Happy New Year

One of the forums I visit regularly had a thread about New Year's resolutions, and while my track record on these things has never been very impressive, I threw a few things out.

1) Be a better husband.
2) Lose another 15 lbs. (Lost 15 in '08.)
3) Quit the Nasty Habit.
4) Hold onto my job(s).
5) Write more, write better.
6) More rafting, more skiing, take my wife camping.
7) Remix my first album, finish my second.
8) New PC (or mobo/cpu, at least).
9) Capture and document conclusive evidence of an afterlife.

Can't help but think that these things are preemptive commitments to orphaned expectations, but I guess they at least measure our recognition that there are things to strive for. Ways to improve, ways to be better, whatever "better" is relative to what we think we are now.

On item 5), I signed up for Suite101 a few weeks ago, accepted on the strength of my audition of a couple of Boulder Weekly stories I did earlier this year. The commitment is 10 stories every 3 months, 400-600 words a piece, and they ask you to go through a little training exercise (style hints, that sort of thing) before you start scribing.

The output they ask for is a bit steep, and after 30 years writing freelance, I have to lower my own internal resistance against being told how to write, but I do think I need to write more, and time will tell if I can muster the time and energy to do this. I do feel as if I need to. So...here goes.