Perpetually Unfinished
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
I'll do the end-of-year wrapup and next year's resolutions shortly, but I figured I'd report back on last year's resolutions first.
1. Keep exercising 30 minutes every day (brisk walking). Start doing additional higher-intensity workouts at least 1-2 times a week, hopefully more often over time.
Pretty close. I don't walk 30 minutes every day, but the round-trip to and from work is 25 minutes combined. And I do a full aerobic workout almost every week, often 3 or 4 times a week. I want to hold myself to a higher standard next year, but I think that on the whole I accomplished what I intended for this year.
2. Start volunteering somewhere on a weekly basis. Why the heck haven't I done this yet?
I continue to kick myself about this. I am lame. I try to comfort myself with the thought that I spend a large percentage of my time on good-for-humanity stuff, even if it's not direct volunteering. But still, it's something I want to do, and I should be doing, and I've failed at it completely in 2005.
3. Renew my library card at the Evanston library, and start taking out books and reading on the El. There's no reason I should spend 40 minutes twice a day staring out the window.
Count this as at least one complete success.
4. Write more. More (and better) entries here, but also fiction. I've always wanted to try NaNoWriMo, and maybe I can do it this year, but there's no way I can pull it off if I'm as rusty at writing on November 1 as I am now. And if that's too ambitious, I can at least try to come up with some short pieces. Writing Protest articles is good, and I certainly write enough memos at work, but I want to be more expressive and more creative.
Another success, although I hope to do better still next year. I did NaNoWriMo, which I'm really proud of. And I did a pretty good amount of miscellaneous writing during the spring and summer, although none of it was actually completed pieces of short fiction. All told, a huge step forward.
5. Do the dishes more often; at the very least, commit to making sure that the sink is completely dish-free by the end of every weekend.
Yeah, no, this one's a failure. There've been good stretches and bad stretches, but on average, I don't think I did any better than the previous year.
6. Don't turn on the TV before 11pm on weekdays.
I gave up on this one pretty early in, after figuring out that TV itself wasn't the problem, it was overall time-management issues.
7. Make lunches at home. Yes, having $1 cup 'o' soups every day is cheaper than going out to eat, but if I bring actual lunches from home, it'll probably be cheaper, healthier, and more interesting.
Some progress, although hardly a full success. I've definitely brought lunch more often than I did last year, maybe twice a week on average, but that's still less than half the time.
8. Make more interesting and complicated meals, instead of the same endless rotation (spaghetti, potatoes, stir-fry, rice and beans, rinse and repeat). Try to make a new and/or challenging meal at least every weekend.
See the answer to #7. I'm doing better than last year, but it's hard to call it a full success.
9. Work hard at making, improving, and maintaining friendships, even when it's awkward and difficult. Do what's necessary to spend time with people, instead of taking the lazy road and then moping about it.
Ooh, this is a hard one to assess. I clearly had a better 2005 than 2004 on this front, although I let it slip a little towards the end of the year. But it was also a really stressful and crazy couple of months, so I'm not sure how much that should count against me. I certainly want to continue working on this, but I'm going to go ahead and call it a success.
So that gives me 4 successes, 3 failures, and 2 inbetween. Not too bad a record, I suppose, considering I aimed high with 9 resolutions. Look for some of these to resurface in my 2006 resolutions...
1. Keep exercising 30 minutes every day (brisk walking). Start doing additional higher-intensity workouts at least 1-2 times a week, hopefully more often over time.
Pretty close. I don't walk 30 minutes every day, but the round-trip to and from work is 25 minutes combined. And I do a full aerobic workout almost every week, often 3 or 4 times a week. I want to hold myself to a higher standard next year, but I think that on the whole I accomplished what I intended for this year.
2. Start volunteering somewhere on a weekly basis. Why the heck haven't I done this yet?
I continue to kick myself about this. I am lame. I try to comfort myself with the thought that I spend a large percentage of my time on good-for-humanity stuff, even if it's not direct volunteering. But still, it's something I want to do, and I should be doing, and I've failed at it completely in 2005.
3. Renew my library card at the Evanston library, and start taking out books and reading on the El. There's no reason I should spend 40 minutes twice a day staring out the window.
Count this as at least one complete success.
4. Write more. More (and better) entries here, but also fiction. I've always wanted to try NaNoWriMo, and maybe I can do it this year, but there's no way I can pull it off if I'm as rusty at writing on November 1 as I am now. And if that's too ambitious, I can at least try to come up with some short pieces. Writing Protest articles is good, and I certainly write enough memos at work, but I want to be more expressive and more creative.
Another success, although I hope to do better still next year. I did NaNoWriMo, which I'm really proud of. And I did a pretty good amount of miscellaneous writing during the spring and summer, although none of it was actually completed pieces of short fiction. All told, a huge step forward.
5. Do the dishes more often; at the very least, commit to making sure that the sink is completely dish-free by the end of every weekend.
Yeah, no, this one's a failure. There've been good stretches and bad stretches, but on average, I don't think I did any better than the previous year.
6. Don't turn on the TV before 11pm on weekdays.
I gave up on this one pretty early in, after figuring out that TV itself wasn't the problem, it was overall time-management issues.
7. Make lunches at home. Yes, having $1 cup 'o' soups every day is cheaper than going out to eat, but if I bring actual lunches from home, it'll probably be cheaper, healthier, and more interesting.
Some progress, although hardly a full success. I've definitely brought lunch more often than I did last year, maybe twice a week on average, but that's still less than half the time.
8. Make more interesting and complicated meals, instead of the same endless rotation (spaghetti, potatoes, stir-fry, rice and beans, rinse and repeat). Try to make a new and/or challenging meal at least every weekend.
See the answer to #7. I'm doing better than last year, but it's hard to call it a full success.
9. Work hard at making, improving, and maintaining friendships, even when it's awkward and difficult. Do what's necessary to spend time with people, instead of taking the lazy road and then moping about it.
Ooh, this is a hard one to assess. I clearly had a better 2005 than 2004 on this front, although I let it slip a little towards the end of the year. But it was also a really stressful and crazy couple of months, so I'm not sure how much that should count against me. I certainly want to continue working on this, but I'm going to go ahead and call it a success.
So that gives me 4 successes, 3 failures, and 2 inbetween. Not too bad a record, I suppose, considering I aimed high with 9 resolutions. Look for some of these to resurface in my 2006 resolutions...
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