2015 Resolutions

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:24 am

Does anybody even want to talk about this?

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 8:29 am

I think we're all old enough now to stop doing this.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:29 am

What's that joke about the health club that turns into a bar on Febuary first?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:02 am

pinback wrote:I think we're all old enough now to stop doing this.

I am making some for you.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:22 am

AArdvark wrote:What's that joke about the health club that turns into a bar on Febuary first?

I think that's it.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:53 pm

No, I'm sure there's a bartender and a duck involved.

Amon · Post by **Amon** » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:21 pm

pinback wrote:I think we're all old enough now to stop doing this.

From the same people who brought you "What did you get for Christmas?".

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:41 am

Yes, things are so much better here when nobody tries to start conversations. Let's try that and see how it works out.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 2:03 pm

I really didn't have any resoloutions this year. In the past they've all involved lifestyle changes that were not only difficult but downright annoying. I figure that if I say busy enough I wont have time to gloom about what a horribly ordinary person I've become.

THE
NOTHING SPECIAL
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 8:07 am

Amon wrote:
pinback wrote:I think we're all old enough now to stop doing this.
From the same people who brought you "What did you get for Christmas?".

Who's this asshole? There's 12 years of really great threads on this forum so it blows my mind that some clown's first post is garbage clown shit like that.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 11:01 am

I will review last year's momentarily. But this year is simple. This year:

1) Lose 20 pounds. I can start that ANY TIME, ROBB.

2) Finish Cyberganked.

3) Finish the novella for Cyberganked.

That's it. That's my 2015. I am not putting shit up like "Get it on Steam" or whatever. This is my year. It will either be a good year or a bad year based on the above.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 11:05 am

Oh. Here is how I did for last year:

1. No longer doing the minimum. This week I had a tire blow out, a water pipe burst in my house and a video card die on my PC, all because I am mentally weak and lazy. This is tough to "nail down" but I am no longer doing the minimum.

SOLVED. I take care of shit now.

2. Weigh less than 215.

FAILED. I got to 223, where I am now.

3. Finish Cyberganked.

FAILED. Jesus, that wasn't realistic. It's gonna be tough to get it done for 2015. I am not counting the above for 2014. God.

4. Write an article for Caltrops or JC once a week.

FAILED. I wrote like two good articles for JC and two for Caltrops. And nobody provides feedback for any of that stuff and I haven't gained an audience or anything, even though I stand behind what I write. Whatever.

5. No money spent on arcade games or pinball machines in 2014.

SOLVED. Them living at the Milker's house made that possible.

6. Move in with Melissa.

SOLVED. We live together now.

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 2:53 pm

I posted a long, terrible list of crazy resolutions and though Flack warned me against it, I am all for it because....

I'm rolling into them, slowly adding one major lifestyle revision once every week or so. Fail one week? Well, try again the next without feeling overwhelmed.

Has anyone tried to do anything similar or have some other sane plan to actually implement their New Year's resolutions?

gsdgsd · Post by **gsdgsd** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:36 pm

Resolved to lose weight. I was 193 when I got married, started this year at 218, down to 213. 195 is pretty good for my height. I figure with a kid now, any other resolutions are just gravy.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:24 am

RetroRomper wrote:I posted a long, terrible list of crazy resolutions and though Flack warned me against it, I am all for it because....

I'm rolling into them, slowly adding one major lifestyle revision once every week or so. Fail one week? Well, try again the next without feeling overwhelmed.

Has anyone tried to do anything similar or have some other sane plan to actually implement their New Year's resolutions?

The only system I have ever had work for me is to review my resolutions at the end of each week, congratulate myself on the ones that are working and figure out how to succeed at the ones I failed at.

Right now I have to get out of the rut of making excuses for the ones I'm failing at. I said I would walk 30 minutes a day. I've had some family matters going on over the past few weeks which make it real easy to say, "I don't HAVE 30 minutes a day to spare right now." That works for the short term but during that evaluation time over the weekend I have to figure out how to adjust things and get back on track.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:52 pm

I did some work on the novella for the first time in a long time.

I have the whole stupid thing plotted. I just have to add jokes. I don't know where my motivation has been.

Anyway. One day, a couple pages of new material and lots of editing. I read what I had written so far on the plane to Costa Rica and was disgusted. I don't know how anyone writes anything without giving it a few months to re-read. That would seem to be essential. Or I guess people get editors.

RetroR · Post by **RetroR** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 7:47 am

Flack, I've the same issue and after struggling with trying to force myself to say go running at a designated time, instead fit exercise into the small spaces between obligations, letting them bridge as opposed to obstruct.

For example, I now walk to work which fills in my quota of three miles of walking per day. Are you able to find a parking lot or complex one or two miles away from your office and park there? You'd be forced to arrive early enough (there is your thirty or so minutes) to walk to work and have to walk back to go home.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:01 am

For the past two weeks I've been getting up at 6 AM, dropping a kid off at the bus stop at 6:30 AM, arriving to work by 7 AM, sitting in meetings until 5 PM, rushing home to pick up kids, getting dinner, doing up to the hospital by 6 PM, visiting a family member until around 9 PM, being home by 9:30 PM, crashing by 10 PM and starting everything over the next day.

Someone could argue that I could be waking up earlier to walk right now or doing it when I get home from the hospital. I would punch that person in the throat.

My two week meeting's over. I'll be either working from home most of next week which opens my time back up. And even if I go in, as long as I'm not tied into that meeting, I can make time to go walk. Last week the high here was 31 and it's supposed to be 60 this weekend so that also opens up outdoor walking opportunities.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:07 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I don't know how anyone writes anything without giving it a few months to re-read. That would seem to be essential. Or I guess people get editors.

They say the reason you can't write and edit at the same time is that writing uses the right side of your brain and editing uses the left side, and it's simply too hard for most people to switch back and forth. What works for me is what you mentioned. I'll write, step away for a few days, and then come back to it. If I walk away for three days and some back to something it's like I can remember what I was trying to say and can move things around to make it work. If I step away for more than a week, it's almost like reading a stranger's words to me. And yeah, most of the time it seems pretty terrible.

Editors are great (or so I hear) because they don't have a vested interest in your words, only the final product. As a writer, sometimes it pains me to remove an entire sentence or, God forbid, a whole paragraph. An editor can look at something and say, "this chapter sucks" and axe it without blinking an eye. That's hard to do with your own work. It's why many professionally written and edited novels seem so slick, while I post 5,000 word blog posts that nobody reads, haha.

It dawned on me the other day that you and I are writing two completely different things. You're working on a novella and I am writing a bunch of short stories. I don't know how well the two will merge together. I also don't think either of us have enough material for a stand alone work. We'll have to figure something out. Also I did the same thing you did (went back and read what I had written) and all of my stories are terrible.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:19 pm

I usually write three to five different results at any given plot point. When I go back after a couple days I see how stupid most of them are and go with the one that feels right. This can get dangerous because if I go 'down the rabbit hole' on soemthing that was working well I have to toss out all that work later if it really sucks.