I dissolve--NO! Resolve! I RESOLVE! (Revisited)

With every New Year, we make resolutions, or promises to ourselves, about what we are going to do and who we are going to be. If we tell others about our resolutions, we are making promises to them.

Last year around this time, I made a few resolutions that I posted on this site*.

1. Start the year off with less stress
2. Eat more healthfully 
3. Exercise more 
4. Learn at least one more survival skill (archery) 
5. Get more pedicures 
6. Set realistic goals

I have been successful to varying degrees.

Don't Look! There Is an Ebola Right Behind You!

I said, "Don't look!"

I admit that this is not a George Berkeley Idealism situation where if you turn your back on the issue, it ceases to exist. But that doesn't mean that Ebola is the Freddie Kreuger of diseases. It will not hunt you down and kill you.

Let's take a step back and assess the situation in a rational way. Listen to Brian Williams's words of wisdom.

I'll Be Fine! It's Just a Puddle.

You may recall from a post from early 2013 that I am a firm believer that panic is the enemy. I'm not picky about where people should not panic since I'm pretty sure it's bad news in just about any environment.

From Introduction to Myiasis by Melissa Runsten

If a deal is about to fall through at work, should the sales woman panic? No, she'll look disorganized and out of her depth. Also, she is more likely to make a bad deal for The Company than she would have been had she kept a level head.

When interstellar maggots attack the beef packaging plants of the Earth, panic is not going to stop them from entering the pupal stage then hatching into giant blow flies. In fact, panic will probably help the flies since humans would be too busy blaming each other and freaking out to actually deal with the situation.

Ready, Set, Go!

Being able to lead a small band of intrepid survivors against the onslaught of Mutant Martial Artist Tortoises is an excellent skill for every post-apocalyptic leader. It is one that must be learned and honed. It must be carefully distilled from years of pre-apocolyptic leading.

Western Hermann's Tortoise, Wikipedia

It has a partner. A companion skill that no one likes to talk about.

After the Mutant Martial Artist Tortoises rise from the sewers to takeover the above world of roses, pleasant smells, and a distinct lack of human excrement, people will whisper about it behind closed doors. When they can find a building that still has its doors. And rooms.

The Facts of Life

In this hemisphere, we are starting to see and feel spring. The weather is noticeably warmer, but a bit rainy. The ground is thawing and trees are beginning to bud; my allergies are starting to kick up. More people are out and about since leaving the house does not involve twelve layers not including the waterproof.

You take the good, you take the bad...

Life is full of good and bad. Finding the bad in the good is no feat. It's easy to let one rotten apple nuke the orchard. Letting setbacks or inconveniences ruin an otherwise good experience is, for some, entirely too effortless.

Surviving vs. Thriving

Winter is upon us. Again. It has been for a couple of months now. Pretty much everyone agrees that it's old. Over. Stale. It's the extra three loaves of bread, two and half gallons of milk, and two eighteen packs of eggs we bought to survive a Nor'easter at the end of December. In a word: unappealing.

From Wandering & Wondering

Most of us are sick of the snow and the cold and the shoveling. Dear god the shoveling! The random sixty degree days are little comfort: they melt the snow and ice, but it just refreezes once the sun has set.

The world turns into a solid sheet of black ice.

There are a few people, a crazy minority, who enjoy the weather. They relish the crisp air. They revel in the bright layers of fleece and wool and down. They wake up early on the weekends looking forward to going out into the cold!