[Impaler]

old threads:

Last year
2006
2005
2004
2003

My resolutions for last year:

[balistic]

My only resolution this year is to lose weight. I've managed to pile on 30 extra pounds in the past two years, and that trend's really gotta stop.

edit: don't feel bad about being lactose intolerant. Lactose tolerance was a useful mutation for a relatively small group of animal-herding people at one point in human history, but most of the world doesn't have it (or need it).

I almost wish I was lactose intolerant ... it would probably help me drop some of my weight.

But then I really love a nice mild cheddar.
_________________
brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[eyewoo]

I do not make resolutions anymore... pointless...
_________________
HonePie.com
tumblr blog
digtal art

[[Shizo]]

Me neither.
And looking at all those past years worth of resolutions makes baby Jesus cry..

[Jimmyjimjim]

FROM 2004:

"-Start smoking
-Gain weight
-Exercise less
-Eat more fastfood
-Draw and paint less
-Watch more TV
-Start failing some classes
-Buy more pornography"

I'm happy to say that I accomplished ALL of those except the TV, failing classes, and porn part. W00T!! I rock!!!

[Jabo]

You failed the porn part. Nothing to be proud of! Now go back and watch porn!!
_________________
CA SB|Flickr

[Tzan]

I'm not making resolutions this year.
But I can share "What I learned last year".

1. I have high cholesterol, good thing I had it checked. I adjusted my diet and take pills now. No more pizza. When I adjusted my diet I lost 10 pounds in 6 months without trying. I didnt really need to lose weight, just bonus.

2. I have failing eyesight. I needed to buy reading glasses to see my monitor clearly, much better now.

3. I like money. I never had much before, but now I do, and I learned that I like having a fat savings account.

[[Shizo]]

What I learned last year:

1. Nobody in the world really cares about you except yourself. You can only fully rely on yourself.

2. Don't care about other people more than you care about yourself.

3. Everyone has a different perception of what is enough, expensive, successful, professional, good, bad. So don't worry about anyone and just DO YOU.

4. It's not as much about how much you know, but how well you use your knowledge and skill. A genius professor could be a boring bum while a rookie could be the ruler of planet Earth. It's all about wit.

5. New great things cannot be forced upon. The spark of new is created in thin air, inside the boring atmosphere of the old and overused things.
e.g. swords -> guns, hairbands -> Nirvana, "sijun annual new year resolutions thread" -> "sijun annual what did you learn last year thread"

Maybe.

[Max]

Heh, cool. Another year passed. Just checked what old max said and it seems I accomplished quite a bit of these things. But not everything as always. Actually the most important things like "get a muse and skip ID to make own movie" didn't happen. It seems I am gonna skip ID this year tho and go in a slightly different direction with the same goal, which is ending up in an artdepartment somewhere with cool people working on a cool project. So, yeah, messing up short term plans like changeing study paths or whatever is fun. Do it, live's gonna be more interesting then even if it's risky. Now I don't have big plans for the new year. Actually I just wanna have more balance and happyness in my life...I wanna be a ZEN master!! Yeah!

What I learned? Quite a bit. Never ever play Quake III for 8 hours straight and drink red bull and bear at the same time. It must have felt like,...LSD or something. I saw rockets flying like everywhere for an hour


Uh, Shizo, the first point really sounds dangerous,...well, I care about ya ;D
Seriously tho. There must be people who care about you,....no?

2. well, might be ture...however. Did you ever though about that caring about other people might be the same thing as caring about yourself? Other people are your "world". Your world influences you. Not caring about the world around you including all people is like messing up yourself....did that make any sense? Easy put: Screw everyone, and noone will be left to be screwed.

I fully agree on all other things tho!

What I also learned is, that you sometimes simply have to close your eyes, forget about the world around you and focus. Just fucos,...and feel yourself. Get aware of yourself. You'll come to realize quite some things this way,....besides all things you will or will not realise that the world is because of you, not you because of the world. So take action ;D You're Neo!...you just gotta believe, right? So, bring it on!!!

[gLitterbug]

resolution:

to become awesome

learned:

how to not become awesome

[neff]

very wise glitter
_________________
*

[[Shizo]]

[Drunken Monkey]

[Lunatique]

Hahahaha, I was just thinking about posting this a couple of days ago, and I thought "someone probably already beat me to it by now."

Anyway, from last year:

1) Help Elena get her driver's license and become a good driver, so I won't have to be worried sick every time she gets behind the wheel.

Well, she got her license, but she did not become a good driver--in fact she is probably the worst driver I've ever seen, no matter how she tries, or if I get her a driving coach (they are not cheap), or me teaching her. After realizing she is a serious danger to herself and to others on the road, we decided she should not drive, period. A relative of ours is a cop and he has a video of her (shot from the traffic cam at the intersection) running a red long after it's turned red--she did not even slow down. Three other cars would've hit her had they not stopped in time--she didn't even notice them. See why she shouldn't drive? I could've lost her right then and there if those three other drivers didn't react fast enough.

2) Help Elena get up to speed with her English so she doesn't have to play mute/deaf every time we go hang out with my friends.

Didn't happen. She is just very slow with learning a foreign language. It also doesn't help that she doesn't have that extra motivation a lot of people have--like a guy who loves Japanese pop culture/girls and wants to learn Japanese because of it. To her, it's just a chore.

3) Find a stable, full-time job that I will like and feel the pay/benefits are worth the time/energy I devote to it.

Yep, I'm the studio art director at a game publisher/developer. Salary is pretty nice, and the work is fairly enjoyable for the most part.

4) Continue building my home recording studio (now I can say that I "need" the missing pieces for legitimate reasons--see below).

Yep, spent over $7k on various music/recording gear last year--guitars, basses, near-field monitors, keyboard, amps, mic's, audio interfact, MIDI interface...etc to accessories like cables, stands, pedals (mostly used, so I saved a ton of money--for example, I got the Klein + Hummel O 300D monitors for only $3,000--they cost close to $7,000 new). My studio is fairly complete now. Still need a few things though (will mention later). The total value of my studio is now around $38k, and none of it is luxury stuff--all very usable and practical gear.

5) I just signed a contract to compose the score for my first video game, so I need to complete my recording studio to make the whole experience smoother. This will be my first time composing the score for anything, and it's something I've always wanted to do (I used to write songs for record companies, but I didn't particularly enjoy that. Scoring is more of what I like).

I composed some tracks for the game, and I'm quite proud of them, but the game is now on the shelf due to budget issues. I'll still finish all the tracks for myself though, even if just to put them in my music portfolio.

6) After settling down at a new job/new place, I'd like to schedule photo sessions with some models for a few shoots that'll take my photography to the next level. I've been shooting nothing but candids and casual stuff all of last year, and I miss shooting more formal sessions.

I sort of did this in a left-handed way. I art directed a huge photography project for one of our games, where I storyboarded all the shots, picked all the models/actors, hired the photographer, and directed a crew. We shot for 4 days and it was grueling (but fun). I pretty much composed all the shots, directed the lighting, acting...etc. So other than actually clicking the shutter and setting the aperture/shutter speed/metering, I pretty much did everything else. That whole experienced sort of cured my desire to want to do photography full-time. I will probably enjoy most of it, but there are certainly aspects that can be frustrating--things that are out of my control (weather, for example, or licenses for location shoots). I think I prefer doing something where I have full control over the process (guess that means film is out for me too), like writing and music.

I actually shot a improvised session with some ball-jointed dolls that I'm quite proud of. I used totally makeshift lighting solution and it looked beautiful.

7) If I get the art director job I'm interviewing for at the moment, I'd like to not disappoint my boss and be the best art director they've ever hired.

Yep. My boss love me and sing my praises whenever he's got the chance. In fact, when he really loves something I do, he'll say "Robert, you are a rockstar!"

Get off my lazy ass and exercise. I'm hoping lots of drum practicing will do it, but I'm guessing playing drums isn't enough--I'd need to do something that involves more parts of the body.

Well....I walk 10 minutes to and from work and the train station during work days, so that's 20 minutes total a day. Does that count? I do drums too, but not as much as I want to (lack of free time).

Ok, onto what I learned:
1) Once you and your friends get married, things change. It's all about spending time with the spouse from there on--especially if the marriage is a good one.

2) Diplomacy can be the solution for many things, so do not underestimate how much you can accomplish if you just tried to keep your temper down and rephrase what you wanted to say in a more diplomatic manner. But sometimes you have to show a little teeth--that works well for people who don't take you seriously until you scare them a little.

3) Be honest with yourself in how much you can take on/promise others. Being blindly and foolishly optimistic does not all of a sudden turn you into superman. Always leave room for error, because something WILL go wrong and you'll spend more time than you thought you needed.

4) Free time is the new currency of our generation. Making money does not make you any happier if you don't have free time to do the things you enjoy doing.

5) Your mood will affect other people's mood, especially those close to you. For the sake of others, you need to adjust your own mood if you want others to be happy around you.

Now, resolution for 2008
1) Complete the modeling of our house in China and build the studio I've always wanted (within reason)--with soundproofing, acoustic treatment...etc. Won't be cheap and won't be easy, but it's where we'll live for the foreseeable future, so we really need to love it.

2) Make a full transition into composing and leave art behind. This might be tricky because I'll have art clients that'll still come to me, and it'll be hard to turn the projects down, especially if the money is good. But I've wanted to make a career change for many years now, and each year that goes by I get a little bit older (just turned 35), it seems less possible. If I don't do it now, it'll never happen. I might not get much paying gigs in 2008 for composing, since I need to ramp up and fill out my portfolio more, but the idea is to be making music at least 8 hours a day.

I might start up a China Art department for the company I work for though, so I may not be able to make that transition as quickly as I'd like.

3) Eat healthier. Since moving back to the States, it's been hard to control the junk food intake, since I've missed all the goodies here I couldn't get in China. My bad habits are rubbing off on Elena too, so we really need to reign it in.

4) Move up to the next level in all the instruments I play (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums). I'd like to reach session player level ASAP. My guitar, bass, and drums are about intermediate (compared to my heroes), and my bass is at advanced beginner (my guitar skills carried over for the most part well). It'll take me another few years to become advanced in all of them, but it's something you can't rush, so one step at a time.

5) Once back in China, adjust my own attitude so that I won't be angry all the time with the society/government there like I was last time. I'm going back this time because we have business opportunities that have far more potential than my art directing career here. We are business owners there, with room for expansion and new investments. Being a salaried employee, even if you're an art director, you're still just an employee, with a cap on your potential earnings. Our businesses will allow us to live comfortably, and I get to have more free time to compose.

[Max]

Hey Luna. It was kind of inspiring to read all that. Thanks for sharing. I hope life goes into the right direction for you. Keep it up!