not my new years resolution

I notice most of my e-friends are doing their New Year's Resolutions thing, so I thought I'd do something similar. Mind you, as a general rule, I hate NYR - it works in the way that it makes people think and set goals, but it's only done once a year and most people forget it a month later. And it's no blight on them, but it's just generally hard to get goals that are that long term. If we're being realistic, people should have Quarterly Resolutions. I mean, if you want to do something, do it now, don't wait until the New Year.

So, my list of "things I wanna do right fucking now":

1. Eat better -it's no secret that I've put on a good 15kgs since moving to Melbourne (what can I say, Melbourne does fucking good chicken parmas and even better beers). I've slipped back into the "convenience" eating - whether that convenience be the ease of making a meal at home or buying take-out from somewhere nearby, or thinking "I'm low on cash, why not just spend $5 a get a Maccas meal"

2. Drink Less Beer - This will probably make a few people on my f'list weep, but I need to drink less beer. I'm going to finish my "101 Club" at Lambsgo Barr, but then once that's done, I'm going to seriously decrease my beer intake. I'm not going to cut down on drinking, just going to be more mindful of the booze I choose (hey, that rhymes!).

3. Play The Trumpet Again - No, that's not a sex metaphor. I got my brother to clean my trumpet over Christmas (that's also not a sex metaphor - he works for a music store that not only does sales, but does servicing too), so now I don't really have an excuse to not start playing again. Plus one of Smelly's mates the other day was telling me that he wants to put together a dirty funk/rock/ska/Motown type band, which excites me no end.

4. Ride My Bike More - I bought a fucking expensive (well, expensive on my budget) bike a few months back, and I've barely touched it lately. Being in the city is a bitch, because I'm instantly in the bitchy and angry city drivers, so I pretty much only like riding on the weekends. We're moving house in a month or so, looking to go a bit further out. Further out of the city = less traffic = more likelihood of me riding more frequently.

5. Get more tattoos - I have far too much skin that's still uninked. I need to change that. I know what my next one's going to be (stay tuned!)

6. Be a better fiancé - I'm not a bad fiancé at all. In fact, I'd say I'm a pretty good catch. However, there's always shit that I can do to make things better, just simple stuff like offering to do more chores at home, organise to do more stuff with just the two of us.

And now to reflect on the 12 months just gone....

If there was something that really stuck out with me in 2007, probably will continue to stay with me. It's a story about something I saw a few months back. It's a really good story that I want to share with you guys...

As you may remember, I did some volunteer work with Reach Out's Heroes program, working with young kids and giving them something fun and inspiring for those who don't exactly have the best lives. It was a great day for me, because there's so much that rang true about my life and things I went through, and to a certain extent, things that I still go through today. At the start of the day, the kids picked out someone who was the biggest bully of their school and did a trust exercise with them to demonstrate how they make other people feel when they pick on them. They then talked to The Bully and he explained about his life growing up and showed that that's possibly why he is who he is. Then they did a shit-load of other stuff throughout the day, but at the end of the day, they got people who hadn't participated in any of the activities to stand up, grab a mic and talk about their favourite part of the day. Most people said non-memorable stuff, and were things like "i liked how brave everyone was to expose their private lives like that" blah blah, but then this one kid got up and said that the bit that stuck out the most for him was the activity with The Bully at the start, and he said "... and it's kinda strange, because it's almost like he had the exact same life that I had growing up" and the guy who was hosting the session missed this kid's point completely and said "oh right, so you understand some of his actions?" and the kid said "no, no, not at all - we had the same life growing up, but I'm NOTHING like you". The guy who was hosting then unfortunately missed a great point and just moved on, but that one comment just stuck with me.

Then a few weeks after that, I was talking to Filtercore about that day, and we got onto the subject of how there are some people who have fucked up shit happen to them as a child, and there are people who have fucked up shit happen to them as a child, who continue to almost feed off that misery, and that that one event has moulded who they are. We both agreed and in turn, we told each other a deep dark secret about some fucked up shit we went through that we'd never told the other person or even really many other people at all (it was a beautiful bonding experience :P) and we both realised how similar we both were in that way of how we don't let certain events own us in such a negative way.

Then a few weeks ago, I bought a book on eBay, and when it arrived, there was also this really nice beeswax type paper, and on it was an old Chinese proverb that says:

"It is not what life does to you that is important, but what you do with what life does to you."

I dunno, but getting that randomly in the mail like that, especially given the year I'd just had, sent shivers down my spine.

So, in the words of Buck 65, "I want you all to follow your dreams .... except for the one where you give birth to a cat. That's just creepy."