#resolutions 2015

[casuallyserious]

well, I'm now on speaking terms with 3/3 of my exes

[casuallyserious]

Goals For 2015

workout on a regular basis

practice archery

hike more often

paint

grow

[oselatra]

Resolutions 2015

No more blaming it on the cat.

No more blaming it on the cat.

No more driving with a knee while eating a sloppy, two-fisted burger. Eat better, for God's sake. Watch the calories. Step on a scale every once in a while. Hit the gym. After hitting the gym, remember to wipe off the shimmering pool of my soul I leave behind every time I pedal The Bike to Nowhere for an hour, because that's just gross. Also: Would it kill you to eat a vegetable every once in a while that isn't pickle, lettuce and onion?

Try to make Momma and Daddy proud. If ever on television after witnessing a tornado strike, come up with something more illuminating than "it sounded like a freight train." (Suggestions: "like the fingernail of God on a blackboard," "like the snoring of Death," "like the crack and cry of doom.") Try not to look like a pompous ass on TV, with your Snoring Death and your Cry of Doom. In fact, try not to wind up on TV for any reason, as there's nothing on there that's worth a damn, not since "Breaking Bad" went off the air, anyway. Avoid being digitally memorialized for posterity, especially while drunk. Know that YouTube fame is a harsh mistress.

Be kinder to folks. Be kinder to myself. Never drive angry. Obey the speed limit, and all posted road signs. Yield. Get that thing checked out at the doctor, and that other thing checked out at the mechanic. Stop arguing with strangers on the Internet. Get it through that thick skull of mine that I'm never going to sit in the nursing home and regale the other old codgers with thrilling tales of the time I really schooled bigbadjake91 on Reddit while he was running his fat, empty head about Hillary Clinton. Know that the heat of any anonymous online burn I might inflict on someone will not, in fact, melt that person's sense of self-worth like a Hershey bar on a hot dashboard, leaving a mere shell of a human being. Eat less chocolate. Accept the fact that I probably won't be able to stick to that one for long, or the thing about arguing on the Internet.

Drink more wine. Drink less whiskey, or at least better whiskey. Expensive booze might encourage me to drink it slower. Probably not. Read better books, and more of them, because a book can take a person anywhere and it doubles as a signal for conversation seekers that you don't want to be bothered. Be less bothered. Seek conversation. Don't be afraid to say to any conversationalist, "That's the most damn fool thing I ever heard!" before striding briskly away if I feel it in my heart.

Stop saying "Really?" so much when people are talking to me, as that might make them think I'm not paying attention, and that might hurt their feelings. Stop worrying so much about other peoples' feelings. Wait. Scratch that last.

Buy a kilt, maybe. OK: Try on a kilt, in a room with many mirrors so I can see what my butt looks like while wearing it. Don't buy a pair of bagpipes, though, because I'm pretty sure that's grounds for divorce. Stop believing in ancient astronauts, the Loch Ness Monster and the Chicago Cubs. Stop watching History Channel, because I'm pretty sure seeing all those idiots trying to lure in a 'Squatch with jelly beans and potted meat is dissolving my brain. Stop stealing the covers. When building rafters for a house, build them on top of one another, or else you're going to have a hell of a mess when they don't match. Measure twice, and cut once. Watch my fingers around the table saw, because better and more cautious men than I will never play piano again. Fish more. Catch and release. Buy a flyrod. Find the time to stand in a creek in North Arkansas at least once this year, flyrod in hand, hearing my dad's voice in my head, him saying: "See? You just rooooolllll the line out there." Catch a trout. Clean a trout. Eat a trout with butter and lemongrass.

Laugh more. Smile more. Go out with friends more. Get more friends. Floss. Watch one foreign movie every week. Always tell the truth, unless the question is: "What do you think about this dress?" Kiss her more. Learn to dance. Learn how to say, "Where's the bathroom" in 10 languages. Travel, even if it's just a day trip. Turn off the phone. Lose the map. Understand that the clock is always ticking, that the rod of life is always falling, that the line is always rolling out and out in the sun. Remember that someday the delicate fly at the end of the line must float down, to find the dappled water.

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Resolutions 2015

[lyrsui]

2015 Resolutions

Word Goal of The Year: Becoming. I feel that there have been a lot of "firsts" in the last year? Like, I've begun 'traveling, I've begun experimenting with intimacy, I changed schools, I strengthened my relationships, I landed a job that I actually like a lot. I feel like I'm learning to challenge myself as a writer, I feel like I'm solidifying certain relationships and reaching an understanding of what I am seeking not only from other people from life itself. I would like to expand that in 2015. I want to focus on experiences that will enrich and benefit me. I want to focus on becoming myself. 

Take more pictures. Photograph big and little moments. Take selfies of course, but also take "self portraits" - the difference being, capture yourself and your surroundings in ways that highlight your moods and your growth.

Update LBXE (my 'professional' blog) at LEAST twice a month. Develop new content. Write more articles. Just produce more writing you can showcase. 

Regain control of your academic career and pursuits. (Raise your GPA, take classes you care about.)

Try not to hate your new school so much. You're stuck with it now, so adapt somehow. 

Travel. Go places. See things, experience people. 

Read at least sixteen books this year. (More is better, but start here. Make a list for reference.)

Experiment with your appearance via makeup, hairstyles, apparel. Reject traditional beauty and dare to be unusual. Reinvent the presentation of your body / vessel. Adorn in whatever way is most pleasing. 

Make time for silence, for peace, for meditation, for happiness, for health, for understanding, for self care, for love. 

Be discerning about whom you emotionally invest in, and step forward with the understanding that even the most fleeting of relationships offer new avenues for self-enlightenment. Do not be afraid to let people love you, or embrace you. You are a pleasure and a sensual being and gentle above all - it is okay to share your vulnerability, but only with individuals who deserve it. 

Learn to write for yourself again. Not for deadlines or for contests or for school. Learn to recenter yourself in your craft, learn to realign yourself with your art so that it is yours and pure and realized. If it means buying a new journal or looking up prompts, find a way to write that doesn't make you ache. You may have to walk away from fiction to achieve this. 

Continue to be honest. With others, with yourself. 

[booklyreads]

my 2015 foreign language resolutions

learn Spanish: with English, French, and what I remember of Latin, I'm not anticipating Spanish to be a 'difficult' language. It's taken me a long time to want to learn it, but it's both a political decision (if I say Spanish should be the second national language of the U.S., I should mean it) and a bookish one (I have a desire to read Marquez, Neruda, etc., in the original).

how I'm doing it:

Anki flashcards for building up vocab

reading books in Spanish...

I bought Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish: A Creative and Proven Approach and I'll see how it is

lang8.com for writing, eventually, probably bi-weekly 

30 French Book Challenge

If I go past 30, I'll bump it to 50. Right now I basically lose my concentration if I read more than 10 pages at a time, but I can read most French without a dictionary. I just need to practice and build up my vocabulary. Also, read "The Inescapable Case for Extensive Reading" article.

Japanese Classes, and Self-Study

By the end of this year, I want to have finished Heisig's Remembering the Kanji Vol. 1, so that I'll know the meanings (but not necessarily the pronunciations) of around 2,000 kanji characters. This is on top of the Japanese classes I'll be taking at school in the next two semesters. I'll make more comprehensive summer studying plans later, when it's clearer what I need to work on.

Latin

I took four years of Latin in school, but it's fading (and I was never that great at it anyway). But I really, really want to know it (and Ancient Greek, too, but that comes later). First I'm going to take a free intro course online as a refresher, which may take about three months, and then I think I'm going to invest in Orberg's Lingua Latina textbook.

Also, for all languages, I'll be using Anki flashcards for vocab/sentence learning.

learning any foreign languages this year?

[amyhlynnofficial]

You know what, 2015 is gonna be the year I tell anyone who doesn't think I'm hot shit to fuck off because dammit I am hot shit. And I am gonna own it because feeling like I'm not worth it is fucking exhausting.

[whatshouldwecallmetoronto]

So no to exercise or healthier eating but yes to getting hot in 2015. How you ask?

[allguestsmustbeescorted]

New Year's Resolutions: • Read more (At least 50 books) • Be nicer to myself • Stop procrastinating so much • Lose 65 lbs • Exercise and Eat healthy • Watch more movies • Discover my interests • Be happy • Get shit done • Be a better sister, daughter and friend • Watch all seasons of FRIENDS • Watch all seasons of Lost • Read some classics • Watch some classics