Saturday, January 3, 2009

My Unintentionally 'New Year's' Resolution

I've made many resolutions lately, especially in mid-December. (One of them is to continue looking for another second job.) The one that has fallen on New Year's just happens to be;

I will publish one blog post per day.

What kind of resolution is that, you ask? It sounds silly, to be sure. Supposedly, blogging is a waste of time, and making two posts per week is hard enough!

Not so: This time, the point of writing posts will be to publish material rather than have much material to offer, the main purpose being to get myself into a routine of going online every day.

Oh, getting online every day, you say. Isn't that a bad thing?

Not when you're neglecting your email.

What's more, I'll rotate from one blog to the next, so each blog will be updated every four days. Plus, I should be able to throw together some longer posts from time to time. (I think that's how P.Z. Myers must do it....)

The one challenge I have is... making time.

This resolution of mine was originally supposed to start near the end of December, but I kept having to do things that kept me away from the computer.
` Finally, I predicted a patch of free time before bed after our New Year's party, but no one showed up.
` I should have started in while I could, but instead I agreed to use the time to watch a movie with Lucas, which would end just before midnight. I figured that I'd go and type it up after it was over.
` I'm glad to say that I didn't feel like the movie was a waste of my time, considering the quality levels of the ones I've been exposed to lately.

But then, at about twenty 'til, just when the movie was getting to the good part, one of our associates brought a crowd of strangers into the house and we had to occupy them until 1:30 in the morning.
` And a mess was made of my rug, which I'd spent cleaning for four hours earlier that day, with a small broom, a fur-trapping cat brush and a wet towel. It sure looked nice while it lasted.

After that was over, I was too tired and busy with other things to come online, or even to pop my loose tooth back into place - now it's stuck at an odd angle.

However, the next day I made some time in my busy schedule of cleaning the entire kitchen, scrubbing the entire bathroom (even the walls) and sweeping the entire upstairs floor, to write up a tiny post for each of my three other blogs.
` That was a good move, because I was kept busy until about midnight upon which time I was too tired to go online and I went to bed. Only to be kept up until after 2 a.m. by Lucas snoring, the cats misbehaving, something going on outside, etc.

On January 2, after another two hours of cleaning my rug, and many other chores, I was in a good mood because I knew I'd get to bed on time this night. But first, I would gather up all my various projects together, and make plans using a new system I devised weeks before and was eager to finally get a chance to use it.
` I would figure out which step I need to take with each thing, and I knew exactly what I was going to propose for writing in that fourth blog post. Not only that, but I had a whole hour to reposition my messed-up tooth!

I felt better than I had in weeks.

Literally about ten seconds after I shut my door and had my stack o' projects spread out in front of me with a mug of cocoa to boot, Lucas popped his head in to tell me that this same person who came over last night was taking him out to a bar, and since neither of them could drive at the time, I would have to be their taxi service.

While this is not a nice kind of thing to have happen once, this was in fact the fourth time it had occurred, so perhaps you can understand my frustration.
` Yes, I've been trying for about a week now to get my long-term projects going 'in gear' without neglecting anything, and each time I've been called away for some reason. It's hard enough to duck into a room to write something in my scheduler!

So, I had to drive them to one bar, where I tried to work on my postcard (to G-Man), and as I was walking back to my car, feeling relieved to be going back home and getting to work before my plans faded from my mind completely, the guy drags us to another bar.
` That's nice and all, though Lucas and I would have rather been at home. Lucas was able to glean some enjoyment from a couple rounds of pool, though I was hiding a fair amount of frustration, partly because my loose tooth was starting to hurt.

Finally, we came back well after I was supposed to have been in bed, catching up on my sleep, and nothing had gotten done.
` What's irritating is not that it happened, but rather, the sheer amount of times this very same scenario goes on and I don't get any free time, which I estimate to be about one in three days.

Today I'm pretty tired after a long day of my daily regiment of cleaning the upstairs floors and going to the gym for an hour, plus other jobs such as; washing and folding several loads of laundry; scrubbing out the cat's litter box; and buying enough garbage cans for each room so that Lucas will stop throwing garbage on the floor.

Phew!

Once again, just prior to this post, I was just getting the gist of what I was going to write down about completing my projects and all, and what do you think happened? Oh yes, I got interrupted.
` Before I could even start.
This time I got so angry that I eventually forgot all my plans anyway and decided to come in here to vent so that perhaps I can get some rest tonight.

Almost every night I have to say, "I'll probably have time tomorrow" to at least one task. So what am I doing in here, anyway? I've been typing for fifteen precious minutes of my time!
` No matter - I don't know about you, but I feel better than I did before. And if you feel worse than before, I apologize.

Besides, I think that this post, warning all that there should be a new post about every four days, will be suffice for this cycle o' posts.
` Tomorrow, if I'm permitted, I'll start a new round of posts and hopefully be back here four days from now, instead of five.

Seriously, the days that are skipped in a daily routine do not exactly constitute a daily routine, do they? But the world does not revolve around my plans, does it?
` In fact, the only reliable and predictable thing in life seems to be that something will make my quest to develop good habits very difficult to establish, if I do at all.

I really do my best!

Anyway, I have to be well-rested by Monday, which is when college starts. The one post-a-day thing should come in really handy while I'm busy with school and homework and all that.

But, before I can sleep, I must reposition my tooth or it will stay stuck where it is! (And it hurts where it is!)

See you next round!

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