For the past threeish years I’ve been making an effort to change my life for the better, instead of just coasting along in my shitty go-cart of bad but easy decisions. At times it’s been excruciating and shaming, and there have been some unintended consequences, but overall I think my trajectory has been fairly awesome.

Some general things I’ve already done in my admittedly ramshackle quarter-life plan:

• Stopped going to bar shows I didn’t care about at all (i.e. saved money). EDIT: I previously just wrote “shows”–I didn’t mean that at all. Just bar shows, where I’d go not for the band but just for hanging out and overpaying for beer.
• Alcohol usually only once a week, at a much (much) reduced quantity.
• Got over an insane fear of failure and applied to grad school, got in, got a scholarship, and got a masters degree.
• Started caring about myself again, ate better, did some intense training, and lost a ton of booze-induced weight.
• Got a job I care about.

Now that I have these broad things covered, there are some fine details I want to work on, both personally and professionally. I feel like if I write these things here, I can’t hide from them. Everyone will know that I said them and be like “So? What about that thing you said you’d do? Do you still suck at it?” I’m generally afflicted with the disease All Talk And Zero Action, so here I am making a public checklist. I need to make my whole life a checklist. Checklist wallpaper and flooring.

• Keep strength-training/running through the fall and winter, and do a running event (maybe only a 5k) in the spring/summer. I think if I can complete a run like that and not come in very last, I’ll feel pretty vindicated and a lot less bummed out about the past 7 years since my horrific knee injury. I can do it.
• Become better versed in relational databases. We use MS Access at work (for now), but I’d like to get better at other things too, and feel more comfortable manipulating the back-end instead of just the interface.
• Get better at CSS.
• Keep informed about the goings-on in the theory of my field, especially in the areas that my job doesn’t really approach. Relatedly, keep up to date on the topic of my major research paper (baby thesis!).
• Make progress on my pet work-project. My trusted co-worker and internship mentor told me: “Find something you like and research it in your down time, or you will go crazy.” This is also the same man who recently responded to the question “How are things?” with “I feel like I’m being chased by wolves.” I’m not sure how much sanity he really derived from researching, but I’ll give it a shot. Maybe more about that another time.
• Spend more of my leisure time being creative.
• Put more effort into finding music that’s newer than 2003.

That’s all I can really think of right now.

Summary: I’m that annoying person that constantly talks about their exercise regimes. Also that person who boasts about not drinking so much but actually has two bottles of wine, a bottle of champagne and a quart of vodka in the fridge. *

*Souvenirs from Niagara wine country, belated graduation presents, novelty items.**

**Rationalisations.