New Year's Resolutions - A Look Forward to 2012

...continued from December 30th, 2011

After reviewing 2011's hits & misses in terms of New Year's Resolutions, now it's time to look ahead to this year, 2012.  Most of my resolutions (or maybe more appropriately put, goals) will look somewhat familiar, perhaps with a few twists...

#1.  2012 - The Year of the Brook Trout
I mentioned this in a prior post on Facebook, but while all you guys are chasing carp, I want to get my grubby paws on some brook trout this year.  Specifically, wild...native...whatever you want to call them...brook trout.  It's somewhat ironic, or perhaps tragic, that Pennsylvania's state fish is the brook trout, yet the only brook trout I've ever caught were pale, overfed, vampire-looking hatchery brookies.  I'd like to fish brookie water at least once for every 3 times I fish my normal brownie water.  And to achieve this, I will most definitely need to adhere to my next goal...

The ugliest stockie brookie you'll ever see

#2.  Fish New (or Different) Water
Yes, this is a carry over from last year, but I'm going to need to continue on this trend if I plan to continue to expand my horizons, and yes, catch some brookies...since they certainly ain't in Valley Creek.  I may head upstate or out to Western PA, head up to New York state, wherever, it doesn't really matter as long as it's outside the 30-40 minute "comfort zone" around my house.  My goal is to expand my fishing range by at least 6 new (to me) streams/creeks/rivers in 2012.

I also deserve a fishing trip this year of some sort.  Like an extended trip dedicated just to fishing.  All of the fishing on vacations I've taken to date have been a half day or a few hours stolen from within the framework a larger family vacation with K.C. & Lilly.  Maybe this year it will be the Tenkara Summit in Utah, could be heading down to Troutfest to fish the Smokies, perhaps it would even be getting a line wet when I head north to do some planned hiking in Maine, which naturally leads into...

#3.  Lose a Few More Pounds
This isn't necessarily fishing, but it's general health.  Any you've got to be in good health to do all the hiking, rock climbing, and stuff like that to get to good trout water.

I need to lose 10 pounds in 2012...

Dave Hester?  What the fu#k are you doing here.  Bidding me up?

 Uh, okay...I need to lose 15 pounds in 2012...?

20 pounds?...

30 pounds?...Is that silence?

Shut up Barry...are you laughing or bidding?  Laughing?  Good.
I need to lose 30 pounds in 2012.

#4.  Get This Crappy Blog (Just A Little) More Organized
This blog is a total fly by the seat of my pants operation.  All the posts are typically written the night before right before I go to bed, as are the associated extras, like Facebook posts.  Not much is ever composed in advance, nor is there really a plan associated with any of it.  It's all haphazardly done and to be honest, is consuming a bit too much time.  I mean how can I keep up on all my pop culture if I don't get to watch TV at night?  After all, a new season of Finding Bigfoot just started...and I know they're gonna find that sucker this year.

As such, here is the short list of goals for the blog

• Minimum of 2 posts per week pre-written the weekend prior
• Create an actual rate card for advertisers as opposed to the vague extortion currently employed
• An event calendar, including 4 contests, 1 per quarter.  Not necessarily giveaways
• Go to a trade show and actually do some offline networking
• 500 Facebook Likes, 1000 Twitter Followers  (I can do this easy, just need to be more proactive) 
• An overall facelift - but stay on the Blogger platform

#5.  Give Back
Another carry over from 2011, I want to find a way to give back in a more personal way.  I had some ideas, but they never came to fruition.  My goal for 2012 is to organize my thoughts, get something on paper by the end of March, and spend the rest of the year making it a reality.  Of all the goals above, this will probably be the most challenging, but also the one I look most forward to tackling.

Anyone have a good singing voice?
That's a joke...
...or is it?

So those are my goals.  All would expand my boundaries, yet I don't think any are not achievable.  What do you think?

Obviously one final goal that really goes without mentioning (thus it's not officially listed) is hoping to meet many more of you, in person.  Whether it be for fishing, to share a beer and a burger, or a simple handshake and hello, I've found putting real life faces to names has been the best part of this blogging experience to date.  I've met 5 of you so far, how about another 10 this year?