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The Latest in Resolutions
2017
Last year I had four resolutions:
1) Spanish - I resolved to finish reading my online Spanish text before it expired and I did. I also hoped to do additional activities but was not willing to commit to specific ones at that time. Score: I finished the DuoLingo Spanish lessons and did half the Spanish lessons at Language Transfer.
2) Blood donations - I resolved to make regular donations, and I actually did this all year long. I've even put it in my calendar as a recurring event, figuring I can adjust them if necessary.
3) Activism - I resolved to sign petitions and try to do other things. I did sign petitions. I also participated in the March for Science and called my representatives a few times. So I'm going to call this a success as well. But it has not worked to make me a better activist.
4) International media - I experienced loads of books and movies from other countries.
2018
I plan to keep donating blood regularly, signing petitions, and consuming international media, but don't feel the need to make resolutions on these.
1) Exercise - I want to exercise at least 30 minutes per day (besides walking) at least five days a week (unless I'm sick).
2) And then I have several other ideas that might be good, but I'm not willing to make a resolution about any them. So let's just say that I resolve to do one additional cool thing. And here are some possibilities I already have thought of:
a) Write a real program in Python (beyond assignments)
b) Go through the rest of my beginner and intermediate Spanish resources:
* Puntos de Partido and an accompanying workbook - sort of like a sister to my other Spanish
* A couple of Practice Makes Perfect workbooks
* finish the Language Transfer course
* Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish
* I think I have a grammar guide
* I think I have some story books
c) Declutter a lot. My sister is doing a project to declutter 2018 things in 2018. That's a lot of things. She's putting a chart on her refrigerator and adding a gold star for each item she gets rid of. Did I mention that's a lot of things? Admittedly, you can use your own judgment in deciding whether a stack of magazines counts as one stack or multiple magazines. (Admittedly, if you count each page, 2018 things isn't quite so many.)
d) Figure out a way to do something fight discrimination somehow. I am convinced that even if all racism disappeared, certain people would still be at a disadvantage due to things that have happened in the past such as redlining, crappy racist-caused job history and trauma, networking mainly only with other people who have been disadvantaged in the past, etc. So just not being discriminatory isn't enough.
I don't know how to do this. But I have been learning that there are plenty of ways that I inadvertently support discrimination. You know, I don't do it myself; I have people for that. My worst one is probably looking for low prices, which can support discriminatory labor practices.
I have read to look for places where you have power such as in hiring decisions and making sure to use your power for good, but I don't think I have much of this kind of power which makes sense because I deliberately don't seek out that kind of power.
However, it is becoming very clear that I have more privilege than most people. Besides the obvious advantages of being born healthy to loving parents in the US, my physical and mental health problems are nothing at all compared to what I have been hearing about and reading about for so many people. Are there ways I can use my privilege to help other people? Apparently I refuse to use my brain to invent awesome stuff like I should have all these years.
Here's another idea: I have read that it's hard to get lifeguards and swim instructors in my part of town. So kids in my neighborhood have fewer lessons and less swim time available to them, and they are less likely to learn to swim and later more likely to drown. I could try for one of these jobs. (This is exactly the kind of job I can get--where they need to hire a bunch of people at once.) Though it might be the case that this was a surprising problem for only one summer after which they raised the salaries significantly and started doing way better and better-timed marketing in the high schools to find interested people in time to get them trained.
I can't forget that Monopoly study where one player started with twice as much money as the other person, got twice as much money when they passed "GO," and got to use two dice to move around the board twice as quickly, and after only 15 minutes were already attributing their success to their own brains and hard work. When I first saw it, I thought that if I were the advantaged one, I would immediately give half my excess to the other person every time. But in real life, there's more than one other person to share with so I can't use the same strategy.
And in real life I am way too selfish to want to give up the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed just to make lots of people's lives infinitely better. (So much easier and more fun to give away half my Monopoly money!) I could at least copy those rich people discussed at the end of the Ted Talk above who pledge to give away half their wealth (before or after their death): I could make a charity the beneficiary of my IRA (though it's less than half my wealth). It does remind me of Thomas Jefferson, though, freeing his slaves in his will (at no sacrifice to himself at all), but then he had so many debts that his slaves had to sold to cover those debts and didn't even get to go free then.
Anyway, I'm going to try to keep my eye open for ways to share my privilege or otherwise use my power for good to help those who are discriminated against or otherwise underprivileged or just in need of help, ideally in ways that are fun for me.
Exercise update
It's been a while since I wrote, so this will be long.
12/21, Thursday - I felt energetic again, so I planned to do my pilates video but could not due to technical difficulties. So I jogged instead. I managed the whole three miles again and did it in my lower time again: 41 minutes. Yay!
12/22 - I went to the Silver Sneakers class. I was running late, so I jogged part of the way there. I still arrived late (right! I don't jog twice as fast as I walk anymore). I felt weaker and less energetic than usual and blamed my very long break. Then I remember that I had arrived sweaty and somewhat used up, plus it was warm and humid in the room. By the second half of the class I was back to normal. Woo!
12/23 - can't remember, didn't write it. Probably nothing?
12/24 - was busy, nothing
12/25 - noticed sore throat the evening before, was feverish, also visited friends for Christmas--no exercise
12/26 - felt much better, did pilates video. Felt only a little sub-par during most of it, except for the push-ups at the end where I just gave into gravity.
12/27 - triceps ache for some reason. No exercise except a short jog to the mailbox (less that 1 mile round trip).
12/28 - nothing
12/29 - nothing--slept over 12 hours
12/30 through 1/2 - Nothing. It sure looks like exercising too soon after getting sick the second time did me in. I had no energy until New Year's Eve and am still taking it easy.
Last year I had four resolutions:
1) Spanish - I resolved to finish reading my online Spanish text before it expired and I did. I also hoped to do additional activities but was not willing to commit to specific ones at that time. Score: I finished the DuoLingo Spanish lessons and did half the Spanish lessons at Language Transfer.
2) Blood donations - I resolved to make regular donations, and I actually did this all year long. I've even put it in my calendar as a recurring event, figuring I can adjust them if necessary.
3) Activism - I resolved to sign petitions and try to do other things. I did sign petitions. I also participated in the March for Science and called my representatives a few times. So I'm going to call this a success as well. But it has not worked to make me a better activist.
4) International media - I experienced loads of books and movies from other countries.
2018
I plan to keep donating blood regularly, signing petitions, and consuming international media, but don't feel the need to make resolutions on these.
1) Exercise - I want to exercise at least 30 minutes per day (besides walking) at least five days a week (unless I'm sick).
2) And then I have several other ideas that might be good, but I'm not willing to make a resolution about any them. So let's just say that I resolve to do one additional cool thing. And here are some possibilities I already have thought of:
a) Write a real program in Python (beyond assignments)
b) Go through the rest of my beginner and intermediate Spanish resources:
* Puntos de Partido and an accompanying workbook - sort of like a sister to my other Spanish
* A couple of Practice Makes Perfect workbooks
* finish the Language Transfer course
* Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish
* I think I have a grammar guide
* I think I have some story books
c) Declutter a lot. My sister is doing a project to declutter 2018 things in 2018. That's a lot of things. She's putting a chart on her refrigerator and adding a gold star for each item she gets rid of. Did I mention that's a lot of things? Admittedly, you can use your own judgment in deciding whether a stack of magazines counts as one stack or multiple magazines. (Admittedly, if you count each page, 2018 things isn't quite so many.)
d) Figure out a way to do something fight discrimination somehow. I am convinced that even if all racism disappeared, certain people would still be at a disadvantage due to things that have happened in the past such as redlining, crappy racist-caused job history and trauma, networking mainly only with other people who have been disadvantaged in the past, etc. So just not being discriminatory isn't enough.
I don't know how to do this. But I have been learning that there are plenty of ways that I inadvertently support discrimination. You know, I don't do it myself; I have people for that. My worst one is probably looking for low prices, which can support discriminatory labor practices.
I have read to look for places where you have power such as in hiring decisions and making sure to use your power for good, but I don't think I have much of this kind of power which makes sense because I deliberately don't seek out that kind of power.
However, it is becoming very clear that I have more privilege than most people. Besides the obvious advantages of being born healthy to loving parents in the US, my physical and mental health problems are nothing at all compared to what I have been hearing about and reading about for so many people. Are there ways I can use my privilege to help other people? Apparently I refuse to use my brain to invent awesome stuff like I should have all these years.
Here's another idea: I have read that it's hard to get lifeguards and swim instructors in my part of town. So kids in my neighborhood have fewer lessons and less swim time available to them, and they are less likely to learn to swim and later more likely to drown. I could try for one of these jobs. (This is exactly the kind of job I can get--where they need to hire a bunch of people at once.) Though it might be the case that this was a surprising problem for only one summer after which they raised the salaries significantly and started doing way better and better-timed marketing in the high schools to find interested people in time to get them trained.
I can't forget that Monopoly study where one player started with twice as much money as the other person, got twice as much money when they passed "GO," and got to use two dice to move around the board twice as quickly, and after only 15 minutes were already attributing their success to their own brains and hard work. When I first saw it, I thought that if I were the advantaged one, I would immediately give half my excess to the other person every time. But in real life, there's more than one other person to share with so I can't use the same strategy.
And in real life I am way too selfish to want to give up the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed just to make lots of people's lives infinitely better. (So much easier and more fun to give away half my Monopoly money!) I could at least copy those rich people discussed at the end of the Ted Talk above who pledge to give away half their wealth (before or after their death): I could make a charity the beneficiary of my IRA (though it's less than half my wealth). It does remind me of Thomas Jefferson, though, freeing his slaves in his will (at no sacrifice to himself at all), but then he had so many debts that his slaves had to sold to cover those debts and didn't even get to go free then.
Anyway, I'm going to try to keep my eye open for ways to share my privilege or otherwise use my power for good to help those who are discriminated against or otherwise underprivileged or just in need of help, ideally in ways that are fun for me.
Exercise update
It's been a while since I wrote, so this will be long.
12/21, Thursday - I felt energetic again, so I planned to do my pilates video but could not due to technical difficulties. So I jogged instead. I managed the whole three miles again and did it in my lower time again: 41 minutes. Yay!
12/22 - I went to the Silver Sneakers class. I was running late, so I jogged part of the way there. I still arrived late (right! I don't jog twice as fast as I walk anymore). I felt weaker and less energetic than usual and blamed my very long break. Then I remember that I had arrived sweaty and somewhat used up, plus it was warm and humid in the room. By the second half of the class I was back to normal. Woo!
12/23 - can't remember, didn't write it. Probably nothing?
12/24 - was busy, nothing
12/25 - noticed sore throat the evening before, was feverish, also visited friends for Christmas--no exercise
12/26 - felt much better, did pilates video. Felt only a little sub-par during most of it, except for the push-ups at the end where I just gave into gravity.
12/27 - triceps ache for some reason. No exercise except a short jog to the mailbox (less that 1 mile round trip).
12/28 - nothing
12/29 - nothing--slept over 12 hours
12/30 through 1/2 - Nothing. It sure looks like exercising too soon after getting sick the second time did me in. I had no energy until New Year's Eve and am still taking it easy.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2018-01-04 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)I fear I'm not very good with goals - I do better with challenges. I realize this is probably a hair splitting distinction, but it's an important one for me. If I say that I have to do xyz thing every day, or have to do xyz amount of some thing - well, it's like my inner rebel wakes up and says "Hell No!" But if I aim instead for something more like "Let's see how much of xyz thing I can accomplish" then it feels like a fun challenge and I'm all in. How crazy is that? I mean when it really comes down to it, it's just semantics, but it really does seem to make a difference for me.
Did I tell you I watched the Monopoly TED talk? Holy Kazoli! If that isn't a sobering statement on human nature I don't know what is. I had the same thought that you did... if it was me, I'd be inclined to give half of my money to my opponent - or find some way to level the playing field. Otherwise what fun would the game be? I wonder if we'd really do that though... interesting thought experiment.
Anyhow, I'm not entirely sure where you are in your Spanish studies, but one book you might want to consider is called "Breaking out of Beginner's Spanish" by Joseph Keenan. CatMan and I found it very helpful. And speaking of Spanish, we were trying to get through "Cien años de soledad" by Gabriel García Marquez. It's a classic, and though we were managing, it was like we just weren't very motivated to read it. It's delightful in ways, but the story is a bit rambling, and it was hard for us to keep all of the characters straight. Plus it was full of crazy vocabulary - words we didn't even know in English! Anyhow, we decided to throw in the towel for the moment, and instead we're now re-reading a Spanish translation of the Harry Potter series. It's sorta fun because we've already looked up and written down the words, so we can move much faster. Plus, it's fun to see how many words we wrote down the first time through that we now know.
Anyhow, best of luck with all of your goals!
-Cat
no subject
On the Monopoly experiment, I feel pretty confident that I would be sharing. And that's even though I don't feel so confident on some of the other experiments I've read about. Like the horrible one about shocking other people. "Please continue." Or even the one where everyone is saying two lines are the same length when clearly they're not. (If they all really think that, maybe there's something wrong with me.) I mean now I wouldn't fall for them, but maybe at the time, I would have.
Thanks for your Spanish recommendations. I've heard of Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish, but last time I saw it, it looked way over my head. I feel like I'm still breaking into beginner's Spanish!
Last time my Spanish was getting pretty good, I really enjoyed reading the Spanish version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I enjoyed the writing so much that it actually did seem worth it to look up all the words I didn't know--so many of them were treasures, in context. And not rare words, either.
Also, I'm remembering that one thing I liked about reading books on the Kindle is that you could just click on a word to look up its meaning. That seems like it could be handy with Spanish books, though the meaning would probably also be in Spanish.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2018-01-05 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)Anyhow, thinking about the resolutions thing... and the monopoly thing... and the horrible shock thing... you've given me an idea. I don't generally carry cash - at least nothing more than a $20 bill for emergencies. So when I'm approached by someone asking for a handout I just say sorry, I don't carry cash. But I do have a big jar of coins that I've collected over the years, and since the prospect of me actually spending them is extremely remote, I'm gonna try to make a practice of keeping some in my pockets so the next time someone asks, I'll have something to give them. A bit of change won't make a real difference in anyone's life, and they might just use it to buy beer or weed - but it might help someone, and it won't cost me anything.
Thanks for the inspiration!
:-)
Cat
no subject
I still don't give money to pan handlers under the idea that I only have so much money and I am carefully trying to give it in the most effective ways possible. However, I did admire an old friend of mine who did kind of like you're doing. He would keep all his change in his pockets, and whenever someone asked him for spare change, he would just pull it all out and hand it over. It's definitely pretty fun. Hope you like it!