New year tomorrow
I think I have the ‘puter problems sorted out for now. Primarily seems to be related to heat. However I think ultimately there is a memory problem causing the heat problem. I also think the fan on the video card is weak. Keeping an eye on it. Damn computers.
It’s New Year’s Eve. We don’t really have any plans but shrimp gumbo is on the menu. If I am feeling lucky and a little bit brave, we may venture out to a local cut and shoot for some boot scootin and booze. And maybe steal a kiss or two at midnight. Yee haw, doggy!
Are you making any resolutions? I’m not. Never do. New Year’s resolutions are the perennial reminder that you need top stop doing something. Or start doing more of something else. These annual pronouncements are reserved for those big things that we will never get accomplished.
PORCINE, WISCONSIN- According to recent studies, the average New Year’s resolution lasts less than a week. Than means that right about now, you’re reaching back into your secret bag of batter-dipped jelly beans and feeling really bad about it. This was to be your year, the time when you finally got off your compendious ass and did something to get to a healthier weight, but as you wrap your lips around another chocolate-covered pork rind you realize that this was not to be.
A friend said he was going to stop smoking for the new year. I asked him why. “I dont know, I just need to,” is about all the reply I got back.
Well being the harsh realist, I asked him why even bother?
“Huh?” he says. (He is my nephew and is only twenty.)
I know he isn’t going to quit smoking. He knows he isn’t going to quit smoking. So why bother with a ritual that sets you for failure right from the beginning? For success, I dont need failures; I need successes.
So I proposed an alternative. Instead of making a New Year’s Resolution that he will most likely to fail at anyway, how bout set a more realistic goal that can be achieved? I suggested he cut back 50% on his smokes. I think we can all agree that a pack every two days is much better than two packs a day. No?
I explained that after he gets comfortable with his smoke-reduced lifestyle, he might be able to take up running, or playing tennis, or having sex for more than three minutes without getting out of wind. As a result he will be in much better shape to make a new resolution sometime in February or March to cut back another 50%, putting his smoke inhalation at 25% of the original amount. As a matter of fact, why wait till New Years. Start Now!
Take me for example. On normal routine, I smoke two or three cigs a day on average. On many days I may go all day without smoking; often two days. Obviously when I am in social situations where there is smoking and drinking, I tend to smoke and drink. Just to be social, you understand. My habit boils down to a pack every four or five days.
“So, why bother?” many of those who are not in the know always ask.
“You have a big fat ass, why do you bother with dessert?” approximates my usual reply.
Basically, at less than two packs per week, my smoking problem is way less than the health risks run by all these big fat busy bodies who like to run around bitching and complaining about smokers interrupting their double chocolate cheese cake and cafe latte with a double cream… (I was having a Rosana Rosana Dana moment there.)
In other words, I smoke because I enjoy it. I have never been able to completely quit, but I have been able to successfully cut down to a very low level and maintain that for years and years and years.
The best thing about doing it my way is that you dont have to break yet another New Years Resolutiuon–or quit smoking.