Tuesday, January 02, 2007

New Year's irResolutions


I've always hated New Year's resolutions because they seem pointless. Either you're going to do something, or (more likely) you're not. So the following are not resolutions, but rather things I would really like to happen, and soon.

1. I need to find a real job. I've been temping for 9 months now, and at my current assignment for over 7 months. It's time to start getting paid more than 14 dollars an hour. I'm turning thirty in a couple weeks and I'm on the verge on a mid-life crisis (mid-life because I eat a lot of bacon). I can't be happy if I don't enjoy what I do for forty hours a week for the rest of my bacon-truncated life.

2. I'd like to go to Europe or South America. Last week, I discovered that I've let my passport expire. Yep, I'm now one of those statistics that make Europeans cluck their tongues and feel superior to us. Really, I love travelling, but for the last couple years my wife and I have been going to Hawaii on vacation, which she enjoyed more than me. I'd love to go back to Buenos Aires, but even though everything is very cheap there, the flights are still expensive ($1000 per person).

3. I need to get my house in some sort of order. Right now, even though we moved here over a year ago, it still looks like an episode of Cops. All I need to do is get arrested shirtless on my couch and the look will be complete. My wife works 60-75 hours a week, so I really can't (and shouldn't) expect any help from her. Plus, she's half of the reason it looks like it does.

That's it. If I could just accomplish just these three things, my life would be incomparably improved. So, in other words, don't count on it.

7 comments:

Ann said...

Welcome back, friend.

I have said this before and I'll say it again. Just two words:

Graduate School.

Anonymous said...

Make blogging a top priority. The rest will follow.

NFlanders said...

Woo-hoo! Comments! I was certain I drove everyone off with two straight months of inactivity. But less than 24 hours after being back, here you are. Thank you!

Ann-- I agree, grad school sounds like a good choice. The only problem is that the things that I'm interested in don't really lend themselves to a career. Unless you need a personal Comp Lit tutor? Then I'll totally apply.

M-- I can leave the blog, but I can't leave it alone. I am envious of your new clutter-free digs. Between my wife and me, one of us has to be the tidy one, and I guess it's going to have to be me.

Beijing-- Nice to see you around. I agree--blogging will now be at the top of my list. I'm 2 for 2 in 2007.

On a technical note, I'm having some real formatting problems with the comments. Thanks for persevering to make your comments. Hopefully, this will get better when Blogger swithes me over to the Google-based system.

Anonymous said...

Ned, good to see your blog back in business!

Why not grad school? You could teach...right?

NFlanders said...

Thanks, Brian.

I think teaching at the college level would be very interesting (I'm not good with kids) but it seems pretty competitive. Maybe I just need to get back to school to figure out what I can do.

Ann said...

You could do technical writing. Or creative writing or something. Also, with just a masters, you could teach at community college. With a masters in education, you could do something like academic advising.

You wouldn't be making $14/hour, but if you get into a good program you could probably TA for money while you take classes and write your thesis.

As another angle, I think making money is FUN. You could do a post-bacc 2nd degree in business administration or finance or something. Then you can go on and get an MBA after working entry level management for a few years and take over the world. Dude, the possibilities are endless.

NFlanders said...

Taking over the world, eh? If it means I'll have to use Excel, forget it. For some reason, I really have a mental block about business stuff. Maybe because I never took any courses in that. However, if YOU decide to take over the world, you'll need an assistant. That's where I come in...

I've never really thought of myself as a teacher, but I'm starting to warm to the idea.