There’s a bunch of kids playing loudly next door and one of them just yelled out, “I am the ruler of the universe!” I’m thinking that’s not a bad resolution, but a tricky one to follow through on. The kid next door did not succeed, because now all the kids are yelling that they are the ruler of the universe. Scott included.
I like the idea of resolutions. I like the idea of trying to better or test yourself in some small concrete way. And I especially like the idea of lots of folks all over the place all resolving to do stuff at the same time. But like most everyone else I’m usually crap at sticking to them.
I was going to resolve not to eat all the fruit in the house within a day of purchase, but who am I kidding? I’ll never stick to that. Especially not now when the mangoes are so ridiculously good. Also the figs and the nectarines and cherries and apples and bananas and passionfruit and . . .
I was also going to have another shot at the not-biting-the-nails thing. But that’s really about stress. I bite ’em when I’m stressed and don’t when I’m not. I can be non-stressy and have finger nails in Sydney, but it’s impossible not to be stressed while on the road or in New York City. Must spend more time at home!
So instead I’m going to try and waste less water and electricity. More turning off lights and other leccie powered stuff around the home and less long baths and showers.
How about you guys? Are you with the cool crowd what eschews resolutions as foolishness? Or have you got some you’re prepared to share?
I’m starting small–if I can see the surface of my desk for more than seven continuous days I shall count 2007 a success.
This might be the ruler of the universe:
http://www.wiscasset.k12.me.us/wms/Graphics/Education/ruler.gif
I’m going to try and make thoughtful gifts for my really close friends and loved one’s for either birthdays or Christmas or some other gift giving holiday. Kind of dorky, isn’t it? But I know I’d like to receive a gift a friend has made me that really reflects their thoughts of me in some way. So I’ve decided I’ll do that for the people I love.
I have a feeling over the course of the year I’ll decide I love very few people after all. heh. 😉
Chris McLaren: Small? That sounds mighty ambitious to me!
Little Willow: I dunno. Looks suspiciously non-metric to me.
Christopher Barzak: That’s a lovely resolution. One of the many casualties of my moving around so much has been keeping track of my friends’ birthdays. I don’t know why it is so, but it is. I don’t seem to be able to keep track of very much at all these days . . .
Simple resolution of “read less, write more”. Probably won’t go according to plan – my brain doesn’t work too well in hot weather. (Damn you, Australian summer!)
Have a lovely day! 🙂
Where are you? It’s not at all hot here in Sydney.
I want to write less and read more 🙂
Melbourne. Weather today 28C or something. Will gradually build up during the week. I tend to freak out at anything over 25C (it’s the Celtic blood, and therefore not my fault 😉 ).
Have a lovely day! 🙂
The resolutions I keep tend to be the very specific ones, like: “Have lunch once a week with someone other than Ellen.” I kept that one for 2 years. “World Domination” and “Write More” are too global to wrap my feeble brain around. This year, I’m too discombobulated from the move to come up with anything more focussed than: “Write something every day.”
I have a bit of a niggling grammar question. When you say “less long baths and showers” do you mean “(less long) (baths and showers)” or “(less) (long baths and showers)”? The first sounds odd (“shorter baths and showers” sounds nicer to me) and the second would probably be better as “fewer long baths and showers”. Maybe the “less long” thing is an Aussie-ism?
Ez: Wow, your definition of “hot” is vastly different to mine!
Delia: Specific is always better. But write every day? You’re not going to give yourself one or two days off a week?
Ryan: Hmmm, I’m not even seeing the difference you’re pointing to. The two examples read the same to me. Maybe it is a separated by a common language thing.
Oh yeah. Read more. Eat things. Bath.
The usual.
And those are always best done in combination.
Oh, you want METRIC, do you?
http://cdbaby.name/m/e/metric.jpg
You have a point. Still, I write in my journal every day. Does that count? No. I’m talking about Fiction. So, howabout–Monday-Friday, I’ll write. Not necessarily for my preferred 2 hours, if I really can’t find them, but for at least 1/2 hour. How’s that.
That sounds like a very cunning plan indeed.
I’d like to read more and write more.
I’m trying to figure out why someone would resolve not to eat all the fruit in the house within a day of purchase. If you buy it ripe, you have to do that. Alice eats a huge amount of fruit, so I have to get used to buying more than I used to.
I’m always resolving to be more organized, not just at New Year’s but every month or so. You can see how effective that is….
I just now realized something I should resolve to do: not spend precious free time playing Scrabble with the computer! Every time I do it I end up thinking “well, that’s an hour I could have spent reading [or insert other favored activity].” It’s just too damned easy to keep playing game after game. I think I will only be able to keep this resolution by taking the damn game off my computer.
Janet: There’s the little matter of the other people in the house who may have wanted a mango or a cherry . . .
Also lots of fruit lasts more than a day. Specially apples. I buy heaps on the theory that they will be good for snacks for at least two or three days . . .
Good luck with the taking the games off your computer.
matt doesn’t eat fruit, which never fails to astonish me — how can the man I love not eat fruit? he doesn’t have anything against fruit, he just doesn’t think of eating it. so I have had no check on my gluttonous fruit-eating — until alice, that is. one of her first recognizable words was “banana.”
oh dear, i have always been fairly anti-resolution partly because i am so much the planning type (i always have a five-year plan…): but i guess i do have a list of things that must and will be done in 2007, and it totally counters my one main resolution which is to try and curb my excessive/workaholic side!
the essentials for 2007: run my first marathon; learn how to swim properly; get a bike (do you see the lurking triathlon plan?!?); get tenure; finish/write introduction/final revisions on my new academic book; final revisions on my novel dynamite no. 1; draft sequel to dynamite no. 1 which must be done by spring 2008. there’s another novel (dystopian upper manhattan shapechanger fantasy) and another non-fiction book (top secret, but the book i am most perfectly qualified to write in the world!) that i am dying to write but the demands of my teaching job mean that i must firmly put all ideas of new projects out of mind until i have properly executed all the ones i’ve already got underway…
(also if i get tenure i think i might take the plunge and get a dog, that would be a good non-workaholic move…)
happy new year, justine! may many good things come your way in 2007–and of course i can’t wait to read the end of the magic trilogy and also the cricket fairy novel when it comes into its final form…
I know if i’m too specific (ie: ‘exercise at least 3 times a week’), I’m setting myself up for failure. So I tend to be much more general. Like ‘Spend more time outside’, or ‘Try to make your environment more colourful’ (which is both general and extemely vague, a double winner).
hmm. i haven’t really thought about resolutions. but i guess a big one would be “learn at least conversational german”…since we’re moving to germany!
You know, when I first read this post, I understood “resolution” to mean “ending,” and somehow thought that you were talking about resolutions to stories and novels and suchlike. It wasn’t until I looked at the entry for maybe the 3rd time that I caught on.
That said, I’m more interested in the first kind of resolution, and I do think “I am the ruler of the universe!” is the best kind of resolution, and one I’d like to write a story for.
I don’t make the other kind of resolutions, really, because if the things I wanted to change were so easily changed I would have done it ages ago. One can’t really say “I resolve to stop being so neurotic and to fall in love with someone who lives in the same city as me and to make it last longer than a few months.” I mean, one can, but good luck with that, I say to myself.
For me, e-mail is a little like chocolate. If I can select the pieces I want and get them when I want them, then I’m happy to indulge. But a constant diet of either one makes me sick. So like millions of others I resolve to go on a diet this year. I will limit the amount of e-mail I consume to only the most appetizing pieces taken in reasonable serving sizes. Some of it I will share with friends; some of it I will simply toss. Other pieces I won’t even open, because sometimes you really can tell how good it’s going to be just by looking at the wrapper.