ornoth | Friday Five #49

Sigh. The predictability hurts us.

What was your biggest accomplishment this year?: Probably the thing I’m most proud of is succeeding at raising $3,555 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through my participation in this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge ride. Other noteworthy accomplishments include biking up several hills, including Evans Notch, Great Blue Hill, Mount Wachusett, South Uncanoonuc, and Pack Monadnock; the progress I’ve made getting back into writing for DargonZine; and my exploration of Buddhism.
What was your biggest disappointment?: Oddly, the PMC also provides my biggest disappointment of the year, when I crashed out of the event and had to go to the hospital to get stitches. My other cycling disappointment was bonking hard on the way back from a ride to Gloucester. I was also disappointed in that I only had enough submissions to send out five issues of DargonZine this year, and we lost several of our veteran writers and my close personal friends, including Victor, Pam, Bryan, Stu, and Rhonda.
What do you hope the new year brings?: The obvious and biggest desire is a new job. Other than that, I hope that the DargonZine crew can finish up the big story arc we began writing at the 2003 Summit, so that I have it to print this year.
Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? If yes, what will they be?: I don’t think so. I just finished making two birthday resolutions (regular Buddhist meditation, and transitioning to skim milk), so I don’t think I need additional resolutions. Maybe I’ll eat a little less red meat, since that would probably be the next logical step in improving my diet, but I don’t think that’s big enough to make it a resolution.

I will say that I find it disappointing that although people always ask what new resolutions you’re making, they absolutely never ask how well you kept your old ones. As someone with some actual strength of will, I find it sad that most people fail to control themselves and honor their commitments. I think I’ve kept all my resolutions for the past three years (and they haven’t been “gimmes” at all).
What are your plans for New Year's Eve?: I was thinking maybe I’d go to the Lizard Lounge to see Flynn, but probably I’ll stay home. I haven’t bothered cultivating many friends, and I’m so not the party type.

As for reducing red meat.. well, just repeat this several times a day - "Mad Cow, Mad Cow, Mad Cow!" I know you don't watch tv, but perhaps you have seen on some internet news report that they found a case of Mad Cow disease in Seattle in the last few days. ::shudder:: You know, just switching to organic meat or "all natural/no added chemicals" would 'improve your diet' because you'd be reducing a lot of extra additives and bovine growth hormones, et. al.

Well, I’m really not that concerned about the chemical and hormone content. I’m a little concerned about BSE, just because, like HIV, its incubation period is long enough to allow an outbreak to spread unchecked for years. But the biggest factor in my consideration is simple nutrition. Most Americans far exceed their protein needs, and red meats are fattier than white. Now that I’m taking my cycling seiously, I’m particularly concerned about my fat intake, which is also the reason for some of my previous years’ resolutions (cutting down on cheese, ice cream, whole milk, et cetera).

Friday Five #49

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