Have you broken your resolutions yet? Do you have the classic cliché resolution to lose weight?...Did I resolve, in 2009, to live a larger, more expressive, more fully dimensional life? I don't remember. I'm sure I made the classic cliché resolution referred to, and I probably thought of that "larger, more expressive, more fully dimensional" business in a dreamy, wishful way that the realistic me knew couldn't actually happen. Ha ha.
Vows of abstemiousness are all well and good, but the more interesting resolutions are about doing something, not avoiding doing things. And going to the gym doesn't count. That's still in the abstemiousness category. I'm interested in your resolve to live a larger, more expressive, more fully dimensional life.
December 31, 2009
"I'm interested in your resolve to live a larger, more expressive, more fully dimensional life."
I'm interested to look back on my first post of 2009:
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82 comments:
I'm interested in my resolve to live a larger, more expensive life, and load some of my old Fifth Dimension albums onto the MP3 player.
Love will guide the stars, and all that.
My resolutions in the past few years have morphed from "losing weight" to becoming stronger and fitter. I've reached the age that if I don't an alternative way to deal with the bad knee and occasionally wonky hip, I will find myself using a walker or wheelchair. What vanity didn't accomplish a fear of loosing my independence will.
But, I also have started to try and temper "plan for my life" with "opportunity" - mentally, at least. Your and Meade's experience in 2009 has reminded me that while a plan is great, one never knows what may happen if you leave yourself open to the opportunity.
Word verification: eforki
(Now I have to worrry about virtually eating as well????)
I do not make New Year's resolutions so I can not fail at them. I do try to take care to be grateful for the blessings of the past year, which in my case include a daughter's marriage, continued marital happiness and good health, children with their heads screwed on more or less right, great friends, some interesting experiences and numerous other fortunate happenings (and non happenings.)
I do not understand why I am so fortunate and so many other people are not.
Perhaps my task this year should be to find better ways to show gratitude.
Best New Year's wishes to everyone, even the trolls, and thanks to Althouse for providing the forum.
(the other kev)
I resolved to marry one of the commenters, but somebody else beat me to it.
Also consider the career of the famous Cincinatti resident William Howard Taft when laying any plans for a larger life in a fuller dimension.
Kev, you wanted to marry Meade? I don't think it would have worked out.
(the other kev)
Freeman, I wasn't really choosy. Maybe that was the flaw?
Ha ha, is right. All I could think of, was the saying, "if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."
Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.
My goal is always to live a smaller, less expressive, more one dimensional life. Going the other way gets one into trouble.
Of course many of us would love to marry Darcy or Freeman. Ain't gonna happen folks.
Perhaps there should be an "I'm available" tag or something. For single posters only of course. Of which I am not.
My goal for 2010 is to finally figure out the meaning of life.
wv: mentiva - a specialized yogurt to relieve irregular thoughts
What kind of resolutions do you suppose the diaper bomber made last year (whenever his new year is.)
How might they vary for the coming year?
My goal is always to live a smaller, less expressive, more one dimensional life. Going the other way gets one into trouble.
You would make a great Ridley Scott or James Cameron character.
@t-man
My goal for 2010 is to finally figure out the meaning of life.
That's easy. The answer is 42.
I just read last year's New Year post and I remember it. It is one of the sweetest and most friendly set of comments on the Althouse blog. I did not participate except (obviously) to read. I hope that is not why it comes across as so mellow.
I will say that I did not wear shorts once in 2009 (excepting bathing trunks when actually swimming). That was my main contribution to betterment of the world.
Bye for now an Happy New Year (again).
David, that was very sweet of you. Thank you. And Happy New Year to you.
Another year gone past, still no hootenanny.
...to live a...more fully dimensional life.
Right here is the problem. Because what constitutes a more fully dimensional life? I've been reading around recently in The Florence King Reader. Here, as part of her book review of the now deservedly forgotten The Fountain Of Age by Betty Friedan is her deliciously caustic take on Friedan's enthusiastic pumping for hyperactive old age. First Friedan quotes a hearty oldster, then King deflates:
"People who really enjoy people come here. My husband who was a doctor said that if you move to Florida, you add ten years to your life; if you move to this community, you add ten more years, because of all the activity, because of the community itself. You can't just stay home and feel sorry for yourself. There's something doing all the time."
Indeed there is. The bulletin board of this hellish place contains a blizzard of notices for square dance lessons, Easter pageant rehearsals, Thursday Crafts, and horseshoe pitching, to list just a few. But Friedan lists them all, getting so caught up in the thrill of it all that she blithely includes an unintentional memento mori tacked up alongside the summonses to non-stop fun: a business card for the Bayshore Funeral Home.
Furthermore, her stereotypical images of porch rocking and plastic surgery constitute a false either-or. America's new stereotype of age is the very same frenetic activity that her subjects pursue and that she recommends without surcease. The old people we love and remember best - the imperious dowager and the crusty curmudgeon - were happy and respected precisely because they made no attempt to be "eighty years young," but Friedan is too much of a blinkered conformist to see it.
I'm not saying that it's a New Years resolution, but Monday I bought a treadmill. I want to be in better shape than I am now. I still lift weights and do situps in the morning, but I've decided that at 63 years of age, I need to work out more. I get plenty of exercise when it isn't winter outside, but, man, trudging through the crust that's on the snow, is tough.
Happy New Years to everyone. AlgonquinS wishes you the best of luck in the coming year.
Allen S - are you up nort'? I'm in Iggle River this week. You on the res?
I didn’t make any for 2009 so here are my goals of 2010
1)Do at least two century rides by the end of the summer
2)Limit myself to only one tattoo this year
3)Get a level 80 for each character class on WoW
4)Clean the garage
5)Do the Horrible Hilly Hundred without puking this time
6)Drop the coin for a really, really, really good bottle of bourbon
7)Attain my fighting weight
8)Perfect my war face in anticipation of Hoosier Daughter’s first date
9)Have half a year’s salary in the bank
10)To be determined
Michael, I live in Western WI, in a little town called Star Prairie.
a little town called Star Prairie.
You gotta admit that'd be a great stripper name.
Haha HD.
I should say that Star Prairie (St Croix County) is my mailing address. I live in the township of Alden in Polk County. Or, as some of the older folks (like me) say, Alden town.
@Hoosier Daddy - I saw a movie this year where the dad said to the boy: Whatever you do to my daughter, I will do to you when you bring her home.
This, it seems to me, is cheaper than shovels and shotgun shells. Unless she's dating a Boy George type.
-XC
Allen, Thanks. I'll remember that for this summer's MC ride up the Great River Road. There probably is beer or pie in Star Prairie.
@Hoosier Daddy - I saw a movie this year where the dad said to the boy: Whatever you do to my daughter, I will do to you when you bring her home.
Heh. Well my wife confided in my a month ago that my daughter asked her if it was really necessary that any boys she dates have to meet daddy.
I guarantee beer, but I'm not sure about the pie.
Star Pie - now there's a stripper name.
For 2009 the main resolution I set for myself was to read only non-fiction. That lasted for about six months. While I consider the non-fiction I consumed to be of note and interesting (just quiz me on dropping the nukes on Japan, for instance, go ahead, I dares ya), I lapsed and picked up ye ol' sci-fi once again.
For 2010, for the first time ever, I'm going to try and get back to my fighting trim, as someone else put it, of 190. They just opened up a no-frills boxing gym nearby, so I'm going all Balboa in 2010.
In general, I'll attempt to do what I ask God for help with each and every night before I drift off to sleep...that I be given the strength and character to live up to those two most difficult shoes to fill, husband and father.
2009 resolution was to learn to play the piano.
I procrastinated and just bought a keyboard about 10 days ago.
I have learned to play Jingle Bells.
I resolve in 2010, from this feeble beginning, to continue a vigorous expansion of my horizons.
This coming year, I want to be a better husband, a better father, a better son, a better friend, and a better man.
My fall-back resolution is cleaning out the basement.
that I be given the strength and character to live up to those two most difficult shoes to fill, husband and father.
I could not have murdered that sentence any more surely than if I'd been driving the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88.
Can someone fix that for me?
...I resolve to be a better writer and not to answer the phone whilst waxing philosophical.
Ah, screw it.
This coming year, I want to be a bitter husband, father, son, friend, and a bitter man.
And get offa my lawn!
Howdya like them apples?
Fastest broken resolution evar.
This coming year, I want to be a better husband, a better father, a better son, a better friend, and a better man.
I'll sign on to that. Switched to the feminine forms, of course.
Happy New Year, Darcy! And everyone!
I resolve, 1n 2010, to keep my clothing on while sunning on the nude beach in St. Martin. A resolution I proudly kept last year.
Happy New Year, Blake!
This time of year makes me think of the dear circle of online friends I've made through this blog, and what a blessing they have been to me. And also appreciative of the commenters I love to drop in and read here, and of course the opportunity to do so, provided by Althouse. I'd like to resolve, in the new year, to be a lot more grateful for the things I have and enjoy, and the people who touch my life.
Maybe I'll be a better husband, a bitter employee, a blotto customer, and a butter cookie.
And probably to use less commas.
Fun to look back on that post and comments from a year ago.
I did keep my resolution. I don't think I wore shorts but once or twice last year (of course wearing swimming trunks at the beach doesn't count). I think the one time I did, I even tweeted it. The only reason I remember that is because reader_iam tweeted back something snide.
Anybody seen reader lately?
*waves at Darcy*
wv: "ducking" WTF?
A bitter bat in the belfry
Flew to the pantry below
And better after a butter
Cookie
Felt.*
*Repeat quickly three times.
Happy New Year, El Pollo. (And ricpic, and Freeman, and Michael, and Pogo!)
My only resolution is to get a good running start on that model of Fort Concho.
Hoosier Daddy said...
a little town called Star Prairie.
You gotta admit that'd be a great stripper name.
There's always the color Honey Brown. Also a good hooker name.
Hey, Hoosier! Where've you been hiding?
@t-man, a while back a friend of mine wrote a short story where his hero found an ancient oracle that could answer any question he asked. So asked what the true meaning of life is -- and died laughing at the answer.
So perhaps you want to try Plan B?
(No, my friend has not quit his day job.)
Happy New Year's Eve Darcy! {{}}
HNY, Darcy, Hoosier, Michael Hasenstab, Big Mike, Palladian, Trooper, chickenlittle, Ron, Freeman, traditionalyguy, Allen S, ricpic, rhhardin, edutcher, amba, reader, Trey, Synova, Crack Emcee, Harsh Pencil, Methadras, AJ Lynch, William, Victoria, Lem, Dust Bunny Queen, Fen, Beth, kentuckyliz, lyssalovelyredhead ......
and
and
OH!!
Althouse n' Meade!1!!
I feel like I know some of you. I'd buy you a drink if I could hoist one with you.
Chris Matthews is thinking way ahead for the next year--
MATTHEWS: And I think we have got to get serious about catching terrorists, not just catching weapons. I‘m waiting for the terrorist who knows kung fu or something that gets on an airplane without a weapon. God knows what that is going to be like.
Hey, Gerald, happy new year, even under this circumstance.
I couldn't help but laugh.
I think it's entertaining that "abstemious" contains all five vowels in alphabetical order.
HNY Pogo!
Maybe something will come of that great Althousian meet-up one day. There's a map lurking out there with a bunch of Althouse people's locations. I just spent 15 looking for it but gave up.
How many MD's are there in the Rochester-Medical-Industrial complex? My HS prom date/valedictorian/later-became-an-MD ended up there- but of course I lost touch with her.
Happy new years to everyone!!!
These aren't resolutions, but this year I’m planning on doing a half marathon and I just ordered “Your Money or Your Life” and plan to continue my ongoing efforts to spend less, and save more.
I’ll have to think about the rest a bit, because I’m not sure what else I want to do this year. Goals are good but I think they work better as lifestyle changes.
Happy New Year dear friends!
Pogo - Just send me a drink card, either Manhattan or Martini. You can get the drink cards at Walgreen's, near the checkout counters. They are on the rack between the cards for Chili's and Olive Garden. I'll think of you when I'm at the bar.
Last year I resolved not to wear shorts. Several run-ins with police officers has caused me to re-think that resolution for 2010.
For 2010, no shirts.
Ark: "Facetiously" is the other one that does it. Notice how I added the 'sometimes y' to your vowel collection?
I resolve to continue to resolve the loss of the same ten pounds I have been gaining and losing my entire adult life.
The funny thing is that most things get easier, as you gain experience. Weight loss is an exception.
Thanks, Pogo. Same to you.
Blogger bearbee said...
"2009 resolution was to learn to play the piano. I procrastinated and just bought a keyboard about 10 days ago."
Congratulations! This was one of my resolutions 30 years ago, and I let so many things get in the way. Like money to buy the piano and where to put the piano, or find time to practice.
Keep us updated on your progress. I am SO proud of you for following through.
We are just shy of 23 million doctors here.
Well, actually something like 3000, but it seems like more. If anything happens like a car crash or a bicycle tips over or two soccer players conk heads, you can count on MDs and nurses and technicians within seconds.
I forgot to wish John Stodder and Sippican a HNY.
Pogo: Sounds like a HC paradise- are costs lower too?
I forgot to mention by name a ton of people, too. Please forgive. I think you all are fantastic. The smartest bunch on the 'net.
And some of the funniest.
Happy New Year again, to everyone.
I forgot to mention by name a ton of people, too. Please forgive. I think you all are fantastic. The smartest bunch on the 'net.
Ditto that Darcy.
I'd like to see an image of AA's face made out of all of our avatars. That would be so cool.
Happy New Year to all the sharp, witty, and bright people here that keep us entertained throughout the year!
Woof!
Pogo, when you have lunch at the cafeteria at work, have you ever contemplated that they serve mayo at Mayo?
I forgot to mention by name a ton of people, too. Please forgive. I think you all are fantastic. The smartest bunch on the 'net.
'Cept the trolls, who are too angry to stop by for HNY greetings.
'Cept the trolls, who are too angry to stop by for HNY greetings.
They're still busy on the Rush thread.
Irene - Shhhhhhh!
Oops!!! Got it!
wv: nonedit (How trolls write.)
I'm shooting for more ecstatic modes of being next year.
HD storage of uploaded flickr dog photos, in KB
$ du -s all/*
564 all/1995
44144 all/2005
98824 all/2006
45740 all/2007
509824 all/2008
932524 all/2009
There's no reason the trend couldn't be continued, I figure.
"There's no reason the trend couldn't be continued, I figure."
Now that's the best news I heard today, rh. There can never be enough "Vicki" to my mind.
She's a beauty.
I have to add this. Chip, whenever you read this, more of your "enhanced" Althouse images would be like icing on an already tasty cupcake.
I suppose this is as good a moment as any to thank you all for what has been an extremely rewarding experience. Thank you for sharing your lives and your talents.
Special thanks to Althouse. You made it all possible, and I, for one, am extremely grateful.
Pogo forgot all to mention all the johns/Johns who comment here. Or, maybe he didn't.
I resolve to articulate to Victoria (Florida) about her obsessing on how Obama did not make her feel as safe as Bush is evidence of a misplaced daddy complex.
To all the commenters here, but especially, especially to the regulars, the Happiest of New Years to you all.
Just read Jules Crittenden's "God Damn the Naughts". It's been a tough nine years, but as our fine hostess demonstrated; your heart's desire may be just around the corner this year.
Cheers!
Happy New Year!
He also forgot:
Chip -
John Stodder -
Eli Blake -
Zachary Paul Sire -
Cedarford -
Theo Boehm -
Penny -
Montana -
Ruthann -
titus -
veni vidi vici
Bissage -
Helen Parr -
robert cook -
Happy New Year!
Jeremy - whatever.
The old people we love and remember best - the imperious dowager and the crusty curmudgeon - were happy and respected precisely because they made no attempt to be "eighty years young,"
Perfect description of Eastwood's character in Gran Torino.
Damnation, my memory really blows.
The only thing I can do off the top of my head these days is eat.
How could I have forgotten?
HNY to the Johns\John Lynch
the thoughtful Theo Boehm
the wonderful Bissage
the animated Chip
the urbane MadisonMan
blogging cockroach
Archie the ghost
Ruthann, much missed
OhioAnne
Cedarford, that strange intellect
Penny
veni vidi vici
David
oh, HNY even to those arch-nemeses, defenders of the liberal view
garage, Zach, MUL, Cookie, fls, vickie from Pasadena
and, well, even to trolls and those of whom I remain unsure
Alex, Penny, titus, Maxine
I hope for you a good and blessed year, which of course can only come by a return to conservative principles.
Ha!
Couldn't resist.
Applesauce!
That's what I resolve for the new year. More applesauce!
I don't know why I felt like saying it. Just sounded cool.
Sorry if any absences yesterday were misinterpreted as ill-will. Nothing could be further from the truth. The clubby atmosphere here is its greatest strength.
So HNY (and BTW, when did the abbreviation become official?) to everyone - hope I didn't miss anyone, and sorry for being so snarky and ideologically incorrect these past few years. Much love to the gang, especially to those who have given me some slack for those failings. And props to the conservative way of trying to make pseudonymous conversations on the web more personable. I never saw that as a particularly partisan trait, but am fond of the way it's emphasized here.
Now go back to making national mischief and mayhem and plotting to bring America down in 2010, you crazy cons!
(I couldn't resist) ;-)
Some words of wisdom just for you Ritmo: Link. And HNY BTW!
wv: "viers" comes between dreis and funfs. Amba knows a related joke, but I think you have to knock yourself up a couple notches.
HNY to all - Pogo, thanks for your greetings at 3:09 yesterday - that's a good list to be in!
Althouse, thanks for keeping this blog going so energetically, and making a place for such diverse, smart and oftentimes maddening conversation. I'm happy you and Meade have had such a great year, finding each other.
Happy New Year, Pogo.
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