What Are Your New Year's Resolutions?

On January 01 2013 22:11 Diader wrote:
Go on a motorcycle trip through southeast asia. The original plan was to buy a motorcycle in in Kuala Lumpur and then sell it in Hanoi before flying back to the states. We'll see what the final plan is.

On January 01 2013 22:53 Stratos wrote:
Practice BW at least 2hrs/day. See where that takes me in like half a year, hopefully at least D+ finally LOL.

On January 02 2013 00:19 NeverGG wrote:
~ Lose more weight.
~ Become more active as an anime/manga fan.
~ Finish each drama/anime/manga I start.
~ Save up to visit Japan again/move out into my own place again.

On January 01 2013 22:42 Enders116 wrote:
Get famous. Quit Smoking.

On January 01 2013 22:15 ibanez wrote:
GPA 7.0 (highest on our scale)
Swim more often

On January 01 2013 18:36 danmooj1 wrote:
improve myself as a human being. but then again, i never keep my New Year's resolutins

On January 01 2013 16:48 Paintbrush wrote:
I want to buy my first house!

On January 01 2013 16:10 TylerThaCreator wrote:
Finally get in gm

On January 01 2013 18:05 Azera wrote:
What are YOUR resolutions?

On January 02 2013 00:19 NeverGG wrote:
~ Lose more weight.
~ Become more active as an anime/manga fan.
~ Finish each drama/anime/manga I start.
~ Save up to visit Japan again/move out into my own place again.

Losing more weight is definitely an awesome goal. It helps you feel light on your feet, more confident, and generally awesome. Of course, chicks dig it too. How are you planning to do it? I think it would be a good idea to figure out your way of achieving it, along with a good concrete goal now, and commit to that. Otherwise, like me you may put it off for a few months and be like "well, I didn't actually say how much weight I wanted to lose" haha.

Out of curiosity, why did you make it your resolution to watch MORE anime? What are the gains that you think doing this would give you? Generally, many people make it their resolution to get away from their TVs and computers, and to become more active.

On January 09 2013 21:01 NeverGG wrote:


LOL, since I'm a 'chick' myself I'm not really bothered about what other women think. It's a personal choice, so that I don't open myself up to further health risks in the future. I'm working on my diet at the moment, but the main thing is to stop meal skipping and get into a good pattern of eating.

I've got quite a physical/active job at the moment so when I come home I want to relax. I chose more anime because want to become more involved with my friends online who are watching the same titles. Plus it's just something I enjoy. I don't own a TV, so that's not an issue. I've also got pretty limited finances since I'm saving up for certain things, so given the cost of getting around in Britain it's just easier to stay home at the moment.

Sorry, I assumed you're male because of the site we're on. My bad. :/ Luckily, guys are in to that even more than girls, I think, so that's even better!

Ah yeah, health was the third thing that should have been in there, but I forgot it so I put in feeling awesome.

For the second part, I feel you there.

On January 03 2013 08:46 WarSame wrote:

Whoa, that sounds amazing! Why did you decide on SEA? I was considering a similar type of trip when I graduate University, but I figured that Western Europe would be a pretty good destination. SEA definitely would be interesting, though. Of course, you know you have to take pictures and write a blog for us here!

On January 10 2013 04:23 Kashmir wrote:
Quit smoking,
Lead a healthier lifestyle,
Learn to be more spontaneous instead of trying to plan for every eventuality,
Save hard for 2014 family reunion in Rarotonga,
Be kind.

On January 14 2013 06:46 Diader wrote:


Well, I've visited Malaysia a couple times, worked in Cambodia for several months, and traveled through Vietnam (some parts by motorcycle) and just really like the area and I want to see and experience more, especially Thailand since I haven't been there yet, and motorcycles/motorbikes are the primary means of transportation in that region. Plus I'd like to visit many of the people I met in the places I've already been.

I'm really lazy about posting pictures, though. The trip is this summer, and the blog will probably come out like a year from now

On January 14 2013 13:30 WarSame wrote:

Ah, come on dude! You've got to post pictures of that, even if just a few. Literally, when you see a cool sight, take in the moment and enjoy it, and then think of poor WarSame stuck in dreary southern Ontario. Have pity!

The idea of exploring on a motorbike is awesome. Like in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenace, it allows you to interact with the environment, rather than look at a display through a car window.

How did you originally get to work in Cambodia? What sort of job was it, and how did you get it? What are the people you know there/how do you know them? Are they English speaking, or have you learned some of the SEA languages?

On January 14 2013 13:51 KingDime wrote:
-Getting back into shape, have a schedule that includes going 4 times a week to the gym and lane swimming.
-To constantly progress with my school marks. Got a 3.14 last semester but I still want to one up that this term.
-Get into gm atleast once playing with my new race terran (Swapped from toss to terran)

On January 14 2013 20:59 Diader wrote:


I'll post them eventually, don't worry, just give me some time!

Yeah exactly. Most of the travel I did would be on a bus, and I'd just have to watch things go by, but I always really wanted to just be able to say or think "Hey, let's find a way up to that temple on the top of that hill" or "I wonder what's down that path, let's check it out" or "That restaurant is really busy, it must be good, let's go there!".

At an internship I did the previous summer at an investment bank, I came across the website of this private equity firm in Cambodia and thought it looked really interesting, and I noticed in their newsletter that they had accepted some interns, so I took note of the name of the firm and then a couple months later contacted them about a summer internship. After several follow-ups I finally pestered them into a Skype interview, and then got invited to come out and work with one of their portfolio companies, a brewery (nice!) where I did an assortment of different tasks, the highlights being overseeing construction of a party bus and contacting beer importers/distributors worldwide to expand the breweries' export business.

The people I know are a fair mix of expats and locals that I met through work, swing dancing, a running/drinking club I joined, or just out and about doing things in Phnom Penh; live music, art galleries, Nerd Night presentations (where I did one on StarCraft), and just hanging out. They're all English speaking, I haven't learned any SEA languages (yet!), but some time in the next 10-15 years I'd really like to spend some more time in HCMC or Hanoi and learn Vietnamese.

On January 14 2013 22:12 Ianuus wrote:
-1080p
- Learn some basic programming languages
- Learn Tai Chi (already well underway)
- Practise more cello
- Learn the Goldberg Variations (this one's been bugging me for a while now)
- Start a Warhammer painting blog and actually keep it up to date
- Train my parrot to do cool tricks
- 4.0 GPA equivalent (been around the edges for the past 4 years now by just cruising; time to pick it up and actually do some work, since it's my last year and I'm doing all my favourite subjects)
- Learn how to cook
- Work out a way to wear my monocle (Asian, so don't really have eye sockets)

Ok, ok, glad I got you to promise it at least. :D

You paint a cool picture of motorcycle exploring.

Nice. That sounds like a very sweet job. Working at a brewery, constructing a party bus is a college dream job. I'm mad jealous haha. The moral here would be that persistence definitely pays off, I feel.

That brings up another question - how did you end up getting into those things? Did you get introduced to them through work, or did you find them by yourself? Currently, I'm trying to find some activities that aren't gaming with not a whole ton of success, but you did that despite the language problems. Do you have any advice?

On January 16 2013 17:01 Diader wrote:



Most of them I found by myself. I've been swing dancing for a couple years now, and just googled "swing dancing phnom penh" before I even e-mailed that pe firm to make sure there was a group there. No matter what city you live in, there will probably be several places to learn salsa or tango, and then possibly a place or a couple places for swing. It's really fun, and don't worry if you can't dance; that's the point of learning

The running club I found from the Phnom Penh wikitravel, but it's an international club with "kennels" worldwide called Hash House Harriers, so you can check that out as well.

Everything else...I really don't quite remember how I found them. Just from meeting people around, I guess; Phnom Penh has a small but very active and friendly expat community, and it was just easy to meet people who accepted me into their circle and filled me in on stuff that was going on.

My advice for you is to just brainstorm anything you've ever thought was cool and see if you can learn how to do it in your city. I really recommend some kind of social dance, or you can try, I don't know, glass blowing, rock climbing, going to various open-mic nights for comedy, music, poetry, whatever (and building up courage to participate someday), volunteering for some cause or local group, trying as many restaurants as you can and reviewing them on yelp...anything, man. GLHF!

On January 14 2013 13:30 WarSame wrote:
Those are admirable resolutions. We share 3/5 of them. Could you please tell me how you plan to work on being more kind? Being healthier is pretty self-explanatory, but being more kind is something that seems to be very difficult to work towards for me. I've been trying to hold a more positive view point and remove all negative thoughts as soon as I recognize them, but that's taking a while and isn't working 100%. If you have a better method, I'd love to hear it! The same question applies to being more spontaneous. That one is even less apparent to me.

Good luck on making it to the Rarotonga reunion. I checked it out on Wikipedia and that place looks amazing! Did you grow up there? Is it as awesome as it looks?