A Discussion on New Year’s Resolutions

listening to the Geocast Radio Network. Hello

and welcome to geek cast radio it is 2015. It

is a new year. This is episode 76 I am one of

your host Steve Joe Mike joining me is Steve

Megatron. Hello. Yo How are you pretty good?

And I'm trying to remember the last time you

were on the flagship shows with urine the who?

Wait, what the year -end show? Oh, yeah, that's

that's right. Um The last the last episode yeah,

no meant before that uh... partner program yeah

i think it was the mark who episode uh... so

yeah episode seventy six is here and uh... where

because i we figure out a way to get the year

-end show done in twenty fourteen uh... for episode

seventy five of the podcast i figured oh hey

well let's have episode seventy six in january

and talk about i don't necessarily want to call

it a trend but the phenomenon of New Year's resolutions.

It's a trend. Well, it is. They've been around

since I was born and before that. It's one of

those, it's like old wives tales. It's something

that people believe in until after it's done.

It's like old wiki tales until people change

Sweetie's Day. You know, the interesting thing

for me when I went to prep for this, basically

Steve and I are just going to have a discussion

on whether we make New Year's resolutions, some

of the ones we've made in the past, and whether

we will continue or if we've lived up to our

New Year's resolutions. But just to do some prep

for this, I actually looked it up on Wikipedia

to see what kind of things happen in history

as far as New Year's resolutions. obviously it's

most common here in the western hemisphere it

is also found in the eastern hemisphere in which

a person makes a promise to do an act of self

-improvement or something slightly uh... nice

such as opening doors for people beginning from

new year's day uh... it does have a few religious

origins this is the interesting part for me because

i did not know this at the time Babylonians made

promises to their gods at the start of each year

that they would return borrowed objects and pay

their debts. The Romans began each year by making

promises to the god Janus whom the month of January

is named. In the medieval era the knights took

the peacock vow at the end of the Christmas season

each year to reaffirm the commitment to chivalry.

The peacock vow sounds like something that NBC

would do. It's more like a turkey over there,

even though it's, you know. Yeah. At watch -night

services, many Christians prepare for the year

ahead by praying and making these resolutions.

There are other religious parallels to this tradition

during Judaism's New Year Rosh Hashanah. Through

the high holidays and culminating in Yom Kippur,

the day of atonement, one is to reflect upon

one's wrongdoings over the year and both seek

and offer forgiveness. People may act similarly

during Christian liturgical season of Lent, though

the motive behind this holiday is more of sacrifice

than of responsibility. found this funny that

they even listed this but I guess it has to go

along with the the accuracy or whatever for the

article but they actually list some popular goals

on here improve physical well -being eat healthy

food lose weight exercise more eat better drink

less alcohol quit smoking stop biting nails get

rid of old bad habits improve mental well -being

improve finances Don't we all wish that would

come true? Um, you know, so those kinds of things

As a kid, do you remember ever making any New

Year's resolutions? I always thought about doing

them and then I was like Like as a kid not really

but as a like teenager I was like, yeah, I'm

gonna do this and that and never did I can't

remember the life of me Whatever they were because

I'm sure they were trippy trivial and stupid

But yeah, I really didn't do anything like that

until I Became an adult Yeah for me is the same

kind of thing like if I was doing poorly in school

by the Christmas break I would make a news New

Year's resolution date to do better in school

the next year throughout the rest of the school

year But yeah, I never really I never really

kept any of them obviously the school one yeah

but I mean like I never really made any as a

kid as an adult I really don't either I mean

other than it being a new year New Year's Day

to me is just another day it's not really like

it's not really a holiday for me I don't know

I'm trying to think in my adult life when the

last time I made one was it's probably 15 years

ago in 2000, maybe? I don't know. What about

you as an adult? I had the possible want to do

it a few years ago on a few things. One of them

being I'm going to stop drinking pop. I will

say that I did make it about a month and a half

before I Snapped and couldn't take it anymore

Yeah It was it was kind of funny I'll say that

but it I was drinking just about everything other

than pop at that point and It just there was

a point where I just I couldn't do it anymore.

I Had to go back to it. It kept me sane Yeah,

it's like it's like I equate it to being alcohol

for my my brain without actually drinking alcohol

Yeah, that is true I find for me nowadays I can

I Usually can drink pop with most salty kind

of foods like chips and you know savory kind

of foods and everything else but when it gets

to You know something sweet like a cookie or

you know something like that or a pie I need

milk or something You know I drink a lot of soda

and That's right, it's soda to you it's it's

soda I Drink a lot of it, but I find now that

I need to spread it out throughout the month

Like each month like I probably buy four 24 packs

a month And I'll spread that out over 30, 31

days, whatever it is. But now I find myself almost

35 years old, drinking more milk and orange juice

than anything else. You're old. Yeah, I know.

Thank you. I thought I'd remind you. Like I need

that? I know. I'm trying to think of other resolutions.

Like losing weight and that kind of thing I used

to make that resolution all the time, but it

would never happen You know I or even even making

the New Year's resolution of eating better it

you know never happen And I guess nowadays they

kind of you know pretty much force you to eat

better in certain you know in certain ways like

everything is low sodium now and everything is

this and everything is that and everything is

sugar -free and you know it's like oh my god

I can't we all just be like the you know I can't

you guys I can't the government just let us be

like that we were in Wally but anyway that's

a good thing but good well I was gonna say that

um the intentions there but unfortunately the

cost of healthier products isn't there to actually

support that. It's cheaper to buy pop or bags

of chips or cookies or any of that kind of stuff

over actually getting the healthier foods that

are actually made to allow you to have that splurge

without having the... As much guilt for having

shoved it down your pie hole So in that in that

sense like it makes it difficult like it you

either have to You know spend more money You

know, it's it's kind of like the difference between

Buying the meat and the store that's less fat

compared to the regular meat or You know the

cereals that are that are non sugary and and

have all this healthy crap in them and compared

to You know like buying your Chocolate or cocoa

puffs or yeah, just anything really so yeah,

you know The funny thing is and I know we're

kind of veering off of New Year's resolutions

here folks, but the funny thing is My mom and

I are trying to make more We're trying to get

in the habit of buying more stuff to make an

actual meal so we can have, instead of buying

six frozen pizzas, we'll buy, shut up, don't

laugh. I wasn't laughing, I was breathing. Oh,

I thought you were snickering at me. I was like,

what the hell? you know instead of buying six

or seven frozen pizzas we'll buy two or three

or four hamburger helper things and you know

a couple pounds of hamburger and and do that

meal or you know buy stuff for spaghetti or you

know that kind of thing and what I've found is

it's just as expensive as it would be if we just

bought all frozen dinners like frozen dinners

or frozen pizzas or whatever in our grocery stores

range from $2 .50 to $5, $6, $7 a piece for the

frozen stuff and you know you can buy a pound

of hamburger for five bucks and buy you know

a thing a hamburger helper for two or three dollars,

that's an eight dollar meal right there, and

you can at least get three and a half, four meals

out of that one box of one pound of hamburger.

But it's so funny, every single time we come

home from the grocery store and I look in the

refrigerator or the freezer, the first thing

I say is, what the hell did we buy? Because it

doesn't seem like we have anything, even though

we spent this, you know, you know. This money

usually our grocery bill is anywhere between

50 and 90 dollars each time we go and we go like

twice a month Yeah getting back to New Year's

resolutions Am to the point now where I am so

I'm not totally inactive because obviously I

take the dog out and I do the trash and everything

else but Doing that and you know taking care

of you know going over and doing the laundry

and that kind of thing That to me is my exercise

I can't actually go out I haven't been able to

go out and probably two summers or so that I've

lived here in this apartment Used to be able

to go out and just walk around our little cul

-de -sac sidewalk thing to actually just get

some exercise But I do so much other crap that

it's like I'm already exercising. Why do I need

to do more? Yeah, I'm I Mean, I've tried making

resolutions. Like I said before I just it's not

one of those reasonable things that I can actually

stick with it I don't know if it's because I

don't want to or because I'm too lazy to actually

carry it out I keep myself pretty busy anyhow,

so a lot of the stuff that I probably could give

up, like excess junk food or the pop or the caffeine

or stuff like that, I probably could cut it out

if I really manage to break the habit, but it's

one of those things that I enjoy too much. I

just can't do it. But I've gotten to the point

where I don't ... buy like I used to be terrible

about buying stuff and Part of it's my wife but

part of it's just cuz I realized that Usually

after Christmas around that time there's a bunch

of stuff I want and Sometimes after and then

I've kind of just made like just a mental note

to myself not to splurge on anything Kind of

quasi to do with with like the resolutions thing,

but it's not really like because of New Year's.

It's just a personal resolution, which I think

that that would be a better thing to set as a

personal resolution rather than, oh, it's New

Year's. It's, you know, start a new year. Let's

do this because of this instead of, you know,

because mostly what the New Year's resolution

kind of feels like is I feel guilty for screwing

up last year. So it's a new year. Let's do it

different. And then 95 % of people don't actually

change. Myself included. That's the one thing

I've never understood about New Year's resolutions.

They're funny here. We sit here and we sit here

and we rack our brains on what we can do to improve

upon ourselves each year. and you know we think

we're going good we're doing everything we're

supposed to be doing and then we come to realize

by the you know by october of the new year we

haven't really changed anything um so i guess

um I knew this wasn't going to be a long show,

folks, because neither one of us really make

New Year's resolutions anymore. I guess I'll

ask the audience, I'll ask the listeners, comment

on the episode post, guys and gals, and let us

know what New Year's resolutions you've made

in the past, if you continue to do them today,

as far as making them, and also tell us how long

it took you to break a New Year's resolution.

Yeah, that'd be interesting to find out. Yeah,

that'd be really interesting. Alright, so some

housekeeping stuff at the end of this episode

here. We've got the second annual GCR Awards

going right now. The submissions are open until

January 31st. You have to fill in at least 50

% or more of the form. You know, it's basically,

you know, write in what you think your favorite

or your best... movie, you know, it has movie

categories, it has TV categories, it has a game

category, it has a bunch of categories for comics,

it has a category for GCR and Core podcast, review

podcast, and it has the partner podcast and stuff

like that. So go check that out. We wrapped up

on the video game character tournament. I want

to preface the awards thing though, saying that

this is only the... the qualifying round for

the top fives. It's not the actual voting. This

is just to get things on the ballot for the top

five. Once that happens, then we'll move on from

there and see what happens in the actual voting

round, which will be in February. But yeah, again,

I can't say any more than you've already said

that. Please fill out more than. 50 % of the

form when you're doing it. I have had people

fill out like one to two I can't even say two

there have been people that have done like the

entire form or you know at least 75 % of it and

then there have been people that have filled

out for one thing Which it was a syndicated issue

I only say that because It's kind of detracting

from the rest of the freaking form if you're

not using the whole form. I would put required

on it, except for the fact that there are some

things that somebody may not know anything about.

Yeah, I mean, because I almost feel bad not allowing

them. But at the same time, I don't want a bunch

of of just because they're fans of this one thing.

Oh, we're going to show up here and vote for

just that and then leave everything else. Let's

see. Here's the thing, folks. This is about.

you know, us honoring stuff that we loved in

2014. This is stuff from the past year, what

we thought was the best in movies, comics, TV,

games, whatever. And it's an unbiased form, being

that it's all done by me. Yeah, yeah. It's not

like we're giving you a choice here. We're not

giving you a drop -down menu on the movies, TV,

games, and in comics. You write in what you want

to say is your favorite. So there's that. As

I said earlier, we finished up the GCR Wars video

game character tournament. There will be more

wars coming. We will be having... It's going

to be back dated to last year because it kind

of has to be, but we will have a new episode

of GCR and Retro on this feed. Episode 3 of GCR

and Retro was 1984 where Optimus Solo and I talked

about all things 1984. We will have several.

I don't know how many right now. There's two

on the docket for GCR and Retro for 2015. I'm

not sure if Retro is going to stay around because

it takes Optimus Solo specifically. He does a

wonderful job with it. uh... it takes him a long

time to get the scripts together and all the

information and everything else and uh... and

all that stuff so retro may not be around long

but i figured we could at least do a couple here

and there uh... coming up on gcr after this episode

in episode seventy seven uh... i actually got

a chance to sit down with uh... Nate Crocker

and Matthew Fridley of Weekend at the Movies

here on GCRN and we had a nice little discussion

so you're going to hear that. uh... in episode

seventy seven episode seventy eight and i'm sure

wal -mart and i'm so sorry uh... and so seventy

eight and they will bring in the wreck and deals

the vote from the showtime synergy podcast that

we do and they've also been in the poll by a

couple of times and we're just going to do a

random fandom part two episode kinda like what

steven i did way back uh... in episode sixty

four of the podcast where we just talk about

random topics and just have cool fun discussions

Episode 79 of GCR, which I know you're going

to want to be in on, is Comedians We Love and

Hate. So that's going to be an interesting episode.

And then episode 80 in March will be us revealing

the winners of the second annual GCR Awards.

And after that, I'm not really sure what's going

to be going on in GCR. I've got several ideas

that I've got rattling around in my head. And,

you know, it's gonna be a really, really great

year. We've got the top 100 video games, top

100 favorite video games coming up this summer.

So we've got that going on. We just have a whole

bunch of stuff coming for you guys this year.

Anything else you would like to bring up, sir?

Uh, no, I think that's it. All right, well unleash

the geek in you and we will catch you next time

It's showtime synergy the latest review podcast

from the geek cast radio network is here So join

TFG one Mike Nicole hailstorm and myself lady

rec as we will be reviewing all 65 episodes of

John the holograms in a 25 episode long podcast

You can find Showtime Synergy on iTunes and geekcastradio

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