Amusing The Self

I have thought up a list of stuff for myself to do in this new year to amuse myself in the most exciting and entertaining manner possible – to torture myself by alternating between a brain and a bimbo, since stumbling across a tall, dark, veined and dimpled male charmer who can make me give up my time isn’t looking likely to occur in the very near future. We all need challenges (and sometimes it’s simply prudent to start with the small – it’s not to sell short) in life. Since yours truly dreads waiting so, she can kick ass and make happy and meaningful little things happen to herself, all by herself and with the lovely companionship of her various friends.


Beauty (Bimbo)

1. Stop the monthly $100 (apparently it’s already premium VIP regular rate) hair affair with Action, Paragon and let there be a minimal timeout of three months if I have to go. During tempting times, just go for a wash and blow anywhere to ward off the desire to chop hair.

2. Go with April to the cheap Bedok hair place that has rave reviews from friends and “experiment” (traumatic to breakup with my hairdresser, lah because I have very difficult hair and a pathological fear of any new stylist doing my hair for the first time) at least once.

3. Amass more clothes! Bags! Shoes! And maybe, glasses! And how can I forget: Earrings from Green Petals, Far East Plaza.

4. Regular-but-not-so-regular pedicure – once in every 12 weeks. Be @Dashing Diva if time permits.

5. Embrace the spa/massage experience regularly. No, I have never gone for one!

6. Go for make-up classes (I have constantly been thwarted in my attempts to sign up for them since Day 1 ie two years ago)


Technology (Brain)

There’s a woeful paucity here that I’m determined to build and beef up knowledge in (something that has never bothered me before and in fact, taking strange pride in not knowing)

1. Master all the functions on my digital camera, and comprehend all the jargon associated with decent photography.

2. Make a film short on my digital camera.

3. Take driving lessons

4. Learn Photoshop

5. Sign up for various informative accounts to better one’s circumstance to get wind of opportunity (loaded sentence).

6. Put up important links in my blog so that they can stare at me in the face balefully when I fail to click.


Wellness

1.Urgh. Urgh. I mean, run, run, at least once a week.

2. Get on my stepper and step, step for er, at least 10 mins daily (slow and steady is the key)

3. Club more (clubbing is the least tedious way to work out)

4. Play badminton on a regular basis and prove to myself I still excel at it

5. Sign up for canoe lesson and get cert

6. Swim – maybe once every six weeks in the evening?

7. erotic dance classes? :)


Reading (Brain)

1. Read the old classics that I left out previously – Vanity Fair etc and more of the postmodern and upcoming writers.

2. Read the books I have bought and never found time to read: 未央歌 and 失乐园(both since 2004). This also includes reading the St Augustine’s Confessions and all the books from that accursed module that I bought infamously in 2002 but never read.

3. Read online daily – news, blogs, philosophy

4. Read fashion and beauty magazines (and contemplate deeply whether to buy or not to buy)

5. Read my own writings

6. Read philosophy texts –Foucault, Burke (Chinyi!!! Loan me all those that you have!!!)


Writing (Brain)

1. Participate in the National Novel Writing Month
2. Submit one Chinese manuscript to publisher/s
3. Submit one English manuscript to publisher/s
4. Look actively for local openings and overseas opportunities
5. Write at least 3 shorts and 3 poems
6. well, blog?


Study (Brain)

1. My Japanese

2. academic study – options and choices


Finances (Brain)

1. Apply for credit cards – UOB’s “The Men Don’t Get it”, Citibank and possibly OCBC’s Robinson one. As it is, I still operate like a student and charge everything to my trusty debit cards.

2. Need not curb spend and bring the economy into recesses and ruination but I must keep track of every purchase item

3. Cultivate trust in internet banking

4. Cultivate trust in my own ability to sign off cheques. The last time I signed one was 5 years ago (!!!!), under the supervision of the deadened Mr Veins who gave me a 10 minute lesson in Parkway Parade’s Burger King on a new year’s morning.

5. Kick my financial advisor’s ass (she’s a very nice lady but $$$ is $$$) and milk full worth out of my unused credit

6. Earn extra $$$$


Housekeeping (brain cum bimbo)

1. Keep my table in visible condition (done!! It has previously buried under paper piles for close to a year – now to maintain it)

2. Attempt valiantly to be more domestic

3. Visit my extended families a little more often

4. Spend more time with my sis


Aspiring acquisitions (brain and bimbo)

ipod
new nokia
blue/pink Baby G
(paid-if-I-must) access to most if not all theatre productions
music lessons


It’s mostly a mundane and stating-the-obvious list. Still, writing them down creates a strong driving force actually to do them and stick to doing them. No means exhaustive certainly, but I would have a sense of accomplishment to fend off the ever, ever insistent quarterlife crisis.