What Resolutions for 2013 Will I Plan On Breaking?

Before I blog on any possible resolutions I’d like to make for the new year, I like to look back at previous blog entries to see how I’ve fared. I realized that I didn’t even write one for 2012. Not only that but in 2011 I wrote that I would no longer make resolutions. How quickly I’ve forgotten. It’s true, I don’t fare well with keeping any of my resolutions. But then again most of us don’t, right?

It’s a little fun to do I suppose. To give ourselves goals to strive for and to try to accomplish them. This past year I’ve improved my health quite a bit, made attempts at eating vegan around March and have lost around 30 or so pounds. Towards the end of this year my good eating habits have gone a bit to the wayside but I still try to recover myself and go back to eating vegan.

What I want to do is improve on my vegan eating efforts of course, find a permanent full-time job with 9-5 hours or something close to it, try to move back into Manhattan (Brooklyn is nice but I’m a Manhattan native and that’s where I belong), and change my TV watching habits. I watch a lot of TV, I know I do and I’m not sure if I can quite curb my quantity. The goal is to improve its quality.

One way I intend to approach this is by no longer checking out new shows. I keep adding on the queue new shows to try them. No more. I have enough shows that I watch that won’t be leaving anytime soon. Plus I have a Netflix account. If I want to try a new show, there is a slew of old great shows that I haven’t watched that I can check out there. In fact, I just started watching “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”.

Another thing I’m realizing is that I’m liking British shows more and more as expose myself to them. Doctor Who is a given but one of my new favorites is Downton Abbey (which will be premiering on PBS on 1/6/13). The Masterpiece Mystery and Masterpiece Classics are great platforms to get acquainted with British programming. There is also a slew of British shows on Netflix as well.

So those are the goals for 2013. I think the odds are about the same on how well I’ll be able to keep to my vegan diet or be able to curb my TV watching. Though honestly the TV goal may have a slight edge. British television is really good. I won’t really be twisting my arm to watch.

 

Pastures Aren’t Always Greener On The Other Side

I’ve come to realize that I am truly fickle-minded. Especially when it comes to gadgets. Not too long ago I said that I was interested in the Nexus 4. However, LG seems unable to keep up with demand and it’s always in a sold-out state. Add to that, my current smartphone, the HTC One X, seems to have more glitches than when I first bought it. Or maybe I’m tired of having to deal with glitches in general.

This experience has definitely steered me away from any and all Android variants. It’s either the Nexus or nothing from here on. Unfortunately, as I just mentioned, it isn’t readily available. In fact from the inception of the Nexus line it alway seemed that you had to jump through hoops to get one.

As much as I am a gadget enthusiast I’m a consumer first and the consumer experience has always been priority for me. And as reluctant as I am to admit it, Apple is tops when it comes to customer service and the customer experience in general. The iPhone 5 is readily available in all their stores and in all carriers’ brick and mortar store as well. Just walk in and buy one. And I know what to expect with the iPhone. Yeah I mentioned that I’m a little bored of the interface as I’ve used an iPhone for about 3 years and with few exceptions I know all the tricks. But on top of knowing what to expect, there aren’t any glitches with the interface and all the apps I use o iOS are pretty consistent and efficient across the board.

That has been my experience with iOS at least. I can’t say the same for my Android experience. And now that Google Maps is once again available for the iPhone. It’s pretty much a no-brainer. I’m back on Team iPhone. At least for another 2 years. Maybe by the then, Google will have the same great customer service backing their Nexus line which will then make it a more appealing device for me because of its customization abilities as well. We shall see.

The Seduction Of Escapism

Once again this blog of mine has fallen into a lull and I haven’t really written in some months. And the story is pretty much the same or close to it. These past few months have been hard financially which resulted in me becoming more self-loathing and looking for ways to entertain myself at home rather than going out to comedy shows because of lack of funds. This in turn made me become more reclusive and less sociable and I began to look for fictional and more interesting worlds to escape into. The medicine of choice these past few months have been mostly anime and manga. As much as I tell everyone and anyone  how crazy I believe the Japanese are they make some amazing fiction. I couldn’t believe I haven’t fallen into that void sooner. I had a few run-ins with anime in high school and College (the last great anime shows I saw in those days were Cowboy Bebop, Big O and Inuyasha) but with Netflix having such a large selection I started dabbling and neck-deep I went in to the anime pool.

I then came to realize that there are a bunch of sites where you can read manga and I started to read the manga versions of the anime I was watching. I came to realize that the mangas were several times better and I just kept going deeper and deeper into these fictional worlds and completely forgetting about this blog and anything else in the real world (well within reason, I still go to work and take care of all my other adult real-life responsibilities).

Anyway, long story short, I started coming out of my anime/manga haze a little and realized that it has been many months since I blogged. And I posted one or two entries since I came to that realization but it has been a chore. It so much more fun and easier to continue on in escapism. When I wasn’t reading manga or watching anime I was of course reading other works of fiction and watching other shows (I recently watched all of “Revenge” and now know what all the hype is about).

So here I am back, for now. Don’t know when the next compulsion to completely indulge into escapism will take effect but I’ll try my best to moderate it somewhat. It will be hard, no lie. Especially with all the TV premiers coming back. Anyone watch Castle or Parks and Recreation? They’ve been good thus far. Glad to see them back.