Sunday, January 6, 2008

No sleep 'til Brooklyn; no sex 'til New Year's.

An I'm Feeling Lucky of "New Year's Resolution: Abstinence" didn't bring me to anything unsavory, which is pretty lucky indeed considering I'm at work. It did, however, bring me to a mildly encouraging site, full of you-already-know-this's and you-could've-figured-that-out's. Nearly as good as a blog--I mean, someone must have written it, right?

So guess what. I'm adding a new resolution to my list. Up to six, and going strong--because when I turn over a new leaf, I like to rearrange the furniture, as my goofriend Tami once put it. (That was going to be good friend, and then I typoed, and then I decided a goofriend is pretty much what she is. I like serendipitous typos, don't you?)

I'm just about as callous as ever, so that's not been a good resolution. It's hard to change something about myself when I actually don't think I'm callous--I only think I'm SEEN as callous. And then only to people who are too stupid to see the difference between calm/reserved/ponderous/logical and callous. I don't want to be seen as callous, so I guess I should edit the resolution to "Don't be seen as callous." Not sure how to effect that change, though. (Did I use the right word there? ...Yes!)

Checked out one more site--yet again, not a blog. "Dear Dr. Love, is it childish or unreasonable to wait to have sex until I'm in a committed relationship and we've both been tested for STIs? Sincerely, Hesitant in Heat." Such a stupid site I refuse to even provide the link, despite my love affair with write-in personal questions, because it's too vague and obvious. The answer was an unequivocal yes, of course. Yes, in Heat, you are being unreasonable. As a college-aged youngster, you are expected to be loose and endlessly available, and not meeting those expectations is just like failing a class. When are you going to learn the proper sexual techniques, if not now?

My second resolution is slumbering right now, with a desire to push on after January. I'm reading a couple good books right now, two of them non-fiction(!!!1) and I'm teaching about 10 hours a day. Once I get through this overtime stretch, I'll begin my self-education about power plants, waste disposal, and calculus. At least, that's a good thing to tell myself, when I see that I'm doing nothing to further that resolution. Maybe this week I'll order some books on the topics online. That way I can say I'll get started as soon as they arrive, and I would have started already if they'd have arrived already.

My third resolution...what was it? Ahh. Become more outgoing. Well, in fact, I ate lunch alone today, as I do most days, but I don't think that's a sign that I'm failing. Despite the jazz outing fizzling and dying last weekend, I persevered and made it happen this time around! On Saturday we headed out to Jungja and heard some jazz. The bar was ridiculously expensive ($8 for the average beer, $300 for the average bottle of liquor) so we headed out after only two beers to play some pool. A fine outing, all in all, despite the fact that I had to strip and shower immediately upon returning home. NY, cherish your smokefreeism.

Fourth. Out of debt. I haven't even sent any money home this month(/year) yet, which means I haven't paid any bills yet, which means I'm not getting out of debt very fast. Also, I did just buy some sweet raised wooden (plastic) flooring for my bathroom, which was relatively necessary because it was ridiculously cheap and now I can walk in there with socks after taking a shower. In case you didn't realize, showers in Korea drain into the center of the bathroom. This is because we just have one open shoot running down the center of our apartment building, and all of our used water goes down this shoot. You can look down the shoot and see the pool where it gathers beneath the building, though we've found that's not a great idea because the people above you may be about to flush. It's highly beneficial to be on the top floor, like me, but even then we have flat roofs and if it has rained recently it might still be draining down the shoot. (Cough cough BS cough)

Fifth...Buy friends things. Well, I did just buy my brother a few things (hangers, a notebook with a Little Prince quote on the cover) but I meant more non-family than family when I said friends. It's hard when I don't have many friends here I think are worth a present, and I'm so far away from my friends from home. Then again, that's probably what makes it an even better idea.

Sixth. No sex this year.

On the plus side, there are many fine used book stores around online. You can pay 50 cent for a book and he'll ship it to you for only around 5 dolla, bringing your total to about $6.47. Don't ask me where those extra fees come in.

Peace, love, and chicken grease.

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