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2021 Resolutions

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 7:25 pm
by pinback
I'll compile these at about the rate of one per day, and by 1/1 we'll have a pretty nice list put together.

If 2020 was about getting the body back in relatively healthy order, 2021 is about the mind. Many behavioral changes are required to right this ship, and we shall succeed, with the same inspirational fervor and determination with which we made 2020 such a rousing success.

But first:

#1: Maintain the good parts about 2020. That is, keep the weight under or at least relatively close to 200. Keep up with doctor/dentist visits. Basically don't act like a fucking slob.

That has to be on here. If I'm 250 with rotting teeth and arteries at the end of next year, all of the pain of the previous year will feel like a bit of a waste. Which would ultimately be fine, but also kind of a shame.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2020 10:37 am
by Flack
The title of this thread is unclear as to whether you intended this to be a place for everyone's resolutions, or just your own. I'll hang up and wait for clarification.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2020 11:14 am
by pinback
My original idea was just for me, kind of a sequel to last year's thread. However, we're not exclusionary here at the JC BBS. So, anyone who wants to join in, GO FOR IT!

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2020 2:26 pm
by pinback
#2: CLEAN IN 2021.

No, not like that. See, here's the thing...

My wife and I are both messy people, and extraordinarily lazy. So a piece of paper towel will fall on the floor, and nobody will do anything about it, and then it'll sit there, and then more stuff will accumulate, and then the entire place is a mound of garbage and now it's too late to get the energy up to do anything about it.

I am going to make a concerted effort to, if something needs picked up or cleaned, do it RIGHT THEN, or at least set aside a half hour a day to clean. This is ridiculous. It's like a Chinese orphanage in here. No wonder Mina's so happy.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2020 3:06 pm
by AArdvark
Are you a hoarder?

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2020 4:41 pm
by pinback
No, in the sense that if you could snap your fingers and this place would have nothing in it but a fridge, a table and three chairs, I would be ecstatic. I think hoarders want the stuff they have. I don't want any of this crap.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 6:57 pm
by pinback
#3: Get off nicotine gum.

I feel like there is some addictive substance in nicotine gum that compels me to continue eating it.

This is not for health reasons -- I'm not even sure it's bad for you. Certainly better than smoking, but I guess maybe it's not great? -- but because it's very expensive, and kinda gross (though less gross that most other forms of nicotine ingestion). But yeah, it's a $5 a day habit that leaves little yellow wads of gum and tiny plastic wrappers everywhere, so let's go ahead and stop this. It did its job admirably, and I will always cherish our times together.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:12 pm
by AArdvark
Besides, second-hand wads are bad for the people around you

THE
AMERICAN JAW
ASSOCIATION
AARDVARK

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:15 pm
by pinback
I probably should have just said "get off nicotine". I feel like if I stopped chewing the gum and started sucking down Camel Blues, that would not really hit the mark I was aiming at.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 10:05 pm
by bryanb
OK, I'm doing some personal resolutions for 2021. It feels wrong to hijack Ben's thread for my own purposes, but he said it was OK. I don't think he really meant it, but hell, let's do this anyway.

#1. Write something every day.

One thing reviving Reviews From Trotting Krips has shown me is how difficult it is for me to write anything these days. For most of my life, writing was something I found easy and natural. It was something I really enjoyed doing as well. I suppose it's my fault for letting my skillz, such as they were, atrophy over the years. In the past two decades, most writing I've done has been in the form of work emails designed to be short and personality-free. That was more deadening to my soul than I realized. Now setting down to write and looking at the mostly blank screen and the blinking cursor actually scares me a little at times. Sad! I want to turn this around.

What inspired this resolution was my memory of the most enigmatic piece of advice my father ever gave me: "Write something every day." I was a kid at the time and it seemed like reasonable enough life advice, but that statement feels mysterious in retrospect. My dad was well-educated and a good writer, but as far as I know he didn't write something every day or even particularly often. Maybe he knew my dream was to become a professional writer and so he wanted to encourage me to develop my writing. Or maybe he wrote a lot when he was younger and it has all just been lost to the sands of time. In any case, it still seems like good advice to me. Part of growing up for me involved coming to the conclusion that no, I was not going to become a professional writer...I decided I just didn't have the chops for it. That realization helped lead me down the path of becoming a low effort, sloppy producer of content for the Internet, but at least that was something. I've tried life without writing, and it's just not as good. In 2021, I'm going to try to write something every single day, even if it's just a paragraph. And no, work emails don't count.

#2. Weekends will be for creating.

I suppose I've never used my weekends particularly productively. I've used them for moonlighting, for working around the house, for errands, and perhaps most often for resting and recuperating while in a near vegetative state. In 2021, I want to use my weekends to tackle creative projects first and foremost. This fall, I got the leaves done mostly by working late on weekdays, and I actually liked it better that way. Getting some exercise on days I mostly spend in front of a computer is actually a good and healthy thing. I think I can more or less arrange my week so I won't HAVE to do anything too pressing on the weekend. That will free me up to unleash my creativity on an unsuspecting world. I have some ideas I'm really looking forward to pursuing now that I have some time carved out for them.

#3. It's time to overcome information overload and choice paralysis.

I'm a generalist at heart. I have a lot of interests and versatile tastes. My constant complaint is I don't have enough time to do the things I want to do. I've started to think this is perhaps more a feeling than true reality, however. Sometimes I feel like I don't have time to do things that practically take no time. Check some baseball scores? Nah, I'm focusing on basketball this year. I already looked at the NBA box scores, but maybe there's a new rumor on Hoops Hype. Listen to some new music? I'm pretty stressed so maybe I should listen to something I know will relax me or fire me up instead of taking a chance. Start learning something new? Good idea, but I think I'd rather check the news for the fifth time today instead. It's possible something's happening that I need to know about. It's easy to find reasons not to do something, and it's always more comfortable to follow a routine than to break the pattern by letting something new in your life. Enough of that. I don't want to live the same day over and over again. I'm reintroducing novelty and variety into my life. The plan is to do this using bite size chunks of time, especially at first. I can always spare five minutes for something new, and I won't really feel that loss of time.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 6:08 am
by pinback
#4: Don't play chess. I play a lot of chess, but I don't study it or get any better or apply myself, I just click "go" and move the pieces around, as a way of avoiding doing all the other stuff on this list.

#5: Create every day. I feel like I have a lot in common with bryanb here. We feel good when we create, but we don't do it. "Creating" could be something like writing, or designing a roller coaster, or writing some code for pleasure, playing music, or even messing around in Townscaper (see below) But there is time where creative, fulfilling, artistic things could be getting done instead of lying on the couch watching Adult Swim.

Image

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:35 am
by pinback
#6: Maybe dial back the wife-beating a little bit.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:09 pm
by pinback
But for serious:

#6: Don't buy any games. This one's simple. Games have been a money sink for me for years, and I very rarely put enough time into any of them to justify the cost. So I'm left with a hundred unplayed games, and option paralysis and shame prevents me from clicking on any of them. We're done. We're DONE.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:13 pm
by pinback
That being said, I got a $60 Steam card for Christmas. That doesn't count.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:05 pm
by Casual Observer
pinback wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:35 am #6: Maybe dial back the wife-beating a little bit.
Just take it out on the TV instead.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 6:59 am
by pinback
Alright, I think I'm done with my list. I think it's a solid list which should be reasonably easy to accomplish.

1. Don't turn back into a big fat slob.
2. Clean things when they are dirty.
3. Stop chewing nicotine gum.
4. Don't play chess.
5. Don't buy any computer games.
6. Create something every day.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 3:52 pm
by AArdvark
Will you be making any more pico games this year?

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 4:00 pm
by pinback
I have installed "LOVE", which is the more advanced Lua-based game development framework, so if not a completed game, I will be showing you all some LOVE.

Get it? Did you see what I did there? Show you some LOVE?

Explaining my jokes is another 2021 resolution.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 5:11 pm
by Casual Observer
We'll cut you some Slack on that pun.

Re: 2021 Resolutions

Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:20 pm
by bryanb
Hey Ben and Eric, how have the 2021 resolutions been going so far? (If you guys want to say...it's still early after all.) My resolutions have been down for retooling recently, but I'm recommitting to them starting today. I knew I was asking for trouble by setting a resolution that required me to do anything every day. It remains possible I'll end up writing something on the majority of days in 2021 which would still be pretty awesome. Yes, I'm moving the goalposts and lowering the bar.