I’ve never been one for New Year’s Resolutions (although I’m so consistently inconsistent there’s probably a post like this every year), but I am feeling in the mood this year, and there are some things I am specifically starting now.

I want to consume less things on a deeper level. Right now, I take in too much media on a superficial level. I see too many movies, hear too much music, and it is all processed as something disposable because, the way I’ve been doing things, it has been. On my recent holiday visit back east, I played the latest U2 album while cautiously driving through recently fallen snow, and although I’ve heard the album in bits and pieces, and know some songs better than others, it was great hearing it as a complete work. I have a lot of media that will only be improved by giving it more attention, so I want to do that.

I plan to be less of a pirate this year. I take in a lot of things I don’t pay for, and with some exceptions, I am putting an end to it. Here are the exceptions:

• Regional releases. If you’re a UK comic that doesn’t sell stuff in the US, or through iTunes, I will download what you sell in the UK. If a show airs in the UK with no plans to air or be released in the US (like the recent series Dead Set), I will watch your show. And Almodovar also needs to stop putting the US at the very tail end of his global release schedule. By the time his stuff airs here, I’ve seen it months earlier.
• Time zone shifting. If I can download an east coast rip of something that will show up on my DVR in a few hours (and I skip the commercials either way), I may still download it. This only covers shows I get on my cable, otherwise I have to buy it or stream it legally.
• You suck, and I want to know why. If you’re a Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, or somesuch, I will probably download your audiobook for free. It is for ammunition so I can converse with your followers. But I’m can’t ethically support you financially.
• If I bought the book, I may download the audiobook. I subscribe to AudibleListener, and legally purchase audiobooks on a regular basis, typically stuff I don’t need to own in hardcover. But if I buy the hardcover book, and want to bring that content with me in the real world, I’m not sure why I’m paying again, and oftentimes more. If Amazon offered a $5 surcharge for an audio download with every hardcover purchase, I’d get it. I’m not sure if this violates my first resolution (consume less things) or reinforces it (on a deeper level).
• You don’t offer your stuff in a digital format. I don’t want CDs in my house, or a lot of DVDs. So, if I can’t download it from you, I may download it from them. This goes for TV shows. If I can buy a season of, say, Dexter on iTunes, and see each episode within a few hours of it airing, then great. If I can’t, oh well, I’m not getting 90+ channels I don’t want and Showtime to do it. Also, iTunes renting is even better. I don’t need to own this stuff.
• Hassle-free reviewing. If you’re an openly gay band on a major label, and I’m not in the mood to try and find your publicist to get me a review copy of your CD, I may just download it and review it anyway. Ironically, I’ve sometimes heard from publicists after doing this, because I show up in their Google Alert, and gotten subsequent review tickets for concerts, etc.

I need to become less of a hermit. It seems like a lot of stuff I do requires nothing but me and a laptop (writing, developing websites, managing websites, Facebook, etc.) I need to figure out how to get out in the world more, either doing these things, or new things, however it happens. I also need to make sure I’m doing a lot of my activities with other people, as I do a lot of last-minute events solo.

I want to continue a healthy life-work balance. I know it’s usually work-life, but that seems backwards. Enough said.

I need to get over body issues. This is a somewhat obvious, yet somewhat misleading entry. It’s gone on far too long, and has had no positive benefit. However…

I need to finish up my healthy lifestyle. Getting over body issues doesn’t mean I am becoming a fat accepting person. My under the hood numbers are all good, but the car is admittedly still too big. I feel I’m always on some short-term thing, and not laying the groundwork for a lasting healthy lifestyle. So, this is just finishing up work that is already started, already working, and already known. I’m not putting weight loss as a goal, because it isn’t the goal, it is an end result. When I have the right life-work balance, and put care and forethought into how I live, my weight reduces anyway.

I need to get back on the market. I didn’t really date anyone in 2009, which is because of the body issues. Again, a while back, when I had the balance, and I had been losing weight naturally, all of this stuff lined up as well. It doesn’t require effort, just planning.