Resolutional Analysis from 2009
As a personal tradition I've had going for several years, I've put New Year's Resolutions up on lj so that I could hold myself accountable to them, and at year's end, rank myself on each while manipulating the numbers in such a way so as to prove mathematically that I am significantly more awesome than I ever dared to be before.
Be better at picking classes.
Although now that I've picked spring semester classes, with great difficulty, I'm not doing so well here.
[3/5 ]It turns out I still shop WAY too many classes and tend to overload myself. Fancy that. But, now that I actually have a major settled, it has helped narrow my focus a lot. I see much improvement on the radar for this next semester, where I'm strictly limiting myself to only four classes (or at least I say that now).
Get a major.
Um... yeah. Top three between Environmental Studies, Evolutionary and Ecological Biology, and Neuroscience.
[5/5] East Asian Studies (Japanese) FTW! Total 180 there, but I like it. It's interdisciplinary, so it means I can take classes from pretty each any department so long as I can convince the director of undergraduate studies its relevant to Japan. The challenge is just to make sure I can get some body of knowledge that consolidates into something useful, beyond just a (hopeful) mastery of the language. Right now I'm looking at concentrating in a PoliSci/Anthro direction within the major.
Do something meaningful with summer, and other periods of time off.
I got into a lab that's doing ornithornological all expense paid field work to Ecuador over spring break! Now if I can just get that fellowship to study in Japan over the summer.
[5/5] Win. I did in fact win an all-expense paid fellowship for the summer, and even though I spent much of it being frustrated with the slow pace of the program, I feel it forced me to create some new direction for myself. The other breaks have been great because I'm appreciating the time with friends, family, and relaxing by myself on the short breaks more than ever.
Don't let haters get me down
Don't let them.
[2/5] This one is hard. I'm getting continually better at than I've been in previous years, because I know that allowing other people's assessments of me (often based on kind of arbitrary/douchey factors) determine my own self-happiness and worth is not a happy way to live. I'm better, but keep working at it.
Authenticity.
Something I'm finding increasingly to be one of my core values, but one that's the most difficult to uphold, especially in some of the areas I've been devoting myself to.
[?/5] Is this something I can assess myself? Hm. This year was interesting in that I turned from the theatre/singing scenes at Yale where I had tried so hard to be accepted, but for whatever reason had set themselves against me. I came to feel these were the kinds of places where people were rewarded for being the most gallantly fake and superficial (i'm not talking about the stage, but the social scene surrounding it). Instead, I found Sigma Chi fraternity. Granted, if someone a year ago had told me I'd be "a fratboy", I'd have laughed at them. But now I've developed very close personal relationships, both with a group and more importantly one-on-one with a lot of guys whose love, friendship and trust I value deeply. And while I'm sure I'm not perfect in every single one of my relationships at this abstract ideal of "authenticity", Sigma Chi has been instrumental in making me aware of a higher moral standard to hold myself to. So even if I'm not perfect at it, it's something I'm always aware of and striving for, and I think that counts for a lot.
Listen to Kelvin's bedtime stories and not be a little bitch.
My suitemate Kelvin suggested this to me when I didn't enjoy listening to his bedtime stories about MDRTB, multiple drug resistant tuberculosis.
[2/5] Hmm... Kelvin hasn't told me many stories about MDRTB since that time... although he does have wonderful bedtime stories. Except one of his texts I received on New Year's Eve says "Bitch. I love you!" so I guess I've continued to be a little bitch.
Win at intermural innertube water polo
The best sport ever. JE has to win the championships. There is no other option. We've got a great team, but I'm still reeling from our first loss against Berkeley. Can't let that stop us from being awesome.
[3/5] We did not win last season, taking 3rd after a couple of heart-breakingly close matches against a team or two that played dirty.
Win.
Just in general. Also at backgammon, which my whole suite now plays. We have official standings on the wall.
[1/5 + getting gammon'd.] Dammit. Dennis is really good at backgammon. My official standings by the end of the season were not stellar.
Do something new and unexpected.
I'm currently kinda sorta rushing a frat? Um... yeah. Maybe not.
[5/5] Sigma Chi. As said before, hilariously unexpected, but a really good choice for me. And now I have a major officer position for the next semester.
Do something meaningful.
Something I can be really proud of. This is too vague to actually be helpful.
What did I mean by meaningful? As I predicted, this resolution was not helpful.
[I'M GONNA RAM YOU / 5]
Continue being jacked.
I no longer row crew, but I like its what done for me. Keep up with the crossfits. Every day is not realisitic, but as much as
possible.
[3/5 + Muscle Milk] In general, I stay in pretty good shape, and even got into a really good work-out/jacked-and-tan groove at one point, despite my overwhelming class schedule this last semester. But I had a sinus infection for 9 weeks straight fall semester, which screwed with my health, energy, and ability to stay in shape a lot. Good, but do better. And don't get 9 week sinus infections. And for the love of god, don't drink muscle milk shooters laced with grain alcohol.
Arrange and compose and create.
I've loved arranging charts for the YPMB, but I want to be better at it. I liked free-writing exercises from my theatre class last semester, and I want to expand my final project from that class into a one-man show. I have so many creative desires that are not being fulfilled in my current state. Fix that.
[3/5] Hmm... I swore off arranging for the YPMB since it took too much time and I didn't get that much thrill out of it, but then ended up arranging more anyway. It's fun, but not fulfilling. I finally had a chance to sing when I was in Twilight: The Britney Spears Musical (I still crack up at the concept). This came after I divorced my self-image from that of a singer- accepting that made me a little more content with the unrequited aspirations to sing. Twilight was fun to sing in a group, and even better when we did free-style harmonizing warm up exercises (take a song that everyone knows and harmonize the shit out of it). I may not have the epic solo voice that the divas have, but singing in group and harmonizing I could hold my own against anyone from the star-studded cast.
Expand on cooking talents
I'm now kitchen manager and will be providing weekly confections for the JE Cafe, so I want to experiment and make better stuff than ever before. Nom nom nom.
[3/5] I didn't cook at school really at all this last semester- Sad Pandas. I have learned how to make lots of new things, and the cakes Marty and I make when we're at home continue to be increasingly epic in flavor and simpler for us with our increasing skills. He's becoming more and more serious about the life goal of opening a bakery- is that something I could commit myself to? Food for thought.
Appreciate my talents and abilities for what they are
...which means not being emo for what they aren't.
This one's interesting. In general, I feel like my self-efficacy at college is less than it ever was before; I guess that's kinda the inevitable result when thrown into an environment so big and rarefied that your personal abilities are distressingly ordinary in comparison. But then I step back and look at some of my accomplishments, academic or otherwise. A few years ago, a 10 page paper was this daunting prospect that would be a multi-week project with the teacher holding my hand at each step; now I can write it in a day. I'm stronger in many ways beyond just the physical, and I believe in the importance of what I believe.
+2 Awesome Points.
IN CONCLUSION:
[25/50 + I'mGonnaRamYou/5 + 2 Awesome Points]
But "But I'm gonna ram you" is not divisible by 5, so we'll call that a +2. And awesome points convert to regular points at 2:1 exchange rate.
THEREFORE:
[31/50]
I am a 62% better person today than I was at the start of 2009. Aw yeah.
Be better at picking classes.
Although now that I've picked spring semester classes, with great difficulty, I'm not doing so well here.
[3/5 ]It turns out I still shop WAY too many classes and tend to overload myself. Fancy that. But, now that I actually have a major settled, it has helped narrow my focus a lot. I see much improvement on the radar for this next semester, where I'm strictly limiting myself to only four classes (or at least I say that now).
Get a major.
Um... yeah. Top three between Environmental Studies, Evolutionary and Ecological Biology, and Neuroscience.
[5/5] East Asian Studies (Japanese) FTW! Total 180 there, but I like it. It's interdisciplinary, so it means I can take classes from pretty each any department so long as I can convince the director of undergraduate studies its relevant to Japan. The challenge is just to make sure I can get some body of knowledge that consolidates into something useful, beyond just a (hopeful) mastery of the language. Right now I'm looking at concentrating in a PoliSci/Anthro direction within the major.
Do something meaningful with summer, and other periods of time off.
I got into a lab that's doing ornithornological all expense paid field work to Ecuador over spring break! Now if I can just get that fellowship to study in Japan over the summer.
[5/5] Win. I did in fact win an all-expense paid fellowship for the summer, and even though I spent much of it being frustrated with the slow pace of the program, I feel it forced me to create some new direction for myself. The other breaks have been great because I'm appreciating the time with friends, family, and relaxing by myself on the short breaks more than ever.
Don't let haters get me down
Don't let them.
[2/5] This one is hard. I'm getting continually better at than I've been in previous years, because I know that allowing other people's assessments of me (often based on kind of arbitrary/douchey factors) determine my own self-happiness and worth is not a happy way to live. I'm better, but keep working at it.
Authenticity.
Something I'm finding increasingly to be one of my core values, but one that's the most difficult to uphold, especially in some of the areas I've been devoting myself to.
[?/5] Is this something I can assess myself? Hm. This year was interesting in that I turned from the theatre/singing scenes at Yale where I had tried so hard to be accepted, but for whatever reason had set themselves against me. I came to feel these were the kinds of places where people were rewarded for being the most gallantly fake and superficial (i'm not talking about the stage, but the social scene surrounding it). Instead, I found Sigma Chi fraternity. Granted, if someone a year ago had told me I'd be "a fratboy", I'd have laughed at them. But now I've developed very close personal relationships, both with a group and more importantly one-on-one with a lot of guys whose love, friendship and trust I value deeply. And while I'm sure I'm not perfect in every single one of my relationships at this abstract ideal of "authenticity", Sigma Chi has been instrumental in making me aware of a higher moral standard to hold myself to. So even if I'm not perfect at it, it's something I'm always aware of and striving for, and I think that counts for a lot.
Listen to Kelvin's bedtime stories and not be a little bitch.
My suitemate Kelvin suggested this to me when I didn't enjoy listening to his bedtime stories about MDRTB, multiple drug resistant tuberculosis.
[2/5] Hmm... Kelvin hasn't told me many stories about MDRTB since that time... although he does have wonderful bedtime stories. Except one of his texts I received on New Year's Eve says "Bitch. I love you!" so I guess I've continued to be a little bitch.
Win at intermural innertube water polo
The best sport ever. JE has to win the championships. There is no other option. We've got a great team, but I'm still reeling from our first loss against Berkeley. Can't let that stop us from being awesome.
[3/5] We did not win last season, taking 3rd after a couple of heart-breakingly close matches against a team or two that played dirty.
Win.
Just in general. Also at backgammon, which my whole suite now plays. We have official standings on the wall.
[1/5 + getting gammon'd.] Dammit. Dennis is really good at backgammon. My official standings by the end of the season were not stellar.
Do something new and unexpected.
I'm currently kinda sorta rushing a frat? Um... yeah. Maybe not.
[5/5] Sigma Chi. As said before, hilariously unexpected, but a really good choice for me. And now I have a major officer position for the next semester.
Do something meaningful.
Something I can be really proud of. This is too vague to actually be helpful.
What did I mean by meaningful? As I predicted, this resolution was not helpful.
[I'M GONNA RAM YOU / 5]
Continue being jacked.
I no longer row crew, but I like its what done for me. Keep up with the crossfits. Every day is not realisitic, but as much as
possible.
[3/5 + Muscle Milk] In general, I stay in pretty good shape, and even got into a really good work-out/jacked-and-tan groove at one point, despite my overwhelming class schedule this last semester. But I had a sinus infection for 9 weeks straight fall semester, which screwed with my health, energy, and ability to stay in shape a lot. Good, but do better. And don't get 9 week sinus infections. And for the love of god, don't drink muscle milk shooters laced with grain alcohol.
Arrange and compose and create.
I've loved arranging charts for the YPMB, but I want to be better at it. I liked free-writing exercises from my theatre class last semester, and I want to expand my final project from that class into a one-man show. I have so many creative desires that are not being fulfilled in my current state. Fix that.
[3/5] Hmm... I swore off arranging for the YPMB since it took too much time and I didn't get that much thrill out of it, but then ended up arranging more anyway. It's fun, but not fulfilling. I finally had a chance to sing when I was in Twilight: The Britney Spears Musical (I still crack up at the concept). This came after I divorced my self-image from that of a singer- accepting that made me a little more content with the unrequited aspirations to sing. Twilight was fun to sing in a group, and even better when we did free-style harmonizing warm up exercises (take a song that everyone knows and harmonize the shit out of it). I may not have the epic solo voice that the divas have, but singing in group and harmonizing I could hold my own against anyone from the star-studded cast.
Expand on cooking talents
I'm now kitchen manager and will be providing weekly confections for the JE Cafe, so I want to experiment and make better stuff than ever before. Nom nom nom.
[3/5] I didn't cook at school really at all this last semester- Sad Pandas. I have learned how to make lots of new things, and the cakes Marty and I make when we're at home continue to be increasingly epic in flavor and simpler for us with our increasing skills. He's becoming more and more serious about the life goal of opening a bakery- is that something I could commit myself to? Food for thought.
Appreciate my talents and abilities for what they are
...which means not being emo for what they aren't.
This one's interesting. In general, I feel like my self-efficacy at college is less than it ever was before; I guess that's kinda the inevitable result when thrown into an environment so big and rarefied that your personal abilities are distressingly ordinary in comparison. But then I step back and look at some of my accomplishments, academic or otherwise. A few years ago, a 10 page paper was this daunting prospect that would be a multi-week project with the teacher holding my hand at each step; now I can write it in a day. I'm stronger in many ways beyond just the physical, and I believe in the importance of what I believe.
+2 Awesome Points.
IN CONCLUSION:
[25/50 + I'mGonnaRamYou/5 + 2 Awesome Points]
But "But I'm gonna ram you" is not divisible by 5, so we'll call that a +2. And awesome points convert to regular points at 2:1 exchange rate.
THEREFORE:
[31/50]
I am a 62% better person today than I was at the start of 2009. Aw yeah.