may have problems with them sometimes, but I am surrounded by the biggest, most caring group of friends anyone could ask for. I had a really tough time on my birthday and I had about 20 friends come out to celebrate with me. With losing EB just a few months ago, my friends have been more supportive than anyone could ever ask for. Old and new, you'd be harder pressed to find a luckier person than me when it comes to my friends. To top it off, I've made some new friends and have become closer with old ones in the last couple months, these people, along with friends I've had for years, mean the world to me. Family: When it comes to being fortunate, I hit the jackpot. I've moved back and forth across the country, I've gone through tough relationships (with EB and others) and no matter what the problem is, my parents, my brother, my cousins, aunts and uncles have always been there for me, no questions asked. Work: I don't know how I've been so ...

It's been quite a weekend. I worked pretty much every day. Friday I took care of all the tech inquiries that I missed while I was out of the office that afternoon. Saturday I posted the regular content to the Web site and Sunday I spent about five hours in the office putting together a special section for our luxury car guide. The special sections are the only part of my job that I really enjoy and I hate that I hardly get any time to do them. When I do, I feel rushed, so I don't do quite as good a job as I think I could. Other than that, I think I finally had the epiphany regarding some of my friends that EB was waiting for all throughout our relationship. I was sitting at my brother's apartment Friday night playing cards. It was the typical mix of stoners, slackers and idiots I hang out with, when I finally thought to myself, "Is this really what I want to be doing on a Friday night?" Part of the appeal of EB was that she was so different from all that. I liked hanging out with all those guys every now ...