Down below, Dan helpfully linked to my resolutions from last year. Let's see how I did:
1) Keep a running diary of my life. I really don't care if people think of it as a 'diary', 'journal', 'log', or whatever. It'll be me, every day, writing down what I did that day in a Notepad file (so as to resist temptation to print it/turn it into a spreadsheet that shows just how boring my life is). No thoughts for the future or anything like that, just a record of what I did. Exciting, eh?
No, 2008 Ryan. Not exciting. Not exciting at all. You don't know this yet, but in a few months' time, you'll be done school (well, okay, you must know THAT), fall a couple of days behind, say 'screw it', and break this first resolution.
Actually, I made it to May 6th - a couple weeks further than I thought. Looking back at the Notepad file now, it is kind of funny to see entries such as "lock keys in car (:@)", "and their front lawn", "take pictures at odd angles", and at least three examples of the word 'blecch!' despite my attempts to keep the log free of any sort of opinion.
(Dan should be able to vouch for the fact that I was keeping up with it until that point; I seem to recall him walking in on me as I was going through my day a few times.)
0 for 1, but really I think I'm better off in the long run, so 1 for 1.
2) Watch more CBC. Yeah, I know that sounds stupid, but half my professors constantly talk about how we should get our news from multiple sources. My primary source, by far, is CTV - and if I'm going to pick up a new source, it'll be a lot easier if it's also televised.
Actually did it! More so in Brantford than in Kitchener (my parents watch CTV, it's easier if I do the same), but I now go out of my way to alternate between different networks as much as possible. I think I mentioned that a few times during the election/political crisis. 2 for 2, and this one's going to keep going.
3) Be friendlier. I don't really have the "party mode" that a lot of other people seem to; consequently if I'm at a party, I'm noticeably one of the quieter people there. I tried changing this at a gathering last week, and talked to people I ordinarily wouldn't have (a few I'd never talked to before in my life, despite going to high school with), and enjoyed it enough that I'm going to try to keep it up.
Erm...think that's a checkmark? I remember the example I used, and I think I'm like that more of the time now - talking to people rather than worrying about whether they remember me/know who I am - but it's hard to say for sure. I'm still quieter than most, but I'm a quiet person by nature - it wouldn't surprise me if somebody mistook me being quiet for boredom or arrogance or something, even after this resolution. Definitely not the life of the party, but that was never the goal. Three for three.
4) Figure out how the sink in my bedroom keeps attracting hair, despite it not being hooked up to any water, and thus never used.
I covered it with a bulletin board, and now there's neglibile amounts of hair. I win!
5) Learn the Charleston. This is fairly unrealistic, but I resolved to do it a few years ago, and never did. Maybe 2008 is the year.
Not only did I not learn the Charleston, I completely forgot I mentioned this one again.
Still, as Meat Loaf might have sang, four out of five ain't bad. Now on to 2009!
My first resolution for 2009 is to expand my horizons. This applies to pretty much every area of my life. I only watch TV shows I already know I like, I only listen to music I already know I like. I don't take courses in subjects I know very little about. I dismiss international cuisines on the grounds that I know nothing about it, therefore probably won't like it (note to self: pasta/noodles seem to be pretty much universal. You like pasta.). I try not to do things I've never done before.
Problem with all of this: at some point, everything I liked had to have come out of me deciding to try something new (I have only extremely vague recollections of this, but I'm told that as a toddler, were I to go to a Wendy's or other fast food restaurant, I would only be willing to eat salad. Anybody who knows me at all would find that hard to believe). So why'd I stop?
Point number two, and it's somewhat along the same lines, stop being so cynical. Or, depending on my mood, snobbish might be a better word. If something is popular - a TV show, a movie, a band, pop culture seems to be all that's coming to mind here - I assume that I won't like it. Well, if everybody thought that way, it wouldn't be popular - therefore it must be good on some level, so why shoudn't I give it a try?
(The preceding resolution does not apply to Twilight.)
As far as music goes, I have a hypothesis - there is the type of music that most people like a little bit (which is popular), and the music which a lot of people don't like at all, but those who do like it like it a lot (which is not). (There's also a third type, music which nobody likes - I wanted to make a Rihanna joke here, but that wouldn't be fair to music.) Music can survive without being popular, so it's up to me to search out unpopular music for what I like.
Television, on the other hand, cannot and will not survive if it is not popular - so to be popular, it presumably has to be good on some level. I know next to nothing about The Big Bang Theory, or How I Met Your Mother, or Chuck, or Journeyman, or Pushing Daisies - but I know that a lot of people like all these shows, so I should probably check them out...except that because a lot of people like them, I assume I won't. See how this is?
I also have resolutions which are more personal and less interesting to write about ('GET A BETTER SUMMER JOB!!!' being at the top of that list), and I've apparently resolved to change my Facebook status at least once a week. I think I'll regret that.
--Ryan
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