A Year of Resolutions

Greetings from Powell!

Right now I’m on the last day of a short stay with my parents and brother in Ohio, where I was born and raised.  I just finished this blog and I figured I might as well post it from here.  Hope everyone’s holiday went well!

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As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I have decided to do something a little different for this New Years.  Almost every year, I make a resolution, and almost every year, I’ve forgotten what it was by the end of the year.  Case in point:  I have no idea what I resolved to do this year.  So for 2012 I am going to keep up with my resolution.

But a year is a long time to keep a promise you made yourself probably tipsy on champagne.  And it can get boring.  So to keep it fresh, I am making a year’s worth of New Year’s resolutions, but I am doing them in one-month intervals.  I will inform you of my progress at the end of each month.  And who knows?  Maybe I’ll even keep up my new-found good habits, but no promises.

Just like anyone who’s ever dealt with smartasses in his life, I will add one disclaimer:  These are subject to change as I start working with them.  They might not be feasible if something comes up, or if I think of more clever ideas I may implement them instead.

Okay, so two disclaimers:  I don’t know that I’ll successful at all of these, but I’m going to try darn hard.

If anyone wants to join me on any one or all of these, feel free!  Although I’ve personalized them for me, they’re probably ones it wouldn’t hurt any of us to try.  If you decide to give one/all of them a go, let me know how you’re doing via email or a comment.  After all, misery loves company, right?

January:  Stop biting/picking nails

I am one of many people with the unfortunate and unsanitary habit of biting and picking my nails.  I’ve done it ever since I can remember.  When I was in high school, I occasionally would do it until I bled.  As a health care provider, it is especially important for me to kick this habit, as it can give bacteria and other pathogens an all-access backstage pass into my body.  As well as to myself, I have an obligation to my patients not to give all of them what one of them has.

February:  Forgo all forms of dessert except healthy alternatives

This is probably going to be my hardest resolution, as I have a major sweet tooth.  Yes, I realize this falls on Valentine’s Day, but February is also the shortest month, so I think it evens out.  By the way, “healthy alternatives” does not mean carrot cake.  It means an apple or orange.

March:  Spend a few minutes reading the news every day

It’s always good to be informed and all too often someone will mention some world event and I take on the look of a deer in headlights.  Reading 2 – 3 articles a day for a month will only serve to make me a more informed citizen.

April:  Abstain from consuming any alcohol

I am by no means a heavy or even moderate drinker, but I do enjoy a good Kentucky Ale or glass of merlot from time to time.  I don’t predict any difficulty in achieving this one, but you never know:  Once you take something away from someone, maybe it will make him/her want it more.

May:  Do 100 pushups a day

I try to get in some cardio at least three times a week, often more, but since I have no gym membership my resistance training has been somewhat lacking.  I figure that pushups are easy enough because it requires no gym; if you have a floor, you can do pushups.  And if you don’t have a floor, well, please tell me your secret for incessant hovering.  This resolution is carefully worded to not include the words “in a row.”  At first I’ll do four sets of 25, then move towards two sets of 50.  Heck, maybe I’ll get to the full 100 but in the timeframe of a month I seriously doubt it.

June:  Go vegetarian for the month

While I may not be a huge steak fancier, I absolutely love a good, juicy burger.  Going vegetarian is something I’ve always had huge respect for because it takes great discipline and in addition it’s the single most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint (turns out getting a Prius isn’t it!).  In addition, it’s not taking part in the rampant overuse of antibiotics fed to animals which is a huge contributor to the emergence of the “superbugs” you hear about now.  This one won’t at all be easy for me, but I highly encourage you to join me.

July:  Do one hour of community service for every day of the month

Giving back to the community is self-gratifying for the very reason that you’re selflessly doing something nice and it often puts you into contact with people that teach you new things and just make you feel good.  I don’t know what exactly I’m going to do yet for this one but there are two stipulations:  One, it is not something I plan to put on any resume or application (that wouldn’t be very selfless, would it?) and two, I am probably not going to do it in one-hour increments but probably in several large shifts (for obvious scheduling reasons).  I have deliberately picked a month where I will have a bit more free time since my program of study doesn’t go over the summer.

August:  Avoid soft drinks of any kind

This one I used to make at the beginning of several years, but I found that if I said I was going to avoid soda, I started drinking something equally unhealthy, such as lemonade or fruit juice (and yes, I know you thought that juice was healthy.  It really isn’t.)  I have dramatically cut back on my regular soda consumption, but I probably have a diet soda nearly every day, so that will have to go as well.  Basically I will just drink water except for black coffee and unsweetened tea.  If you are joining me on this one, alcoholic beverages in moderation are excluded because I assume you have them only at home and not during the course of your workday.  I hope.

September:  Keep a journal every day

This one I’m actually drawing on my psychology background for.  There are many advantages of keeping a journal/diary.  For one thing, it can help you organize your thoughts and look back with introspection on the day.  Being aware of your own behaviors, feelings, and thoughts makes you much more likely to be able to sort through them.  It can help you find patterns you never noticed before and help eliminate unhealthy habits or confront issues you never felt well-armed enough to tackle.  Sure enough, peer-reviewed studies have shown that participants who wrote a journal three times a week had lower incidences of depression and even physical health issues than their counterparts who wrote about a control topic. 

Just one thing, if you’re with me on this one:  Keep your journal in a safe place.  No one wants his/her deepest secrets available for public view.  There are many websites and applications that require a username/password to get in.  I myself will use a feature of Microsoft Word that requires a password to open the document.

October:  Learn a new word every day

Me have good vocabulary.  But me want expand vocabulary.  Me will use word-a-day website to expand vocabulary.  Me talk pretty one day.

November:  Meditate 5 minutes a day

My psychology background is coming in again for this one.  Apparently people who meditate are healthier psychologically and physiologically than people who don’t, on average.  I will admit this has always sounded kind of stupid to me, but after reading more and more about its benefits, well, who am I to judge?  Obviously before I try this one I will have to do some learning as to how to actually meditate effectively, so it has a learning component involved.  On or near November 1 I will try to post a blog with my findings so you can follow along if you like.

December:  You tell me!

I’m sure throughout the year I will have received plenty of suggestions on resolutions to try.  By December I will have more than enough to select one to try, and of course I will credit the person who suggested it.  So leave a comment or send me an email sometime between now and near the end of 2012.  I’ll be happy to consider it!

CK Cartoons Five

So I’m going to be honest with you.  This blog will be short and sweet.  Er, short anyway.  Well, not exactly short, either, but more brief than usual.  Because while I am not expending the usual effort for this particular blog, I am already hard at work on the next two blogs, because once school starts my time will be limited and these things don’t write themselves, people.  Since I’ve had a serious blog or two lately, I have elected to bring back CK for a few fun frames.

The first two are a bit random, as I had that awkward time between Christmas and New Years to fill.  The others are about New Year’s, which for some reason I seem to be really focusing on this year (I don’t know why).  I think some character introductions and reintroductions are in order before you view the following cartoons.

The main character, of course, is CK.  Which stands for Cookie Killer.  If you still have any confusions on that one, refer to an older blog here.

Ed was part of Skay Newsday like the other characters, but this first strip is his introduction into CK’s Life:  Between the Meals.  In Skay Newsday, Ed was a martial arts instructor, but he’s kind of a floater in the cartoon strip.  CK needed a friend to abuse, and Elbee (his roommate) could only endure so much.  Note that in this strip there’s the unseen narrator, which we haven’t heard from since the very first strip.  I guess you could say it’s me, the cartoonist.

In this strip we see Ester, CK’s girlfriend.  God only knows why she tolerates his bone-headed behavior, but somehow she and CK are together for CK’s Life:  Between the Meals.  She’s an elementary school teacher, which explains her patience for CK.  They're at the Rooftop Diner, a recurring location in the strip.

Yes, I realize this is crappy artwork at best.  This is CK and Elbee in the kitchen in their apartment.  As a writer (and a cartoonist, apparently) I always found it helpful to draw a physical map of the environment my characters inhabited.  As such I can tell you exactly what all is in the kitchen.  While this seems unnecessary, it is actually helpful for periodical works because it brings a sense of consistency.  A lot of cartoons and TV shows will have their characters in the same location many times, but it’s layout seems to change over time.  That always bugged me.

Some cartoon strips weren’t funny so much as they were serious.  Here is a rare example of that. 

Until next time, my friends.

Study Break Blog

It’s gotta be a new record.  Me, posting a new blog in only three days?  I know.  Sorry to disappoint, however; this one will be a super-quickie.

I have a priority procrastination problem.  When I absolutely, have to do task A, suddenly task B (which is no more pleasant) becomes super attractive.  Example:  Though I have a final exam in less than 24 hours, I have strong urges to clean my apartment, which for once isn’t really that dirty.  I’m also fighting the temptation to go for a run, look up/purchase textbooks for next semester, research housing for next year, organize my finances, and pick up part of someone’s shift at work.  I am being completely serious.

The funny thing is, none of those tasks are really that much fun anyway.  I guess in the face of something I have anxiety about, my way of procrastinating is to do something else “productive” so I don’t feel like I’m actually procrastinating.  Except it’s still procrastinating.  I have no idea why, but I’ve been this way all my life.

I thought I was the only one (well, at least a rare breed), but it turns out that several of my friends feel the same way.  As a matter of fact, a Youtuber I follow by the name of Meekakitty does the same thing, and she has managed to put it in a far more interesting way.  The video has a lot of announcement type stuff, but the humor is there.  And because I’m taking it easy on this one today, I’ll skip all the promotional stuff and just say she’s a very distinct YouTube personality, she’s funny, talented, and if you like this video you should check out some of her others.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=6erbmnuI_nc&feature=plcp&context=C247ddUDOEgsToPDskINB8FHZcVTo_qBW-ZRIZr3

NOTE:  I do not claim ownership of this video.  I have no ties to Meekakitty; I just like her videos

Now I’ve got Party Rock Anthem stuck in my head.  Maybe I’ll reorganize my music collection before I get back to studying.  And then maybe pay my bills.  And clean the toilet.

Resolving Your Resolutions

As the end of another year begins to draw to a close, it comes a time to reflect on what a year it has been, what we have accomplished, what we haven’t accomplished, and what we want to accomplish for the upcoming one.  That latter one is also known as a New Year’s Resolution.  People make them left and right on December 31^st, and quite frankly, it amuses me.

Example:  While at a New Year’s Eve party last year, a friend of mine told me that he resolved to quit smoking in 2011.  By 2 A.M., he officially broke that resolution.

Each year, people resolve to lose weight, exercise more, eat better, spend less money, etc—and by February, most of these resolutions have fallen by the wayside and have been almost completely forgotten.

I am no model myself.  One year (actually I’m pretty sure I have made this resolution several years) I decided to stop drinking soda.  I did great for 19 days, but then a trip to a favorite restaurant of mine broke down my willpower, and by day 20, I was back in soda-drinking bliss.  Fail.

I think what sets us up for failure is that most of our New Years resolutions are absolute and/or unspecific.  Take for example, “I will eat less junk food.”  That could mean almost anything.  That could mean eating one less bag of Funions that year and chalking it up as a victory, albeit a weak one.  Or conversely, “I will eat no junk food” is equally destined for disappointment.  “Junk food” is not defined, and the moment you slip up and eat a single fun-sized Milky Way, your goal is totally and definitively failed (in which case, why not eat the whole bag?).

Like a diet, a good resolution needs to be specific and it’s imperative that it has some wiggle room.  The conditions must be defined properly (“I will eat no chips, candy, or dessert”) and for a specific time period (which is often implied to be either the entire next year or the rest of your life, either of which is a very daunting interval).  The short-term failure terms must also be defined (“If I eat junk food I will jog 3 miles for each serving I consume”), although this can end up selling you a default for the price of your punishment.  It might be better to set a limit of… not zero.  Thus, the resolution may be something like, “I will eat fewer than 3 servings per week of chips, candy, or dessert for the next year, and going over limit results in the overage being subtracted from the allotment for next week.”

Does this sound like it’s getting complicated?  In a way it is, but now that you have set up rules for yourself, you have a framework for behavior.  Although the actual sentence is awkward, the directions are simple.  You know exactly what to do, how long to do it, and what happens if you don’t.

Of course, any great resolution can be crafted, but actually following it is a different matter.  Probably one of the two best things you can do to accomplish your goal are to write it down, preferably in a place you will see it often enough to be reminded (if necessary, on the fridge), as well as keep track of your progress.  In this case, a simple diary of junk food consumption would suffice.  You could take a piece of notebook paper and label lines 1-52 for each week of the year (both sides required), and each week you would jot down the days you consumed junk food.  That way you have a visual record of when you last ate that cheesecake.  With this, you can also plan around events that will likely make you default, such as eating cake on your birthday (a must, believe me).

I have focused on basically dieting because it’s the most common resolution for New Years, but this can work with almost anything (in fact, I challenge you to think of a realistic resolution that cannot and put it in the comments).

Lastly, I want to add an anecdote about going cold turkey.  It is my belief, based on what I have observed in others, learned in my studies, and learned from myself, that goals that require dramatic changes in lifestyle made literally overnight are pretty much doomed. 

My friend’s resolution to quit smoking is a good example.  I don’t know how many cigarettes he smoked a day, but going from say 15 to absolutely zero is not only really difficult psychologically, but in this case even physically.  Quitting smoking is a fantastic goal and I urge any smokers to try, but this is probably not going to work for 97% of the people who make the attempt, and almost for no one on the first try.

Likewise, ending habits we don’t normally think of as chemically addicting can be almost impossible to do overnight.  As someone who studied a lot of neuroscience in college, I can tell you that the way your brain processes information makes quitting anything hard, as the boundary between psychological and chemical dependence almost disappears at the level of the brain.  I could (and might) do an entire blog about this in particular, but suffice it to say that to your brain, addiction to junk food is almost as hard-wired as addition to alcohol, cigarettes, or other drugs.

Knowing this, don’t be afraid to do a roll-out of your New Year’s Resolution.  Eat five servings of junk food the first few weeks.  Then four, then three.  If this works, you may just get down to that zero we decided was unrealistic earlier.  But it takes time.

In the interest of actually doing something and not just talking about it, I will undertake a very special set of New Year’s Resolutions, which I will describe in another blog a little closer to New Year’s.  Until then, good luck getting your remaining shopping done!  I still haven’t done mine.  Maybe I should resolve to do it earlier next year…

Holiday Shopping: What Not to Buy

I have made a discovery.  I can spend hours cleverly crafting a thoughtful blog about insights on scholarly topics of hot debate, such as health care, birth control, gays getting married, or whether the U.S. should go to war with country X.  However, what seems to appeal a lot more is stuff like farting during chemistry quizzes, fat blue things named CK, and Robert Loggia.  So in the spirit of this, as well as the spirit of Christmas coming up, I present you with another superficial-esque blog.  I know the last one was about shopping, so I feel this might be a good follow-up.

I have made a second discovery.  An old gem, really.  A few years ago I thought I was going to be a YouTube star.  I also thought I would have a) more free time, b) more money to buy something other than a $20 webcam, and c) more talent.  Sadly all three were busts, but I think I squeezed out one decent video, which I am posting a link to below.  Is talc considered a gem?

LINK:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVQb8j-1DUQ

Yes, that’s really me, ages ago.  Well, two years ago.  So much has changed since then.  For example, I no longer have a fire extinguisher in my kitchen.

But seriously, thanks for bearing with the awkwardness.  Until next time, peace!!!

(You can see why that never caught on.)