I’m not good at the resolutions thing. I’ve tried, but the list of unfulfilled resolutions is much longer than the list of successes. Take my list of 2001 resolutions. Let’s see where I stand on these:
- About 33 percent success here over the long term. Over the short term, I gained and lost about 20 pounds between then and now. Story of my life.
- Total failure. Too many family/colleagues visit this site. Would I have the time to start a second site for these interests?
- Total failure. But I did buy a book about them. Again, story of my life.
- Success. And now with two digital cameras — and I’ll probably be purchasing a cell phone with camera in the not-too-distant future — expect the gallery to continue to grow.
- About 33 percent success here as well, which is pretty pathetic considering that was FOUR YEARS AGO. Yes, we’ve been without use of a dining room now for 4 years. No wonder we don’t entertain. There is a defense here, though: the summer after posting the 2001 list is when we decided to concentrate on the exterior of the house instead, and that’s about 90 percent done.
- No, that was stupid and silly.
- Mostly successful, although my recent personal involvement has been in the political arena and I’ve been financially generous in other areas.
- Funny, this one … I (finally) took my first Flash class in early December, and have a second class in January. And I’m using the program somewhat infrequently at work, but I haven’t produced anything Flash-based for this site. Yet.
- See number 2
- The laptop is wireless. That’s about it (although Marlin now has wireless music streaming from his computer to the living room stereo downstairs thanks to this gift from Santa Ron). In the deep recesses behind my computer, let’s just say I could use a few dozen cable ties.
- Success. Although after 3+ years, I was hoping they would bloom more in the spring. Ours have been pretty lame so far. Perhaps dogwoods take a few years to mature before they start blooming well? Or we need to start feeding them something?
- Success here, but not so much recently since I’ve been a not-very-active blogger. It’s also interesting here to identify the other bloggers I screencaptured in this graphic. After 4 years, I can identify all but one or two of them, and as far as I can tell, only one of them is no longer blogging.
So my success rate for 2001 resolutions was about one-third. For 2005, I think I’ll just continue working on my resolutions from 4 years ago. And be better. I think that’s the best resolution I’ve encountered.
As for the New Year’s weekend here, it’s been very low-key as Marlin has been sick with a flu and I’ve been trying like hell to fight it off, although I woke up this morning with a really sore throat. We managed to leave the house for a few hours last night for a wonderful New Year’s Eve dinner with Michael, Scott, and Chris. Today, I’m setting up my gift from Santa Marlin and while that’s running, I’m getting away from the computer and we’re going to do something we’ve been waiting for 3 years to do: back-to-back-to-back viewings of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended editions. This will likely be the first ever New Year’s Day where I don’t watch at least part of a football game. Imagine that!
Ron Yeany 