Picking Off Resolutions Like Petals on a Daisy - They Love Me Not

In this previous post, I listed some New Years resolutions. Figured it was high time as January is rounding third and heading for home, to take inventory -- and maybe get a little more realistic. So don't look for humor in this post. You'll find none. I'll take them one by one.

1) Our novel. Progress is going slow, and I was a tad hasty in stating we were rockin' and rolling. Perhaps we're just rolling. Rolling into the abyss. Ken's working on rewriting the first four chapters, and I've written two and a half additional in the new year that will need to go through his revisions. Plus, to go forward from here, I really need to see the first four. And our work schedules are not so much crepe-y as they are crappy, for writing I mean. So, buggers!

2) Getting better about the business end of writing. Bleech.

3) Trying to get my weight back down... to a tenth of a ton. Dents. Very, very small dents. I may have lost 1 lb so far. But I prefer to measure that in ounces, so let's say I've lost 16.

4) Unretiring from basketball. CHECK!!!!! I'm only playing one night a week so far, but it's been consistent. And not only that, and this is important, but I've been winning, unbelieveably enough. Not that there hasn't been chunks of rust falling off my body and clanking onto the hardwood floor. A lot of will stay on because one night a week just won't cut it to ever get into a real playing rhythm and playing shape. Oh well, I can always pine for days gone by... OR live vicariously through my children. Which one's better?

5) Work-related. Not so good.

6) Family Bible Study. Er, uh, hmm...

7) Take kids to an AU football or b-ball game. So far, no, but taking them to see an AU basketball game right now may set them back 15 years in the sport. Better wait for football.

8) Getting thru at least 1/2 of N.T. Wright's For Everyone books. I'm still poking through Luke. This also reveals a bit much on my quiet times, unfortunately.

9) Read 15 children's books, 15 Grimm's fairy tales, 5 short stories, 5 myths. Make it 14 books to go. I finished Milkweed. I'll probably post on that one soon. I've read King Midas as well, so make it 4 myths to go. Also, my wife started reading The Spiderwick Chronicles to our boys, so I'm following suit (even with all my other open books around). They're short, which means sweeeeeeeeet!!! So I should be able to get through all five in not that much time. I've started #1.

10) 5 adult books this year (fiction), 2 classics, one Shakespeare play, 10 works of poetry and analysis of them. Down to eight on the poems. Not sure I've got the motivation for 5 adult books, but we'll see. I might get to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, but saying might is exactly the same as saying "might not." I guess I could make that claim about any book, then. Hmm. This year, I might read the whole Huntsville Public Library. I know what you're thinking (besides is there a point to this post). You're thinking: that's not in The Realm of Possibility. And to that I say I'm in that Realm right now.

11) Budgeting Net time for Dolphins to 15 minutes every other day. CHECK!!!!! Call Ripley's.

12) Attending Worship Service. Uh, what's the next one?

13) Write 5-10 quality short stories. Good in theory.


The bottom line, as probably everyone can see, is that I'm probably not going to make many of these. I really don't think they're that ambitious, but maybe I'm wrong. Let me put that another way - I don't think they're that ambitious for the average Joe, but we're talking about an unstructured, undisciplined, below average ne'er-do-well (despite being a diabolical genius), here so it's hard to account for all that sweet goodness.

Hopefully, the above average of you guys are doing better in all of yours than I'm doing in mine. I've gotta believe so. Most of the geniuses out there I have to assume didn't make resolution lists anyway. Next year, I want to be a genius like that.

And yeah, I'm not sure I really had a point.