Fitter, happier, more productive...

Is it just me, or, at moments, does January seem to be a singularly crappy month? The holidays are over, it's cold, and there are thirty one days to get through.

New Year's Resolutions are everywhere about me, so I toy with the idea of writing down a few of my own. But whenever I try today, I get the monotone computer-generated voice from Radiohead's "Fitter, Happier" in my head.

"Fitter
Happier
(check this out)
More productive
Comfortable
Not drinking too much
Regular exercise at the gym (3 days a week)
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
At ease
Eating well (no more microwave dinners and saturated fats)
A patient better driver
A safer car (baby smiling in back seat)
Sleeping well (no bad dreams)
No paranoia..."


A few of my resolutions: (it's the 10th of January already- I'm off to a good start.)

* Find a place to perform.
* Work harder to finish the things I start (songs, poems, etc.)
* Study Japanese for at least four hours/week.
* Go for a walk every day.
* Read more.
* Eat healthier (fitter, happier, more productive...)
* Make an ass of myself on a more regular basis practising Japanese with strangers.
* Cease being afraid of my students (they don't know that I am terrified half the time, but half the time I am terrifed.)
* Become a person capable of saving, and save the money I intend to save.



I guess another thing that makes writing New Year's Resolutions awkward is that, in general, you come up with a list that is very self-oriented and you feel like a selfish prig. But if you try to branch out in a more "I want to save the world" type of direction, you end up with a with a very long list of things that appall you, and vague personal "solutions" to those problems, which in the end amount to nothing changing. Hmm. Did I mention that my last resolution is to be less cynical? Daily affirmations, daily. Amen.