Oh, here’s a good cliched post topic — New Year’s resolutions!
1. Write a bunch of stuff.
I have so much stuff to write, I feel guilty sitting here writing this blog entry. I have so much stuff I’m contractually obliged to write this year, I’m probably going to use up all my vacation time and floating holiday writing it. And having so much stuff to write? Is a good thing. Don’t think I’m forgetting that.
2. Make a bunch of money. Or, if that’s not possible, save a bunch of money.
I’m not going to say anything bitter about the fact that all the money I would have made this year is already allotted to making up for lost child support. I mean, I already made a lot of money for the year, but it wasn’t enough. Bad Luck seems to follow me around, watching my mailbox for checks.
Then again — better to have bad luck when you have the checks than when you don’t, right? Right. In the mean time, I am in the midst of a budgetary resolution to never eat out again. As you might imagine, it’s making me sad.
O O
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3. Lose 20 more pounds. (WARNING: Boring weight talk to follow.)
Science has left me upon a plateau. Now that I’ve lost 35 pounds through the magic of physics, I can no longer lose weight at the same rate (2 lbs per week) unless I subsist on 1100 calories per day. Which is 100 fewer than the recommended allowance for anyone, fat or thin. And about 300 fewer than a hypoglycemic chick who really loves to eat would recommend for herself.
Subsisting on 1100 calories a day would be doable if I ate 1400 per day, then burned off 300 of that with exercise. Burning off 300 would take about an hour and a half. Maybe less if I did it via DDR. (“Difficult” level = hardcore cardio.) And all that would be incredibly plausible if I didn’t spend most of my day sitting, either at a desk or in my car. I spend about 11 hours a day sitting down, if you include my long-ass commute. Sad, huh?
I’m trying to eat as few calories as I can stand, and burn as many calories as I can squeeze into my sedentary day. But I might have to resign myself to losing the weight more slowly than 2 lbs per week. My goal is to lose five pounds a month, totalling 20 pounds by May 1. Guess how much weight I’ve lost so far!
Half a pound. Bleh.
If I do meet this goal, I might give myself two or three months to rest, then lose 20 more. Why not? That would make me only 10 pounds overweight, by Dept of Health standards, and yet thinner than I’ve been since I was 18 years old. (Current goal would make me thinner than I’ve been since 19 years old. Freshman Fifty much? ) (<-- That emoticon has a double chin.) 4. Try not to equate money or career success with happiness.
Despite resolutions numbers 1 and 2. No, seriously. I mean, I want to write more and make more money, but without letting my happiness depend on those goals. Should be easy! Right? Right??
5. Work on that whole self-promotion… bleh
Promote myself as an author without feeling like a show-off or a sell-out. Yeah. I remember. I’m gonna do that. Okay.
6. Do more art.
That goes with being happy.
And that’s it. Okay. Aren’t you glad you asked? What? You didn’t ask? Oh. Well… Don’t read this entry, then.
Doh. Too late! Too bad for you.