The 1st of January is as arbitrary as any day to designate a new year. Reading the Wikipedia article on the Gregorian calendar outlines some of the competing times to round out a new year – in March, May, September, December, as well as January – even when limiting oneself to the history of Europe.
But here I am, reflecting on the year ahead. Here is a short list of specific resolutions I’ve set out for myself:
- Read more books
- Write more blog posts
- Take more photos, take a photography course at ICP
- Work through my Instapaper queue (currently at 1,219 unread articles!)
- Focus on finishing and polishing my existing projects
- Favor those projects that help me keep in touch with friends and family
It’s in the interest of this last resolution that I’m setting aside the book I’ve recently started to start reading The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, which was recommended by my friend James. I like the idea of synchronizing my reading with friends for the sake of discussion. In case you might be interested in doing the same, I’ve added my Goodreads profile to my list of networks in the sidebar (heads up to RSS feed subscribers, there’s a sidebar you can’t see from there!).
I suppose I’ve taken some inspiration from Woody Gothrie’s 1942 “New Years Rulin’s”, many of which I also aspire to for the coming year:
- Work more and better
- Work by a schedule
- Wash teeth if any
- Shave
- Take bath
- Eat good – fruit, vegetables, milk
- Drink very scant if any
- Write a song a day
- Wear clean clothes – look good
- Shine shoes
- Change socks
- Change bed clothes often
- Read lots of good books
- Listen to radio a lot
- Learn people better
- Keep rancho clean
- Don’t get lonesome
- Stay glad
- Keep hoping machine running
- Dream good
- Bank all extra money
- Save dough
- Have company but don’t waste time
- Send Mary and kids money
- Play and sing good
- Dance better
- Help win war – beat Fascism
- Love Mama
- Love Papa
- Love Pete
- Love everybody
- Make up your mind
- Wake up and fight