h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

O.k, this is going to be an off-the-top-off-my-head list of new year's 'resolutions'- that is, stuff I'm going to try hard to achieve some time this year.

1.
I'm going to lose weight.
I was doing well up until christmas- I'd dropped down 2 inches and was able to wear trousers I hadn't even contemplated putting on for the last two years. Then christmas, with all it's high-calorie temptations came along and spoiled all that, and I've all but put it back on again. I figure I can sort myself out, though.

2.
I'm going to get a job.
O.k, so it's not like I haven't been trying already, but I'm going to take this as an opportunity to renew (obtain?) a positive mental attitude towards it: Someone out there, somewhere, /does/ want to employ a mathematics graduate. It's just finding them.

3.
I'm going to have sex with something.
By 'something', I mean a willing, worthwhile member of the feminine gender, rather than something that, for instance, has been a part of me since birth. This is more for the safety of those around me than my own personal gain (naturally), as I fear for their safety if and when the pressure becomes too much and I actually explode.
In all seriousness, though, I don't mean I'm going to go out and shag the first person who lies down long enough. I don't think I'd get anything out of that, and neither would they. It's got to be something meaningful and worthwhile (yes, I can hear you all retching at the back, there). I never have been your typical lad, i.e. jumping on top of anythying that stops moving, and I don't intend to start now. Maybe my problem is that I'm too picky without having any license to be...
But yeah. This 'resolution' is more about general loneliness and a yearning for intimacy with someone on every level, not just a physical thing. Talking about getting laid is just a superficial way of making it feel lighter than it actually is.

4.
I'm going to cheer up.
I'm not talking about being one of those happy clappy, everything's wonderful, nothing's wrong with the world type people who seem to be living on a constant prozac overdose, because lets face it, everyone hates that kind of person, especially those people I feel closest to.
I'm talking about generally seeing the lighter side of things I usually get upset about. Which is pretty much everything. I'm fed up of feeling crap about most things that happen, so I'm going to make an effort to perspectiveise things (you know what I mean).

5.
I'm going to meet more people.
I don't know exactly how I'm going to accomplish this, but I feel it will probably be helped along by the completion (or even just attempting) items 1 and 2 on this agenda, and probably couldn't be harmed by number 4, and its completion could possibly help along number 3.
I've already met one new person this year- on new year's day, as it happens. When I say 'met', I mean the word in the chatting on messenger sense, rather than an actual physical meeting in a 'real' place. But all the same, I was impressed with the things we had in common at first, and she's not disappointing me as our correspondence continues. Here's hoping she's thinking the same
Also, I'd like to strengthen correspondence with some of my more well established online friends, most notably a certain person who knows damned well who she is and shouldn't need to ask This meeting would most likely happen at the Science Museum, so that if I bore her to death, at least she's got pretty things to stare at and play with.

I think that's it for now.

TK[1]

We are so alike I could have written them myself. (is that scary or what)

As far as meeting more people, that is very easy just go to meetings of interest groups. From lectures to clubs of various sorts (try to choose clubs where the meeting is somehting that your interested in spending some time with).

I have in the past felt that my wide girth doesn't need to be reduced (I can justify/rationalize away anything I think) but it does weigh me down too much, and I do need to buy my clothes at specialty stores.

I've been out of work now for nearly three years. Granted, I havent't spent all that time looking, since I did go to classes for 18 of those months but I would rather have been working all a long than going to classes anyway. It seems that my entire career choice has gone and moved to China (electronics manufacturing)

However since my resolutions haven't come into fruition for a long time I think that it is a waste of my thought processess. Maybe its not for you, good luck.

For the most part, my resolutions are the diametric opposite of yours For the most part, mind.

Good luck, you can do it

The putting on weight one, I get... but the rest need explaining...?

TK[1]

[2] to try not to let my mother force me into getting a job
[3] to not let anything have sex with me
[4] to improve mental health
[5] to make the most of people I already know.

[4]'s the same as mine then, and [5]'s a sub- portion of mine. [2] is understandable as you need to concentrate on your studies. [3] Isn't really a resolution- they're supposed to be changes.

TK[1]

Remember he said for the most part...

There was an age when I would have gone with EE's ideas but I'm no longer at that point in my life. EE, if you're at that age, (around 17-25) and in school stay there, refuse with all you might to accept the world's blather. (yeah that's what it is blather.)

Search for your heart's direction (forget the mind's direction, it is full of that blather). Do things for the love, not the money and somehow make it stick, eventually the money will come. This is the key of all the wealthiest men in the world, or most certainly the happiest.

Good advice.

Unfortunately, around this age, the heart only speaks blather too...
I'm just hoping I'll walk out of this year with a better idea of what I want.

remember that I said search for your heart direction.

Try everything, even things that dont necesarily seem to make sense at the time. Explore, be as curious about things as you can be, and be open to new experiences. Eventually there will be something that pulls at you that you can embrace and there it is.

In a sense I have wasted much of my life following something that was merely an intellectual curiosity and the few emotional rewards are far outweighed by the lack of emotional connectedness that I have to prusue in other areas now.

Following a dream, your heart direction, makes up in the end for the poor economic start that some of these pursuits offer to begin. Remember the story of Bill Gates he dropped out of college to pursue something and became the world richest man. Likewise both of the founders of Google did the same thing (they dropped out of their doctoral program at Stanford [they did have their masters though)].

Unfortunately marketing whatever it is you like, will be the linchpin to taking your love of life and making the money but even if it is a stall at the local craft fair if you realy love what you do the rest of life will take care of itself. It will even attract the type of person who can be your life's partner.

Good luck. (Sermon over)

O.k, got number 2. sorted, for the time being at least. It's 6:20 in the a.m, and I'm just checking my mail and stuff before starting my first day. Hope you're all groovy.

TK[1]

Jeez, 6:20?

Hope it all went groovily

I set one alarm for 5:00 Another for 5:30. I didn't set the third.
Our shower is playing up, and I didn't want that to be the cause of lareness on my first day. Tomorerow I'm going to go to my grandparents'.

TK[1]

5:00 I don't think my clock goes back that far!
Ah, I see.... I generally give up on such matters and bathe in the evening. It's difficult enough clearing the bathroom so I can brush my teeth in the morning. And there are only 3 of us

I didn't think it even existed. I'm still not totally sure. I certainly wish it didn't. When you have 4 people all looking to leave the house at the same time, and your shower is broken, then it pays to get in the bathroom first...

I can't get dressed if I haven't had a shower beforehand. I just feel all icky otherwise. Especially if I'm going to be working for 9 hours.

TK[1]

I can imagine...

I'm not generally that fussy. But I can't stand showers, if I have to have them too often.

I like to be squeaky clean and fresh in the morning

TK[1]

And I like to feel as relaxed as possible at night

Ah, I'm pretty damned relaxed anyway

TK[1]

"I'm so cool, you could keep a side of beef on me for a month"

I'm so hip I have trouble seeing over my own pelvis.

Actually, that's my stomach. Though I think working is going to help with that resolution, too. I'm making a point of only drinking water, and I can't eat any more than I take with me.

TK[1]