Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I promised myself that I wouldn't post again until I could come up with something light and funny to write about and as a result I just didn't post at all. Who wants to read a whole load of gloomy shit? I don't know but maybe if I write about it it'll go away. So Bare with me.

I also promised myself that I wasn't going to do one of those "Au Revoir 2007!" posts either. I guess I didn't feel important enough and truth be told I had no qualms with 2007 but then it hit me, 2007 was actually quite bad. So why didn't I pick up on it? It's really weird but I don't think I ever really thought about anything. Things happened, sometimes I'd react other times I'd shrug but all in all I was easily distracted. Shiny objects, stiff drinks, "good times".

Thus far 2008 has been pretty shitty yet pretty fucking awesome as well. I've never been a loner in any sense of the word, I've been the type of person who likes to go against the sheep but likes to have a base group of sheep to go against (??). I've never really been surrounded by people who get things the way I get them, they've never really been into the same shit I'm into besides what we do for fun. This never bothered me because we are the world, we are the children and everyone is entitled to their own opinions and lives. Everyone was having fun and that's all that mattered but what happens when the fun stops and shit starts to get dramatic? If you didn't have a steady foundation with these people other than fun then shit is going to deteriorate quickly when it stops being fun. So it did. Now I'm finally doing things I want to do with people I like being around and I miss the past but there's a sense of excitement in the air in regards to the future. I shuffled shit around and here is a list of things I want to change, things I tried to change and couldn't and things that'll never change.

Spend No/Less Time Online
During finals I spent a lot of time online and it was okay because although I was "online" reading blogs within five minutes of them being published, commenting and responding to emails in warp speed I was getting a lot of studying done in between. This justified the unhealthy amount of time spent online. After finals I was kind of lost, I would come online and waste hours reading blogs, news articles and because I've lived all over the world I always had somebody awake on IM. This ended up irritating me and as a result I tried to quit all online activity.

Results thus far: I managed to go cold turkey for 4 days with the help of crazy work hours but then I realised that cold turkey was just silly. Now I've just chosen an elite few things that I'll do online and nothing more.

Quit Smoking
I've been smoking heavily on and off since the age of 13 and am now 21, that means that my lungs have been blackening for eight years at the very least (my first exposure to cigarettes was at the age of 10). For the first time in my life I wish I never smoked, there's enough shit on my plate without me adding cancer to it all. Well lung cancer anyway, I'm still vulnerable to skin cancer - maybe I'll sort that one out next year (not likely).

Results thus far: I've only smoked twice in the past 12 days. Once was a drag off a friend on New Year's Day and the next time was accidental because I was drunk and forgot that I had quit only to remember as I was putting my cigarette out.

"Easy With The Booze Drunky"
I love to drink. I'm sorry, I know it's horrible but I really do. It's not just one thing about drinking that I love, it's everything. I realise that this could lead to a problem one day and as a result I'm going to try and stray from planning every social event around booze. I'll also work on getting rid of my "mobile six-pack" which is a six-pack of anything available that I drive around in my car just in case. A lady is always prepared.

Results thus far: Hm, I haven't gone out of my way to have a drink but I haven't really said no to one either. The jury's still out on this one.

Get Extreme
As in extreme sports. Extreme water sports to be exact. First of all I need to get my deep sea diving license and work on getting full dive master certifications. I also want to conquer the most out-there white water rafting excursion here in Oz. Then when I've done that I'm going to do a heli dive.

Results thus far: I'm booked in to sit for my dive certifications next week so things are on track.

Gap year
I've decided that I'm not going to go straight into the field when I graduate so I'm going to take a gap year. The thing is though that I've travelled enough and I'd rather make money than spend it so I have two options:

1. Get a job at a local dive shop located in some tropical place - most likely the Great Barrier Reef - and get paid to take tourists on discovery scuba dives and supervise them as they snorkel.

2. Fulfill my lifelong dream of being a cop for a year. Perks include gun, uniform, handcuffs, driving fast and obnoxious attitude.

Results thus far Diving is kind of in the lead at the moment but we'll see if I'm good enough to get dive master certification.

We'll see how many of these changes I'll stick to and whether or not I'll end up changing more things. I guess you could actually call these "new years resolutions". I've never had those before. See, things are changing already.