Happy Freaking New Year - Ninety Second Post

I don't have any new years resolutions. At least, I didn't when I started this post. A new year is just a new day, after all, and I don't have the money to initiate any radical lifestyle changes just yet. I'd like to eat healthier and exercise, but winter isn't the best time to start trying to motivate yourself to do something unpleasant, like exercise in the cold, and my paycheck comes in a few weeks, so no fancy expensive health food for me until then. So, no big resolutions are really possible for me at this point.
I don't really get the whole hubbub around the new year. Yeah, it's a new year, but I'm not that old and I've already experienced 23 first days of new years. Now those years are old and gone. in a few years, I probably won't be able to recall anything more about 2014 than I can about 1994 (that is, a few snippets that blur together). There's a statistic floating around the internet that says that 8% of New Year's Resolutions are actually kept, so according to that, I won't be able to keep a resolution worth beans. Why bother with all the pomp and circumstance? I'll just bide my time and enact small but important lifestyle changes when I can gather up the motivation and funding necessary.
2014 is going to look different from 2013, mostly because I have the full time job that is grad school. No graduation in the spring this year, and no moving from state to state and panicking over the lack of housing. I'll still be scrambling to pay school fees and wishing I had more time to do outdoorsy stuff, but it'll be with the promise of a regular, salary-dependent paycheck coming soon.
No  more Whitworth, except via the mail they send me in hopes that I'll cough up more money (and heaven help the poor kid doing phonathon who has to call me).
Some similarities are to be expected. I'll be teaching labs again and enjoying that warm feeling inside when a student gets excited about science. The difference is that now I know that I like teaching, whereas I started 2013 not knowing.
I suppose I do have resolutions, of a kind, for the year. I want to save up and buy a new computer, since this one is slowly and steadily breaking down (the DVD drive went out, and the CPU is always running at 90% or higher). I also want to save up for a car, but that will have to wait for the computer. I can live without a car, obviously, but this computer is going to kick the bucket sooner or later and I can't afford to live without a computer. Being in charge of other people's grades is a huge hassle when you think your computer might die.
Just for the heck of it, I'll resolve to try indoor rock climbing this year. This way, when someone asks what my resolutions are, I can give them that one. Plus, I started off 2014 by eating chocolate while writing blog posts at 2 AM. I don't think any "healthy living" resolutions would have lasted past that little set-back.

Anyway, happy New Year if you're into that sort of thing!

Thirty Second Post

September has rolled around. School is starting up with a vengeance, and I am getting sick.
I met my new roommate, who is from California, USA.
She is nice and likes to rock climb.
I keep running into my old stalker, who seemed determined to keep my life from being boring. I prefer boring to not being safe from unexpected, awkward "conversations" in my own room, thank you. He doesn't know where I live this year.
Speaking of where I live, we have a couch! That was pretty exciting.
I finally decorated my wall, using up several pieces of paper and replacing two ink cartridges. The printer-wraith seemed to be pleased by my offering, and printed the rest of the pictures very nicely. The result was well-worth the effort, however, as I know have Heroes (TV Series) pictures and logos, XKCD comics, LOLcats, various other comics, British WWII-era propaganda posters, Dune movie covers, and Bourne pictures and movie covers scattered about my walls. It actually kind of looks like I live here now.
Class starts tomorrow. I am expecting a lot out of German 101, since earlier today I spent $300 on the book. I finished the "soul killing" book for one of the four classes that all students have to take to graduate, much to my roommate's shock.
When I look at my schedule on the spreadsheet that I make for every semester to plan out my days and keep from conflicting classes, my schedule looks rather paltry. Only three Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes, one Tuesday-Thursday class, one PE class, and just one lab. Unfortunately, all three of the Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes are four credits, and the Tuesday-Thursday class is a 300-level course (all my other classes are 100- or 200-level).
It's going to be one heck of a semester. I hope to take an ice-skating class for Jan-Term. And that is it.