New Year's Resolutions

A quick list of the New Year's resolutions. These are the ones I can remember. New Year's Eve I was coming off a binge of cookies, candy, pizza, ice cream, presents, snow, all sorts of things, that had lasted the previous week. I was in prime mode for unrealistic resolutions and I think I thought about making a lot of them. These are the ones I can remember, thus the ones that I'll stick with.

1. Pitchfork Ban Year 2: Self-explanatory. I should be able to stick with this one pretty easily.

2. Watch fewer TV shows: It has become apparent to me that I'm way too easily sucked in to TV shows. Right now, as all my shows are taking a break from new episodes, my nights are so free it's unbelievable. While the season is in full swing though, I'm constantly checking Yahoo TV listings and skillfully planning what I'll watch live, what I need to record, when something will rerun so that if it's playing at the same time I'm watching one thing and recording another I'll still be able to get the new episode of this other show within the week. It's stressful. I guess this is really not to watch less TV but to follow fewer TV shows. I will still be watching lots of television. But there's really no reason I need to be steadfastly following Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, Tough Love, Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab (I don't know if I can give this one up honestly), PTI, Around the Horn, Community, Office reruns, UFC rehash, and so on into infinity. Do you know how stressful it was trying to fit all those in and keep up with Christmas specials last month? Brutal. Mostly I need to learn to let these shows go and not feel like I'm missing out on anything. If they get good, I'll hear about it and I'll check it out. Community is the perfect example. I've watched since the first episode and so I feel invested in it. But it's never ever really been that funny. I keep waiting for it to take a leap into the same level as the rest of those Thursday shows but it really doesn't look like it's going to. And 90% of the characters annoy me, but I keep watching because What If It Gets Awesome?! Bad. BAD! I should maybe think about getting a hobby.

3. Play music more. For my own benefit. So depressing. Two years ago I bought the Harmony Rocket I had been after for years. Such a pretty piece of work. And after the first week I had it, I've maybe really played it four or five times. So sad. I want to pick it back up, just for my own enjoyment, so I don't get mad at myself when I realize I'm not up to writing songs and I shouldn't consider taking it outside the house. Just try to get back some of that enthusiasm I had in my bedroom in middle school. And it should be relatable to that, considering my ability after this lay-off might be hovering somewhere around what it was when I first picked up the instrument.

4. Lay off the candy: This one, at least in the short term, is going to be insanely hard. I have yet to be able to keep myself from strolling the candy aisle to see what's there when I go to the grocery store. But I need to knock it off, and I'm going to try for the whole year. The problem with my candy operation is this: I want to try all the new candy that's out there. Sometimes I would get lucky and the things I wanted to try came in singles, but lately, with things like all the varieties of Kisses and the new Pieces line, I had to buy a size of bag that was meant to be consumed over a lengthy period of time or by multiple people. I do not operate that way. What would inevitably happen is I would buy a big bag of candy, wolf down some, enough for a review, and then one of two things. Suck down the rest in the span of, say, a couple of days, maybe, then be disgusted with myself, and swear off candy. Until next week. Or, I would wolf down some, enough for a review, suck down a little more, get disgusted with myself, and throw the rest away, knowing that if I kept it around I was not going to be able to resist sucking down more, and wasting a lot of money. It all depended on how quickly I got disgusted with myself. (Which I guess is a pretty good barometer of how good the candy is. If I want to suck it down faster than I get disgusted with myself, it's probably good candy.) So, I don't want to do that anymore, and the easiest way to avoid it is to just convince myself I'm going cold turkey on candy. Lord knows I don't seem to be able to instill any willpower in myself. It's going to be really hard for a while though. Like the other day I was in the grocery store, and they're already putting out Valentine's candy, and even Easter candy, which includes Reese's Hearts and Eggs. I think Reese's Eggs might have the absolute greatest chocolate/peanut butter combo ratio of them all. Love 'em. Not this year though. Very hard to keep myself out of that candy aisle. It's a lot like my thing with TV though. I need to convince myself that by not partaking in candy and TV, even if it's only around for a limited time, I'm not doing anything life-threatening, not missing out on anything catastrophic.

I kind of want to extend the candy ban to sweet baked goods and pastries too. It's not right for a single person living alone to buy an entire cake. What am I going to do with an entire cake other than eat the whole thing? Well, more likely scenario, buy an entire cake, eat a piece, not want it anymore and throw the rest away, along with a good chunk-a-change. However, that resolution will not apply to birthday parties or holidays. Even the candy thing may not apply to birthday parties. I'd rather be struck dead than not participate in another ice cream party topping festival.

5. Follow more MMA. I'm really enjoying this sport, but I've only really been following one part of it, the UFC. Need to get into other fight leagues, especially the Japanese ones. Shouldn't be hard, considering the UFC is going to start suing "pirates" and other organizations seem to have fewer problems with their fights showing up on the internet.

Man, it hasn't been five minutes and I'm already kind of regretting the candy one. I'm really not sure how long that one lasts.