Observations and Resolutions

So, firstly, I have to give Open Diary some props – I sent in a complaint to the OD staff about a privacy issue that I was having (a link to my diary showing up on Google) and they helped me solve the problem almost immediately. As someone who has not always been the first to praise the customer service of Open Diary, I have to say they did more than I expected here and I’m willing to bet far more than I would have gotten at a larger website.

Anyway, while I was trying to solve the issue I ended up rummaging through old entries that I’ve written over the years and it’s kinda fascinating the history I’ve built here. This is the 9th year that I’ve been writing on OD. So, yes, when I started I was 18 years old. Granted, it’s just a diary and most of the writing is just drivel about whatever’s going on in my life, but it’s fascinating for me at least. Perhaps most interesting is how often I now disagree with the opinions I espoused in my late teens. I’m pretty sure if I happened upon that diary now, I’d think that the guy writing it was an egomaniacal annoying twat. Granted, most of the diary was written with my tongue firmly lodged in my cheek for at least the first year and almost all the entries scream of “time killing” but I still said some pretty stupid things back then.

I suppose it’s a nice time for me to be in a reflective mood, since we’ve only recently dawned into a new year. I think my new year’s resolution should be to waste less time clicking aimlessly through facebook and, really, just to use the internet less in general. Granted, I’m not a person who thinks the internet is sending us all to hell, but I have realized that the constant availability of it is somehow making me enjoy other activities less. I need to learn to put away the laptop and allow myself to enjoy a good book or movie or basketball game without interrupting myself constantly to take a glance at facebook or ESPN.com or Yahoo! News especially considering that there is never anything actually worth looking at. It’s not that these habits are horrid (well, ok, Yahoo! News is horrid), but it’s more that they’re just not that fulfilling for the time I’m spending on them. At the very least I could absolutely check facebook once every few days and not really miss much of anything.

So, yes, 2012 for me is all about learning that life can be lived happily without constant internet usage, especially after I already used the internet all day at work. After all, I am old enough to remember not having constant access to all information at all times. Having that access now is a lovely thing, but I have to learn to filter through it all better. Starting now.

site meter

Happy New Year, Mattperson. 🙂 xo

Very, VERY scary that a link showed up on google (now I’m going to have to check). I think we all say stupid things when we are young. I put all of my entries 2077 and older on private because I don’t want new reader to read how I was then lol. I’m SO glad we didn’t have things like FB while we were in highschool (it was awkward enough).

IceGurlie

January 5, 2012

How about you resolve to write in here more? I like that resolution better.

heatherette

Agree with above noter. And see your girlfriend more.

Matt, I am with you. I really try to limit my Internet usage…and actually have easily slipped back into writing. I do check my email, Facebook, and Opendiary, but I try not check them frequently. I also have been turning off my Nook internet access so I can get some reading done. I have to clock in at my ten years/10,000 hours of writing. I have still more to read and still more to master. (c)

So, your New Year’s resolution is a wonderful one. For looking back at your diary entries, I did that a couple of years back, and I had a real hoot with myself. I’ve been writing in a journal/diary since I was in 10th grade. And let me tell you…the judgmental assessments that I made on my peers is outright funny. I was a hardcore inexperienced feminist punk…and as for the ones when I was (c)

lonely and felt unwanted, move me and makes me a little sad. I’ve changed ad lot since 10th grade. I think that people who are willing to grow and become more tolerant, accepting, and loving of others do grow…into wise individuals. So, kudos to you on being on the right path. RYN–And this ties into your comment about me admitting that I am wrong. You know, it’s never easy…but it must be (c)

done. After all, how are you supposed to know that you are flawed when you want to act like an ass and not admit that you were wrong. Besides, in a lot of ways, it feels good. I was glad that I was proven wrong because I really like and enjoy this person being in my life. And on that note, I am on the Heather bandwagon–GO SEE YOUR GIRL!!!

_ juli

January 6, 2012

r: I guess what I meant is that I need to stop viewing the bad stuff as inevitable. Yeah, my romantic life is going to suck at some points, but it will also be really good. I have a tendency to skip ahead through the pleasant parts in my head and land straight to the next break-up and then I start wondering what the point is in the first place. But I can’t do that, because if I do I’ll never be

(cont.) in another relationship and while I know I can be happy alone, I’ll be depriving myself of a different kind of happiness–even if it’s only temporary.

RYN: I did the google check before I got your note and yes I’m in the clear =) I just put a disclaimer on my last entry because I figure not many guys want to read about birth stuff lol.

michael.

January 8, 2012

My old entries are just grim and depressing and pathetic. At least you were funny. I quite like crashing on the net and ranting after a day at work, but you lot are nicely compartmentalised from my life in a way I guess facebook isn’t. And I don’t have access at work (well I have access, but no time). hope 2012 is a good one for you mate. say hi sometime.

curious dave

> Concluding that women might be better at red/green discrimination because they were more often “gatherers” is certainly a stretch. It’s true that it’s possible, but one could assert that possibility without ever performing the study. Including that information with the study just seems misleading, because it is giving an implication that the study itself suggests this, which isn’t true. Exactly what I was trying to say, but you said it more clearly and succinctly. Davo

missbrittainy

January 10, 2012

I’m back!

sayhello

January 18, 2012

wow. i can’t even imagine how you must have felt with your diary showing up like that.

January 19, 2012

Entry maybe?

Mattdaddy, add me to your friends list immediately. -Savvy