2014

So this is the post where I write down my resolutions and all that happy-clappy shit. It's cliche and people get annoyed but I like them and its my blog so suck it.

This past year and for the past several years I gradually stopped reading as much as I used to. In elementary school through high school I was always reading a book, in between classes, during class (my first C can be attributed to wanting to read Harry Potter more than learning math), basically any down time was usually spent reading. My punishments from my parents were to take my books away, not limit tv or computer time (though I soon found the hiding spot and would read at night). I always assumed I would be like this forever.

Depression is a bitch and a half and college is pretty time-demanding. It got to the point where I only read when it was for a class and this rarely included fiction. I've come to like non-fiction a lot more than I did before and tend to gravitate towards religious/historical/etc. I guess I just have a hard time transitioning away from young adult fiction that I have so entrenched in for so long. Adult fiction is really hit or miss for me.

Through the insistent prodding of my boyfriend I started reading The Name of the Wind and it is absolutely awesome. Lurking around on reddit has revealed to me the 52 week book challenge where you read a book a week for a year. Ambitious and it makes me nervous because I do not like to fail (I have so much anxiety about failing I almost dropped out of college). So my plan of attack on resolutions is to set an over-arching goal. I want to read more. Yes you're supposed to do things quantitatively but my chest freezes up just thinking about deadlines.

So, reading more. I'm halfway through my current book and while its taken me longer than usual to get through it (its 600 pgs), I'm making good progress. I have a stack of books to read in my room and plan on slowly whittling that down. Hell I'd be happy to read that stack this year (close to like 10 books?).

Another goal I want to achieve is to build my own pc. Completely ambitious and previously thought to be beyond my grasp I have determined that my dad's ancient (we're talking early thousands people) desktop just isn't cutting it for gaming. It's a struggle. My pragmatic side doesn't want to overspend on a computer that has bloat ware (yay new terminology!) so with the help of the internet we shall see how well this goes. Hell, maybe I'll even get into coding (unlikely).

So we have more reading and build a pc. Other general lifestyle changes are to move out of my dad's house and get a job that doesn't make me want to commit suicide (lawyers are dumb and don't know how to treat their secretaries/receptionists). I'd like to get back in doing yoga and when the weather warms back up to get back into running (which was derailed by me being a baby about cold weather). So yeah eat better exercise more blah blah blah. I think that when I move out on my own I'd like to learn more about cooking and definitely only eat ethical meat. I don't know if I would ever want to go vegetarian but I definitely do not want to support the current meat industry. Mostly I stick with venison as my dad is a hunter and I know the animal did not suffer and had a natural and normal life (ok I can't know that completely, not like I'm following deer around from birth to my dinner plate but it's a hell of a lot better than what Tyson does to their animals they slaughter).

I suppose I should also be more budget conscious. I suck at budgets. Christmas fucked me over two ways to Sunday. I'm also slightly addicted to buying makeup and online shopping. Bad Allison.

When I leave work today I plan on digging through all my stuff at my dad's and pitching/recycling/re-homing stuff. I've always been slightly obsessed with cleaning and organizing (seriously, what 5th grader do you know that alphabetized their books by genre/author/etc.?)

So, new year, yay and all that shit.