{"id":13143,"date":"2011-12-29T07:20:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T11:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=13143"},"modified":"2011-12-29T08:29:06","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T13:29:06","slug":"better-new-years-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=13143","title":{"rendered":"Better New Year’s Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know what’s wrong with New Year’s Resolutions? Other than the fact that we’re choosing a completely arbitrary division of time to determine when we should try to improve our lives? They’re boring. Lose weight? Boring. Save money? Boring. Get more sleep? Bo-ring.<\/em>*<\/p>\n

I’m thinking that in addition to these sorts of meat-and-potatoes resolutions, everybody needs to make a really fun, frivolous one. Something that isn’t too expensive or time-consuming that perhaps you’ve thought about doing but never attempted because it would be out of character for you, or you don’t know how to get started, or you’re worried about what the neighbors would think, or you just can’t muster the motivation, or [fill in your favorite excuse here].<\/p>\n

So here’s what I want you to do: Come up with something within your time and budget constraints that you’d really like to do, and resolve to do that thing this year. Think less “long-term self-improvement” and more “this sounds like fun.” Research the perfect design for a tattoo you’ve always wanted. Dye your hair some outrageous shade. Plan and throw a really<\/em> good Halloween party. Add at least one spooky accent to a decorating scheme. Plant an herb garden and use miniature tombstones as plant markers. You get the idea.<\/p>\n

My goal is to learn to play the ukulele. What’s yours?
\n<\/p>\n

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\n*Note that I didn’t say these things weren’t necessary<\/em>. I said they were boring<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know what’s wrong with New Year’s Resolutions? Other than the fact that we’re choosing a completely arbitrary division of time to determine when we should try to improve our lives? They’re boring. Lose weight? Boring. Save money? Boring. Get more sleep? Bo-ring.* I’m thinking that in addition to these sorts of meat-and-potatoes resolutions, everybody […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whatever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13143"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13206,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13143\/revisions\/13206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}