The usual--get my fat ass in shape, eat better, drink less (well, at least a little).
Get a job or start making money to support my family in some other way.
I actually don't have any resolutions myself because this year will be filled with plenty of big changes myself, and I think I'd like to just take it as it goes.
I have no idea what to do with myself this year.
Blog more in 2009.
Ski more.
Get Newton quality handwriting recognition on my iPhone.
Drink better.
Do not take three steps further toward being an old curmudgeon; viz Marsalis on kids these days.
All my new years resolutions sound too self-pitying to state here.
This is a really good idea, if you're up for a challenge.
I have trouble relating to the link in 8. I like my routines very much, and generally don't feel plagued by having insufficient new stimulus.
Doing my 30 minute yoga DVD at least 3 times a week.
Getting off the T a couple of stops early to walk more.
Losing 6 to 14 pounds. I gained it very quickly when I went on the pill.
Trying to include more beans in my diet.
The famous anti-Pythagorean diet.
Rebuild my core body strength. I'm convinced that everything else will follow.
For example: I'll then reglue the backing magnets to the fronting decorative doohickeys they belong to for the fridge magnets. This will allow me to stick receipts and such on the side of my metal filing cabinet, which will result in a partial clearing of my desk.
Oh, wait, perhaps I'll do that in the odd spare moment anyway!
What will also follow: more cooking. More planting.* More preservation.** Rearrangement of the house. Dare I say: cleaning, and disposing of extraneous things. (Anyone want 40-odd boxes of unwanted books?)
What will further follow: oh, maybe a dental appointment, a resumption of dating, a complete overhaul of my computer -- this may happen regardless -- and a long, hard look at my financial affairs (dread, shudder).
It's amazing what follows from the most basic thing.
* There's a side project afoot with Matt the farmer at the local CSA to begin growing shiitake mushrooms on logs.
** I would like to preserve lemons, or is it lemon peels. A while back I encountered a cookbook or three strongly advising this, though I'm not sure which of the cookbooks those were. But I'd also like a root cellar, and to reestablish a cold frame. Dreams. Oh, and more sex would be good.
I will accept as many old books, on any topic, as people care to give me for free. I don't want to pay a lot for shipping, though.
I am in such a rut that it is impossible for me to practically envision any changes to my life. I mean, I know there are things that I could change. For instance, I could stop hoarding books. I could get more exercise and learn Chinese! But doing any of those things would require adjusting other parts of my life, and I'm not really motivated to do that.
I have one project that would be helped by a resolution to finish it, and that is to rewrite this paper that I've been sitting on for over two years. (This is a situation a lot like Heebie's long overdue paper for the Journal of Stupidity and Math.) But even here the main variable isn't my resolve, but how much time I can afford away from other things.
I would like to preserve lemons, or is it lemon peels.
Lemons.
You have children (a child?), rob, so it's only understandable.
The books are such a miscellany -- I really have to resort them. You don't want dreck, and while I've gotten rid of most of the utter dreck, there's still a miscellany of, well, possible junk. I'm on the verge of donating the lot. In the spring. It's just overcoming the inertia that's kept me from it.
Get another tooth pulled. Move to Portland. Buy enough bookshelves. Possibly: dress more presentably and make new friends. Self-publish my second book.
For the record, I went to bet at 9:30 on NYE and drank less than usual, and will drink nothing today. Basically we got iced in. Tomorrow I buy salt and some tools to clear the driveway.
Oh god, this paper. Yes, I do have resolutions after all. But it's a two week resolution, not a whole year resolution because that would make me cry.
I've been very dilligent about working on it for at least two appointments per day. I'm now knee deep in the part I hate the most. I hate this part so, so much. It's painfully technical and tedious, and worst of all I feel like I'm totally plagiarizing it.
So, this paper is a generalization of a paper by A Nice Man who I know from conferences. There is plenty of new stuff, but a big sticky theorem carries through with pretty much no modification to the new context.
A Nice Man mistakenly left his name on the saved file of his comments that he sent to the editor, so I happen to know that he's also the referee for my paper. Anonymously as the referee, A Nice Man told me explicitly to include all the gorey details, instead of referring the reader to his own paper.
Writing up the details from A Nice Man's paper to re-submit them right back to A Nice Man feels like the stupidest exercise in futility ever. And yet, it's hard to make it readable under my notation and context, so I'm also struggling with it even though the math is identical.
I'm also fighting the urge to make every other sentence, "We wish to emphasize that the following is totally [ANM]'s idea and we have contributed nothing and feel like a total shmuck here."
I have two children: girl, 6, boy 3.
Actually, I have plenty of new years resolutions for them. I'd like them to sleep in their own bed overnight. I'd like them to learn to play together nicely. On the other hand, I'd also like it if I could shit pure gold.
Although it definitely makes it better, not worse, that the referee is A Nice Man.
Although it definitely makes it better, not worse, that the referee is A Nice Man.
Yes, that is so much better! No one else could be remotely as trusted to advise you on this issue.
Explain that you're pregnant and that rejection or harsh criticism may harm the baby.
Actually "even the least little bit of well-intended criticism".
18: I thought you had two. Okay!
As for the shitting pure gold, hey, the standard wisdom: breathe. There will be no moments like these with your kids. Snapshot. Don't forget to breathe, and the rut is a passing, just another passing in all this? Maybe?
Gold is ductile but I still wouldn't want to shit it.
If gold is in your colon, I think it best that you evacuate it.
And when you come right down to it, the purer the better.
Then again, it might help you with rheumatism
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good! And all that.
Can I say that it took me some time when I first encountered this blog to understand the meaning of that phrase. I fought it. I still do.
I resolve to restore order to my household, if not to my mind; to send Josh and Magpie their wine, and parsimon her Radiohead; to read the Icelandic sagas; and to start baking bread. That ought to be plenty. Anything else will be gravy.
29. If it's any comfort, I first resolved to read the sagas 40 years ago. Still haven't.
You might read them one at a time, starting with Njal. They are of varying interest and quality. I've read two (King Harald's Saga being the second.) Judging by that one, the historical sagas are of lesser interest.
Start baking bread! Forgot that one, though it's filed under preservation.
OFE! Yay!
I have resolved to make a serious attempt at finding a different job and to empty, organize and decorate the den.
No . . . Jesus definitely needs to make bread! CA keeps threatening to build an oven in our backyard.
I don't really do resolutions, but I do have some goals for the near future, including getting some serious work done on my new blog and finding a good job when my internship ends. Getting into grad school is pretty much out of my hands at this point, but it would certainly be nice.
The set I have starts with the exploration sagas (Erik the Red's and the Greenlanders'), which are fairly short, and then Egil's, which is monumental, like Njal's. I should know by the end of that one if my intentions are realistic.
Njal's really is gripping, with a nice combination of weirdness and plausibility, and characters like Grim and Glum (who are about what you would guess from their names) and murderous, very liberated women driving the plot. Seriously, reading Njal is not a duty.
Start baking bread! Forgot that one, though it's filed under preservation.
You're preserving flour?
I enjoyed the exploration sagas, and while Mowat's Westviking is dated, it's still fun. I think it might be better to read Mowat before the sagas . . .
I had resolved to make several small terrariums, and today I did. Good work, me!
38: Just saving, saving money. Self-preservation.
I am resolved to finally and completely quit my stupid job forever. And if it has to be during the worst time to look for work in my adult life, then it has to be.
Need to work on my physical and emotional health too, but hopefully that will follow from quitting the job.
I have another resolution for the children. I resolve that the children will stop monkeying near the computer.
Stop it! Go monkey someplace else!
42: Get 'em to lay you off--then you can get unemployment. The job market is bleak, dude.
Make them into soup, Rob. It always worked for me.
Another thing, in our CULTURE people wear CLOTHING to DINNER! Stop...stop being naked near the food with your penis!
48 was actually my little nudity hang up, not Molly's.
buy jade, get braces, finish what i'm doing, go home, marry, have kids
You also need to write a book in Russian called my life and travels, which Hat will translate.
oh, why he? i thought he's totally ignoring me
"In the United States, masturbating to images of dead people is taboo. Nobody ever does any work, and they spend all their time on the internet, chatting aimlessly and insulting their President. "
Probably not him, come to think of it. He's been sort of annoying about this. Someone here will translate it.
1. Get my weight down to 190.
2. Finish data collection and have "a story." Start writing.
3. Spend less time aimlessly wandering the Internet.
4. Do something in my free time that puts me in the company of others who would be receptive to friendly interaction with me.
5. Run a sub-3:30 marathon.
6. Find someone who is interested in copulating with me, and with whom I am interested in copulating, and copulate.
7. Less TV.
3, 4, and 6 are pretty generic, Otto. So is 1, except for the number. In my case it would be 170, which would still be a little high.
I sense a trend. Like several people my resolution is to be more disciplined about exercise/stretching and maybe even start going to the gym.
Happy new year everybody.
For Otto, for the Red Queen, and for me, the copula is fated always to be a "was" and a "will be", never an "is".
56: What can I say? My desires are those of the masses. That is why I understand them so well.
Oh, and:
8. Regularly prepare food using a kitchen appliance that is not the microwave.
No copula at all in Chinese. Fact.
I forgot to mention: Finish writing some of the literally dozens of things I have half-finished. I have short half-finished pieces that are parts of longer half-finished sections of half-finished books.
Oh, I should also resolve to drink more moderately, and stop drinking before I get to the point of embarassing myself in front of mortified 22 year-olds. But I probably won't.
Just pick a piece and write half of the remaining text each day. You'll be done in no time!
I want to stop saying "I'm sorry" reflexively. Other than that, I'm grateful for a high degree of satisfaction and happiness, and hope to maintain it while achieving a few things professionally/creatively.
I have half a mind to start blogging semi-non-pseudonymously, but I like being Wrongshore.
Happy 2009, one and all. I wrote my first check of the new year and got the year right, so I know it's gonna be a good one.
Cook and eat more veggie stuff
learn some spanish
run a 10k moderately fast
swim at least twice a week
be more patient
finish that darn Marshall biography
help my son get in better shape
stay strong enough to pick up my daughter and carry her when needed
"....stop drinking before I get to the point of embarassing myself in front of mortified 22 year-olds. "
I've found that avoiding 22 year olds is easier. Or finding 22 year olds who are less prone to mortification.
I almost never make resolutions, but this year I promised a friend I would write one non-work-related piece a month for the whole year. I'm already nervous about managing it.
In other news, I realize I've been living under a rock of noncommerical radio, but what is this horrible new (?) trend of the recorded DJ on pop music stations announcing every single $^&!(%!$^! song title/artist name in this bizarre phrasing that is halfway between a question and a statement? "That's Billy Joel!? Still Rock 'n' Roll To Me--!... The BACKstreet Boys. I Want it THAT Way!"
I can't reproduce the punctuation but the artificiality of it has to be heard to be believed. It's dangerous that I'm armed with a metal scraper; my windows will be in great danger if I can't find a better station or the public one doesn't stop doing their endless year-end countdowns.
I agree with John. Njal's saga is an easy read, full of action. For example, a few of the characters decide they want to see the world, see they become Vikings.
Grettir's saga and the Lakdaela saga are also good.
AHA! I am stuck for resolutions (unless it is 'avoid becoming a political prisoner'), but you have saved me, Walt. This year I resolve to become a Viking.
max
['Well, I resolve to go Viking, ok? Any small foreign countries where the plundering is good? Not Somalia. No games, please.']
Finish my dissertation. See my friends more. Go back to the gym (should be possible now that the job hunt is mostly over). Get rid of clothes that are too small for me.
I am sticking with the Resolution I'm best able to keep--which has been refined somewhat over the years, but which has never become the guilt factory one expects from such an overdetermined form of determination. Here's the latest form:
I am resolved to sing whenever it pleases me.
Of course no one is required to listen... The resolution has a public purpose, though, which is why I like recalling it at parties. If one has a New Year's Resolution that's easily "broken", its power lies in its ability to inspire fear. While many would say that's the whole point of a resolution, I prefer a resolution of hope. (And, Gen X-er that I am, of managed expectations.) So: my New Year's Resolution has power insofar as it inspires singing.
WARNING:
Possible side effects: may cause dancing at parties, wincing of the fuddy-duddies, or a fit of the giggles. Research has suggested some evidence of dependence in long-term users. Consult your doctor or health-care professional, especially if you have been hearing Mantovani in a waiting room for more than four hours.
Recommended for: children of all ages; the jaded; the tone-deaf (for internal use mostly); and patients who are pregnant, who may be sexually active, or who may wish to be sexually active. As with any strong treatment, please consider how you will be affected before operating heavy equipment.
Take only as self-directed.
There's been at least one nearly-successful recent attempt at Viking takeover of a small island nation.
71: I am resolved to sing whenever it pleases me.
Why am I afraid to say things like this here? Because, just because.
It's worth repeating, in bold.
What are you singing, parsi? I'll back you up on uke.
I'd like to work on my singing voice. It never was anything to inspire confidence, but it'd be nice to have a little more oomph. By "work on," I probably mean "practice a bit," maybe nudging myself out of my comfort range every so often.
77: Oh, what I mostly sing these days is Bruce Cockburn.
!! I didn't expect a follow-up on this.
Also I sing .. various women's choirs stuff. A lot of my music is on tape (cassette) and my tape deck died, so it's memory at the moment. I just looked at my tapes, and the labels are faded.
The radio has just been playing its annual Paul Winter Consort new year concert. Good!
That's Billy Joel!? Still Rock 'n' Roll To Me--!.
Whatever happened to Billy Joel's first wife? You know, the one who came before Christie Brinkley, who was 'always a woman' to him? I think she was his manager, before he went platinum and ditched her for a trophy wife/supermodel. She may have come from New Jersey, but I don't really know.
I (almost) blush with shame to recall my junior high school crush on Billy Joel. Me and my best junior high girlfriend had a campaign for the nomination of "Billy Joel for Rabbinical Pope" (Long Island Jewish was thrillingly exotic to us, and this is what counted for "edgy" amongst Catholic schoolgirls on the edge of nowhere in the wilds of Canadia...). Father McPsycho (who hated that the school went co-ed [for financial reasons] because he couldn't bang the girls' heads against the lockers [though it was still open season on the boys, of course]) was not amused, but luckily he was my father's cousin, so he let me off with just a lecture and a sternly worded warning.
I saw Billy Joel in concert in Ottawa, after which I so desperately wanted a pair of Tretorn runners (sneakers, or tennis shoes, I guess). Capitalism! In its mass-cultural, pop-cultural aspects: the creation of ever-newer wants and needs, in a never-ending, always and everywhere-expanding spiral of newly-discovered, which is to way, newly-invented, deeply-held desires...
I took voice lessons at a local conservatory, then sang in the choir. I paid for the privilege -- none of us was very good. But it was great fun and great practice. Highly recommended.
Most of all, Billy Joel wanted to be an accountant. But his parents forced him into the career of a musician.
82: Most musicians seem to make shitty accountants. Hadn't thought about the reverse. And I will always have a soft spot for "Piano Man".
81: Wrongshore, you seem a lovely man, and your now-wife is a lucky woman.
I had a lot of musical training, including just music theory, and piano, voice, and I miss having any part in that any more. One of the things I'd like to do in years coming is to recover some kind of performance art. I'm not sure it will happen, as it was a long time ago that I did that (unless you count teaching). Theater is so, so fun.
just music theory
So when *is* it right to make music? And what is considered acceptable when you do?
I resolve, as I do every year, to be less annoying, less awkward, less tedious, less filled with shame during nearly every moment of every day.
Josh clings to the outmoded ideals mouthed but never really adhered to of an earlier age. As we now know, music is noise by other means.
85: I'm not sure what you mean, Josh, but what I meant is that I started with music theory and was what they call classically trained in piano. That means that all I could do was read and analyze music and play from a score. I couldn't improvise, and I still can't, at least on piano. That sucks. I might have gotten over it -- a big maybe -- but I didn't.
I can't understand the tone of the question in 85, but I will say that those of us who got stuck in the trained mode, and can't just sit down and play, don't like it much. Not much more than a technician.
Oh, and I should add to my 88 that at the same time, I like very much bands musical ensembles like King Crimson, who make me furrow my brow as I work out just what the hell the time signature there is.
I also like Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.
If ogged were here, I would be able to say, this is what not getting it looks like.
84 captures precisely why I try to encourage myself to sing... Having passed on any serious hope of renewing a youthful engagement in making theatre myself, I want to hold on to some practice that keeps my personal expression, um, in tune. I'm not awful, but I'm at a level where really no one is going to go out of their way to encourage me to sing all the time.
Some friends have been playing once or twice a week in the same living room for about 20 years, with great gusto--they'll never be rock stars, but is the world really short on celebrities? Belting "Begin the Begin" (or something even stranger!) while sorting the laundry won't get me reviewed in the local alt-weekly (thank the Gods!), but it's one way to feel like I'm doing something for the sake of Beauty without having to hold auditions & hire a hall. And roaring through "Young Americans" with the boys a few weeks ago (after woodshedding for like an hour!) damn near made me break down & cry.
JM: Remember there's a reason people sing in the shower. The acoustics favor you & the humidity is great for the voice! Definitely the best way to practice a vocal "stretch".
MC: I love the confession! Hmm, that sounds wrong...
P: Robust gave me one of these some time ago, & they work! Not so cheap, but magnetic tape isn't archival...Just sayin'.
My New Year's resolutions include gaining even more weight, losing my job, reading the internet even more, reading even fewer books, increasing my daily consumption of alcohol and coffee, actively undermining the exercise routines of others, spending myself into debt, getting even more disorganized, and sewing even more strife and discord in all my personal and professional relationships.
Stanley, you're a drunk, lazy leech and I'd kill you if I could find you under this trash heap you call a home. Happy New Year 2010!
I also like the Neville Brothers, specifically Brother's Keeper.
I need to get a new (another) copy of that, as I do not have one any more.
Also some Funkadelic.
97: Do you want needling? Well, then, it's no needling for you. I will not needle this year.
I merely wondered if the reference to "sewing" was a plant...
...but if that's pinned down, I'm off to bed. A Happy New Year and appropriately stiffened resolve for all!
Because I'm exhausted and lame, I passed out on a couch just before midnight on NYE, in my living room filled with guests. I was told the next morning that there was general hilarity when somebody asked what they should do with me, and (11-yr-old) Keegan immediately replied, "Teabag him!" Ahh, that's my boy! He makes me proud. He nonetheless took it easy on me.
Further to my 96: Specifically Funkadelic's Maggot Brain. I miss that album!
93.last: Rah, thanks. You're not the first to beat me about the head and neck about this, or however that goes. Ogged did too. I get it: convert already. Okay.
Maybe if we wait long enough, this thread will contain a list of everything parsimon likes.
When I was a kid, me and my next sister took music lessons, briefly, from a Welsh emigrant who used to clear the phlegm from his throat quite dramatically, not to say ostentatiously, before darting off, furtively, more or less, and somewhat awkwardly, to use the toilet, having just come in from the cold. Which we thought was quite hilarious, not being very refined in our sentiments, and anyway, he used to rap us on the knuckles whenever we played the wrong note.
We still can't hold a note, really, but we know a lot of songs. Including a couple of Welsh anthems that we learned from Mr Morris.
All your blog are belong to Standpipe.
I resolve, a day late, to read and interact on more local blogs. So far, so good.
I also resolve to take more pictures downtown.
Lastly, I resolve to go to bed right now.
My resolutions are rather pedestrian and ubiquitous. Get out more. Cook the majority of meals myself (already doing that, but it's easy to backslide). Work harder. Spend less. Read more. Stop squirreling around on the internet so much. Spend more time in SF exploring. Do something about the loneliness.
(I think I may have broken most of these today, but that's ok. There's still 364 days left in the year).
I resolve to get to work on time today. (It is too much to resolve this for the year.)
Mary Catherine in 80: Tretorn runners (sneakers, or tennis shoes
I remember those. I think that we Americans called them tennis shoes rather than sneakers or just Tretorns. They were hugely popular. I wish that I could get a pair now. Great for walking when one doesn't want running shoes.
I posted a comment which I can't see yet in the box, though it does appear in the sidebar.
My New Year's resolutions include gaining even more weight, losing my job, reading the internet even more, reading even fewer books, increasing my daily consumption of alcohol and coffee, actively undermining the exercise routines of others, spending myself into debt, getting even more disorganized, and sewing even more strife and discord in all my personal and professional relationships.
I resolve to spend more time with Stanley.
Stanley should also start smoking and start cruising the local junior high schools. Clean and unspoiled you girls and boys. Also, cows.
'ug ixsej ukher xoldloo'
'words multiply, cows wander away too far'
b/c our cows graze wherever they want
just to remind the context of the cow saying, as you see nothing inappropriate, it's strictly about business time
105: .... a list of everything parsimon likes.
1. raindrops on roses
2. whiskers on kittens
3. bright copper kettles
4. warm woolen mittens
5. brown paper packages tied up with strings
6. cream colored ponies!
7. crisp apple streudels
8. doorbells
9. sleigh bells
10. schnitzel with noodles
11. wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
12. girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
13. snowflakes that stay on her nose and eyelashes
14. silver white winters that melt into springs
15. Romanian mature orgy pron old people
Cows will mean all kinds of things here now.
Stanley, I like the cut of your jib. Would you like to manage my hedge fund?
117, 118, 120: In breach of house protocol (since many may not have been reading (nor later gone back and read) the Xmas eve/day threads), please listen to the beginning of first hour Dec. 24th here and then go read this comment. Because Robust's, "I crown 197 the best comment ever", was spot on.
And go read James Wolcott's recap of the winners and losers in the campaign, "The Good, the Bad, and Joe Lieberman" to give yourself something else to smile about.
123: I was just thinking this morning about how nice it's been not hearing from that blonde pseudo-pundit in the cocktail dress. What was her name again?
123: Wow, the tone of the Wolcott piece is wince-making. Though.
I resolve, as I do every year, to be less annoying, less awkward, less tedious, less filled with shame during nearly every moment of every day.
"Less filled with shame" is at odds with the rest of the resolution. Grace, try a year in which you are deliberately annoying to the many deserving of annoyance, disrupt stifling drawing-rooms with your unassimilable awkwardness, and dare people to challenge the tedium of your prattle. And let others carry the shame.
Ooooh! I want 126 as my resolution! Can I have 126 as my resolution?
Is there anyone here with JSTOR privileges who might retrieve and sen me a few articles?
127: Di! Are you sure you have the cohones guts for Resolution 126? Many people dedicate their lives to avoiding that kind of thing.
My new years resolution is to increase my level of social drinking. I like picking new years resolutions that I am pretty sure I can do.
Is there anyone here with JSTOR privileges who might retrieve and sen me a few articles?
Watcha need?
It's not a resolution, but I've been surprised at how much fun Wii karaoke is, just as an excuse to sing loudly and badly. The song list on the game the kids got for Christmas is depressingly recent-pop, but eh, I'll take what I can get.
LB For the confusing New Year's comment placement win.
Oh, whoops, this is last year, isn't it. Never mind.
I'm not even sure how you'd do that by accident.
I think someone linked to this thread, so I had it open, and lost track of what year it was.
LB, Beatles Rock Band is fantastic for the sing-along/karaoke thing. Fantastic.
Off to sing!
Beatles Rock Band
eekbeat has specifically indicated that our possible post-Gogol Bordello* going-to-a-party plans are probably not worth it unless there's going Beatles Rock Band. Is it really that much better than regular Rock Band (which is plenty fun, mind)?
*eat your collective heart out
I'm really a bad person for not wanting to buy a game that has guitar-sized controllers, probably. All that Rock Band/Guitar Hero shit is probably terribly fun, but the point of playing video games rather than actually doing things is that they don't take up space in your apartment. Karaoke-only games at least just need a mike.
141: I can't play the drums at all on Rock Band and prefer just to sing. I claim that the problem is that the "notes" are moving from top to bottom, rather than from left to right as on actual printed music, which might be excuse-making, but I find it genuinely difficult, which is odd, since I've played real drums over half my life.
I claim that the problem is that the "notes" are moving from top to bottom, rather than from left to right as on actual printed music,
It's as if you haven't even considered tipping your TV set over on its side.
Stanley, you've made me feel so, so much better about my incompetence. "Oh, well, it's only because this isn't like real* drums..." We don't have regular Rock Band. We have Rock Hero, which came with the instruments and includes *lots* of Taylor Swift along with numerous songs I am entirely unfamilar with. Beatles Rock Band is infinitely easier for me on the drums, and is also much more fun for me to sing based on the fact that I actually know the songs, as does Rory. Even my 6-year-old niece had fun pitching in with Yellow Submarine.
It's nice to imagine that between comment 132 and 133 everybody just got a lot of stuff done.
Keegan got DJ Hero for Christmas, and is all wikiwikiwikiscratch.
