Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

resolve

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I don’t ever make resolutions for the new year, or, at least, not in the way other people do. It’s just too daunting to pick attainable, sustainable goals in the middle of paying off Christmas and going back to work, and implementing them with just one day of notice. It’s impractical. It’s ineffective.

The reason it’s ineffective, i think, is that there is no snooze button; if you decide to put off your diet for three days so that you can finish your holiday leftovers, suddenly your resolution has been shot to hell.

It’s much better to not just have a handful gargantuan tasks with a single effective date, but to have a laundry list of wishes and a whole season to accomplish them. My theory is that with a range of time and more reasonable goals to choose from, i’d stick to them a lot better. As such, with a scant 27 days left to the season, here is a belated lsit of my Summer Resolutions — of which i need to complete at least 75% by the beginning of Fall (at which point the remainder will roll over into my Fall resolutions).

  • Relearn and retain essentials of French language and grammar
  • Maintain a consistent weekly budget
  • Subscribe to intellectually stimulating magazines
  • Get abs
  • Visit Rabi
  • Walk New York
  • Study for the GREs
  • Make a fake book binder
  • Write new songs
  • Buy a computer
  • Record a new demo
  • Play the Tin Angel or The Point
  • Exercise every other day
  • Buy more brown and orange clothing
  • Drink less
  • Blog more
  • Blog better
  • Read more (new) blogs
  • See more of more of my friends
  • Arrange three or more songs for The Treblemakers
  • Reread Dante’s Inferno
  • Reread A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • Read Atlas Shrugged
  • Rejoin choir
  • Leave the city for a few days
  • Gain just a hint of upper body musculature
  • Start a band
    • Still a bit daunting, but only because i’ve spent all summer planning Blogathon and playing Sims. I’m thinking relearning French will have to wait for another time, and i don’t know if i have the willpower to create abs where there is nothing in four weeks or less, but everything else is up for grabs. What should i do? What would you? And, more importantly (because it’s always more fun to look forward than to plan for the here and how), what should i add to the list for this Fall?

    https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/08/106140304056877702/

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    I am met only with incredulity whenever I mention that I haven’t seen it. Personally, I don’t understand the sheer and utter disbelief most people express when they find out that you haven’t seen a movie. Movies need to be found, sat down in front of, paid attention to. Much easier to hear music; I feel as though I ought to reflect back an equal amount of shock at people who claim that they don’t know any songs by David Bowie, or the Beatles.

    Various women in my life have managed to seat me in front of the classic flicks of the eighties, but I still have survived with a big gap in the area of mid-nineties cultish comedy classics, to which my noise was firmly upturned at the time. The one movie that most often draws a reaction from my friends and colleagues is Office Space. How, oh how, could I appreciate working in a corporate office without having watched Office Space?

    A more surefire tact would have been to mention that Jennifer Aniston played one of the few female roles in the film, but apparently she isn’t worth a mention in the midst of such apt critique of the business world. Something about “PC Load Letter?”

    Taking pity on my ignorance of this film classic, my colleague John took it upon himself to loan me the DVD for my home viewing pleasure. And, well, I have derived some pleasure from it, though not as much as everyone seems to expect me to. I should preface this with a caveat that I only managed to sit through half of this dreadfully paced farce, and so could still be missing out on some golden epiphany that comes nearer to the end of the film.

    I just don’t think it’s funny. I cannot have pity on hapless morons just because they work in an office, and I certainly can’t find the mocking of the Y2K code replacement especially amusing since grunt work like that is what averted a worldwide financial and nuclear fallout on New Year’s Day that could have effectively canceled my spectacular first kiss.

    Aside from the obvious support of any character who romantically pursues Ms. Aniston, there was one scene in the movie that especially struck me. The bit about having a million dollars. We’ve all thought about having it, but I don’t know that the thought ever occurred to me that what I would do with it would be the ultimate reveal as to what I should be doing with my life.

    I figured out what I would do while at an art show with Melon, Erika, and Kate over the weekend. I would do art. Not just pictures, or music, or words. I would surround myself with inspired and beautiful things and with tools, guitars, pianos, canvases, empty notebooks, and just create all of the time, every day.

    What’s funny is that after you answer the million dollar question, the answer doesn’t seem so obscure any more. This weekend I spent a day going through my belongings from childhood through high school graduation in preparation for my mother’s quickly approaching settlement on a house, and everything I found was art. Academic papers, a comic book I had drawn across the headers of my eighth grade math notebook, a folder full of scrawled out short stories, two full-program scripts from high school health fairs, a binder of plotting outlines for my own series of superhero comics complete with logo designs, a pile of literary magazines that I edited. No science fair projects. No math tests.

    A million dollars would just confirm what I’ve tried to do all along. Would it for you?

    https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/05/200352480/

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    Lately i’ve been spending a lot of time with my cd collection: reorganizing it for my new shelf, inventorying it to determine my average cost per song, and compiling my year end list. Oh, and listening.


    In this flurry of action i noticed that despite outstripping all previous purchasing years by a ratio of 3:1 in 2001 i wrote less than half of the reviews that i usually complete in a calendar year. This seemed greatly out of proportion, and just plain wrong considering i claim to be all about music reviews, so i’ve resolved to turn in two reviews per week via the dusty-but-still-functional Just Like Assholes. This not only assures that i’m actually honing my reviewing skills, but that i’m actually listening to some of the records that i’ve bought only to let languish in the wake of newer & better ones. Plus, it’s more stuff for you to read! And, it has built in comments!

    So, without any more chatter, the reviews for this week are:

    https://crushingkrisis.com/2002/01/8504849/

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    As for resolution… in seventh grade i resolved to be attractive. I was going to pay more attention to what i was wearing and how i brushed my hair, and i was going to make an effort to talk to the girls i liked. I could make it happen. I resolved to make it happen.

    Six years later i had my first kiss.

    You can’t really resolve to do anything except for those things so explicitly under your own power that you could and should be doing them anyway. I would resolve to see my friends more, or to cook more, or to be more organized … except all three of those things got under way well before the drop of the ball because i realized how easy it would be for me to do them. Other resolutions are less finite… losing weight, seeking out a meaningful relationship, or getting straight A’s. I’d love to do any or all of those things, but they’re circumstantial — i can try my darndest to accomplish them with nary a result if the fates don’t intend it to happen.

    So, what am i resolving to do, you might wonder? The only thing i can responsibly resolve to: resolving. I can’t promise myself to make anything happen that isn’t directly within my own power, and i’ve already began to work on things about myself that i’d like to change, so all that is left is to make an attempt to be at peace with all of those nasty circumstances i brought up in my last post so that i can face the new year fresh and ready for anything.

    I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out…

    https://crushingkrisis.com/2002/01/8337271/

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    So, hi, i’m sortof … on the prowl right now. Like, not as though i’m walking the streets checking people out or anything, but i have interest. This is a massive change from approximately a week ago when i wanted to be left wholly alone. Hi, i’m totally bipolar. Meanwhile, in these stupid plays we’re doing, i have to make out in both with the same person. This we had established. However, what we hadn’t established is that the girl i have to suck face with is the emotional carbon copy of Selina, and that our relations are quickly breaking down to the sort of call-and-response deadly bitchiness where Selina and i left off. Seeing as we need chemistry and stuff, this is not the best situation in the entire world.

    Tonight i came to the decision that more people need to actively dislike me. A lot of people are very indifferent to me, and a few people have a mild distaste for me, but no one wholly dislikes me and in my own experience that’s a bad sign. Am i so underwhelming that no one has formed a strong opinion on me? In high school i was loud, opinionated, and socially fearless. Now i’m of medium volume, strong preferenced, and socially timid. This whole year should be… interesting.

    https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4845231/