How to eat a life sandwich

All right, so maybe I got a little carried away yesterday about my new, improved attitude toward life. Not to say that there aren't going to be some changes around here, because there are, but I'm not, like, bursting out of a cocoon here or anything. That said, this is, if not a rebirth, then at least the turning over of a new leaf, so...here's where I want to go from here.

• More writing - I feel like this a skill that I've just let completely rust into recently-found-Tin-Man levels of disrepair, so I want to get some more writing done in the near future. I have to be honest and say that I don't think I have a NaNoWriMo in me this year, but I am at least going to try to get some more regular writing done. There's nothing involved in this but effort, so...there ya go. And I'm just talking informal stuff here...like blog-post-a-day kind of stuff. I mostly just want to shake out some of the cobwebs.
• Less TV - I don't exactly watch TV...not like in the old days, anyway. What I do do (heh...doo-doo) now is have streaming Netflix, which is still novel to me because moving to Philly was my first time living back in the world of broadband in forever. Streaming Netflix is becoming just as bad for me as TV. Worse, in fact, because there's always something on. I mean, it's not like the selection is a cavalcade of the finest films ever made or anything... But the point is that even with a zillion cable channels, at least once in a great while I could flip through the channel guide and go, "Huh...there's nothing good on. I'll go do something else." With streaming Netflix, I will literally never not have the opportunity to say, "Weeelllllll, I guess it's not too much trouble to watch this." Anyway. The point being...time to hit the brakes on that stuff. I'll be honest, I'm not going to cut it out completely, but I fully need to recognize that it was a lot healthier back when actually having to hold the physical disc in my hand formed a natural throttle to my passive entertainment time. :)
• Better/smarter/cheaper eating - I've noticed that my diet has taken a pretty dire turn for the worse lately. This always happens during Vacation Time (TM), but I gotta put a halt to that. I've been eating a lot of gross takeout stuff, which is viscerally satisfying but ultimately has no other redeeming feature. Also I am not burning nearly the calories each day that I was slinging cargo in the warehouse, so I should probably reign in the nonstop greasefest that my life has become lately. And all that's not even bringing up the topic of stretching a dollar. So...time to return to the diet of beans!
• Less refined sugar - This probably falls under the umbrella of better eating, but it also deserves its own bullet point, because somewhere along the way I developed a sick craving for sweet treats. Particularly baked goods. This isn't anything that new, I guess, but still...no need for the kind of excess I've been indulging in. Let's try a little more fruit and a little less donut, yeah?
• More exercise - This is a timeless classic, although sadly it may be harder to implement than usual, since I now have neither decent running shoes nor bicycle. On the other hand, it's going to be hard to not in some way get more exercise than I have in the last couple weeks, so...I'm not too worried.
• More moderation - By and large, I've lived a life of indulgence. Not of excess, really, as I'm a man of simple wants, but it's a rare occasion when I deny myself whatever minor whimsical creature comforts cross my mind that day. Now I will admit that I find nothing particularly wrong with that. I mean, I'm not into suffering for its own sake. (Any more.) But it's kind of the dream life, to just fulfill every craving in a carefree way, and I'm not in a position to be living the dream life right now. So it behooves me to engage in some temperance until I get my shit together again. And so I shall.
• More effort - This is the big one. I cannot think of a single aspect of my life that I've done anything to improve any time recently. I've lost motivation, prospects, human connections, fun, money, and time. And I've done this all from the comfort of my own home. Mostly because I'm in the comfort of my own home. I have been a long time believer in, proponent of, and exemplar of the loner attitude and lifestyle. And still am! I am turning in neither my Loner nor Slacker membership cards. But my support of these philosophies rests largely on the premise that one need not self-destruct from the application of them, and I think I've fallen pretty far down that hole, so it's time to work my way out of that a little bit. So I'm going to shoot for being a little less hermitic and a little less disinterested, and we'll see where that leads me.

Let's stick with that for now. I started mentally compiling this list yesterday, and now that I'm writing it up, I feel like I'm forgetting something. This is certainly enough to get started, though. Overall...I'm going to try and see what I can do to shake off the habit I've cultivated lo these many years of sitting around and letting life pass me by. It's not that I'm opposed to that kind of behavior out of hand. I'm sure I'll return to that mode someday. But for now...I'm just trying to address the sensation that it's just been thrown into sharp relief for me that I'm basically the walking dead at this point, dissatisfied with my lot, and bereft of any kind of direction, ambition, or future. So. Time for a change, eh?

Peace, everybody! Wish me luck.

Also!

Also, before I forget, I wanted to say thank you folks for the well-wishes and support following the news of the break-in. I'm especially grateful for the offers of old bikes. I'm holding off for just a little bit, though. On metalepticfit's urging, I've sent messages to local bike shops describing the situation and the bike and asking them to keep a lookout. I've come to think of it as a grassroots community APB^*. It's a technique I'm told is popular around these parts, which should tell you something right there that bike theft is common enough around here that there's a popular response technique.

In any case, I'm going to give that a little bit of time before making moves on a new bike. That said, I'm not holding out that much hope that it will turn up, though I have to say that there's at least a small chance, since there's something kind of distinctive about my bike. You might recall me mentioning this a little while back, but my ride is running around with two different pedals on it. :)

^*You ever notice that you don't seem to hear people say "APB" much any more? I feel like in modern cop shows they go with "bolo" now.