So I've always been kind of confused by the tradition of New Year's resolutions. I get that it's a new year, and maybe you want to do something differently, but why do it only once a year? And why don't we do it on our birthdays, since it's another year of your existence, or on Christmas, because Jesus died for your sins and you're probably correcting your sins with your resolutions anyway. (Dieting falls into this category, because gluttony is a sin. Yes, that means that all fat people are going to hell. Jesus hates fat people.)
I thought about making New Year's resolutions, but I didn't. I didn't make any resolutions because I know that I'll forget them in a couple months and continue doing things like I always do. This is the problem with society. We don't collectively remember things. People were like, "Oh my god, the Holocaust was terrible because the Nazis hated the Jews. We should all be nice to each other, so things like the Holocaust don't happen," then they forgot, and now people hate each other and there're genocides in Africa and people killing each other in the Middle East and everyone is acting like a bunch of d-bags. Everyone needs to chill out and love other people more. The United Nations should mandate that everyone needs to New Year's resolve to chill out and love people more so the problem people wouldn't listen to them and things wouldn't change very much.
I kind of vaguely remember being afraid of the world collapsing upon itself nine years ago, when we were all afraid that the entire technological infrastructure of the world would fall apart because none of it was prepared to increment 1999 to 2000. I was sitting in California, watching Dick Clark and his fake tan talk about how great Christina Aguilera is, genuinely afraid that the TV might blink out and I would be left in a technological void. Even though it was past midnight in pretty much every other time zone in the world, and the transition had gone without problems. People are stupid.
I watched Bucket List today, which is a pretty mediocre movie, but the premise is good. This doesn't have anything to do with the movie, but rather a question that Jack Nicholson's character asked. In the context of the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, he asked (something along the lines of), "What does a snail have to do to move up after it dies?" I think that Buddhism is a pretty good religion in terms of not causing any wars and having people be generally pretty nice to each other, but Jack Nicholson had a point. I don't think that a snail can lead a good or bad life. The same thing goes for most creatures that have no responsibility besides themselves. Snails don't have kids to feed. Snails don't have vices. They can't be drunks and beat up their wives, nor can they cure cancer or establish humanitarian institutes or help little old lady snails cross the street (partly because there's no way for a snail to effectively help another snail, but mostly because snails are hermaphrodites).
On another note, I don't understand the grammatical structure of New Year's Day. Am I wrong to think that it should be New Year Day? It's not like Veterans' Day, where it's a day for veterans (and thusly in their possession). It's more like Arbor Day, where but we're celebrating a new year instead of trees. Maybe it follows from New Year's Eve, which is the eve of the new year, which actually makes sense. Maybe I'm just blowing hot air. Or typing hot words. But by the same logic, Christmas day would become Christmas' day, because it's the day of Christmas.
Resolution #31: Stop nitpicking.
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