And onto 2007...

And a thrilling Happy New Year to one and all.

As I may or may not have mentioned last year, I've always been somewhat ambivalent about New Year's. It's not terribly exciting to me, I don't really see the point in celebrating what is essentially an arbitrary start point on the calendar (which is also a human construction). I mean, if anything, one's birthday is the beginning of the next new year (for you, anyway).

Invariably this time of year also means a bunch of folks doing columns, filing reports, etc. on New Year's Resolutions. As you might guess from what I said in the previous paragraph, I'm not a huge believer in these either, but for some reason this year I happened to assess things all at once, and at this time of year (perhaps it was in the writing of the last post/Xmas letter).

So then, without further ado, or much fanfare, herewith are my...

Resolutions for 2007:

1) Do a better job of staying in touch with my out-of-state friends. While I have lived in the Commonwealth for 11.5+ years now, I still consider myself as being "from New Jersey." I have many friends and associates in the Garden State still. I also have friends in other states scattered around the seaboard and country. And the fact of the matter is, I've become a lousy communicator. I used to be a compulsive communicator and somewhere along the way, I got out of the habit. I carry a cellphone, I have multiple e-mail accounts, and I have a couple of blogs. So I know my intent is there. But somehow I stopped keeping in touch with folks the way I used to. Could be the geography, could be my "focus issues," could be the simple fact of Life's inertia. Doesn't really matter why. I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping in touch with those farther away. So expect a call or an email. Soon.

2) Devote at least one day a month to myself -- reading, writing, drawing, whatever. It seems that I never have enough time. This is, I'm sure, a common enough problem, made perhaps slightly more acute by my particular quirks. But even after spending six months off (while I was job searching), even though I had three weeks between one new job and the second (better) new job, I still never managed to spend a day reading comics. Or writing -- I never write anymore... well, just this thing, and we know that's more rambling. I've been trying to learn to draw for many, many years now ("trying" here defined as "spending money on books and supplies, even sometimes carrying places with me, but never actually investing any time doing it"). I owe it to myself to actually spend a minimum of one day a month on myself (and no, laundry doesn't count... it has to be something creative.)

3) Do something about this mass forming around my waistline... So there's this soft, squishy stuff forming around my waist, just above my hips. And curiously all of my pants seem to have shrunken at the same time (which means the dry cleaner AND me have both made simultaneous mistakes.) Fact of the matter is, my legendary metabolism is finally slowing down. And I kinda liked my waistline where it was. So a little more attention must be spent on getting to the gym. And working ab's, I guess...

4) Try to post to this blog (and the other one) more frequently. While my stat's indicate I've averaged more than one post a week, it hasn't occurred in such a regular fashion. More like a bunch at once and then a long gap of nothingness. And I'm really going to try to override my obsessiveness, and not wait until I can do "the perfect post" with all the links and colors and bells and whistles and whatnot. There are so many off-the-cuff posts that never happen(ed) because I didn't "have time" to do it. Which isn't true -- I just didn't have time to make it "just so." One of the many epitaphs of my life.

So, there you are. I think four is enough. That allows me to mess up one a quarter, before I've failed to achieve them all. I mean, if Ultimate Brian can't make it work, what chance does someone as undisciplined as myself stand...

More to follow.