nags of a similar ilk

Well, it's the new year, and that means a new set of resolutions. This year, I have three resolutions, one of which is is a goal, one of which is a resolution, and one of which is a vague sort of an idea, but not really.

The first one is a goal: to discard one item every day for a year. "Discard" in this sentence doesn't mean throw away into the garbage so much as remove an item from my house. I have termed this resolution Days of Gone and added a link there up in the navigation menu. My description of this resolution and ground rules on my tracking pages are:

In an effort to be rid of the clutter and accumulation of stuff in my life, I decided that 2010 would be a year of clearing, a year of cleansing. Each day, I'm getting rid of an item, with a few ground rules:

1. Each item must leave the house, putting it in a box to "donate later" doesn't count.
2. For items being discarded, putting it into the trash is sufficient. For donated items, the item must actually leave the house.
3. There's no banking or pre-discarding items: if I discard two items on one day, I don't have a free day the next day.
4. Vacation days are the exception: I can bank items for vacation days, I still need to discard items for those days.

So, that's the goal. Get rid of crap.

The resolution is be like Joshua Greenough. When I told this resolution to Kris, he looked at me funny, so I explained. When I was helping Heather move to the City and we had forgotten the key to her new place, I called the various people I knew in the City (yes, yes, all of them are ultimate players, why do you ask?), trying to track down one of her roommates. We figured out that one of them worked with Joshua, and hey, I happened to have his phone number from when we both worked/volunteered at/with the UPA, he as college director, I as whipping boy, and so called to ask if he could find Chuck, Heather's new roommate. He said he'd look for Chuck and call me back.

A few minutes later, Chuck called Heather and made arrangements for the two of us to drive over to pick up Chuck's key for Heather to use. On our drive over, my phone rang. Since I was driving, I handed it to Heather. Joshua was on the line. He commented that he had found Chuck and asked him to call Heather. I don't know if he knew that Heather and I were in the truck together, but I heard him say that he said he would call me back, so he was calling me back.

And THAT was the moment that I knew I wanted to be like Joshua.

He had done what I asked, he had found Chuck and asked him to call Heather. He had also done what he said he would do, he called me back. He didn't really need to do that, as Chuck had talked to me. Joshua may have known that, he may have left the situation at that, that Chuck would call, he was out of the situation. Except he didn't just leave it at that. He followed through. He said he was doing to call me back, without leaving any qualifiers such as he'd call back if he could or couldn't find Chuck, and he did. He called me back. That follow-through, that "I do what I say I'm going to do," that is what I want to be like with EVERYTHING in my life. Andy is similar. When he says yes, he means yes. I like both of these aspects of these men's personalities.

So, that's the resolution. Be like Joshua.

The last one is vague sort of notion with the all-consuming project. The vagueness is more having not put it into words than not actually being able to articulate it well. It boils down to giving the project my all, even if I do fail. It's still unclear in its edges, but I want to be true to the project, to really try, to give up the safe route and jump both feet first because it's a product I believe in. If only I can get my thoughts out and into javascript and jquery sufficiently for it to work.

And that's what I have for 2010: cleanse, follow-through and be true.

One you can follow, one you can call me on and one you can see blossom in a week.

Let's compare and contrast, shall we? In particular, the results of the the beers around the world celebration of the New Year.

Kris, asleep until 4pm.

Andy, awake and productive at 8am.

Given a choice, I'll vote for Andy's liver.

Kris and Andy decided some time in the last few weeks that the best way to celebrate the changing of the new year and new decade (yeah, yeah, don't tell me 2010 isn't the new decade because there was no year 0 - there was no year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or a whole bunch of other years, either. 2001 represents the END of the FIRST year, so yeah, there was a year zero and 2010 is the END of the first 10 years and January 1st 2010 is, therefore, the start of the new decade) is to celebrate the new year in each timezone as the day progresses. And what better way to celebrate each of these new years than by toasting, and drinking, a beer made in each of those time zones.

While they thought this was a brilliant idea, they had sufficient reservations to start in Russia instead of some place over the Pacific Ocean, which is what they did. Starting at noon yesterday, they toasted the timezones, drank a beer, waited twenty minutes, and tested their blood alcohol levels, and recorded them in a spreadsheet.

They started over at Kris' work, where I went to pick them up after they'd been drinking for a few hours, and to catch up on the festivities.

Well, where "catching up" means "find out what happened."

They were entertaining, to say the least.

I had handed Kris a camera and told him he had to take pictures, a directive that I impressed upon him by IMing a few minutes after the hour and reminding him to TAKE PICTURES. He did a good job, which thrilled me.

Fortunately, I showed up and saved him from having to take any more pictures. And even more fortunately, I took a lot of pictures to make up for Kris' lack.

So, like I mentioned, the timing of the day was supposed to go something like cheers! at the top of the hour, drink the beer for the next twenty minutes or so, wait 20 minutes for the alcohol to process through their systems. The twenty minute was was part of the instructions to get an accurate rating.

I was a the control. Hey look, the bottom end of the meter works!

I'm not quite sure how Kris thought he was going to continue working after having had a couple beers, but his coworkers didn't seem to think anything about it. While Kris tried to work, Andy and I goofed off. We went off to a furniture store to look for a bar for Andy (I think, I couldn't tell, though, given how much he had been drinking, but, hey, the other furniture was interesting, if only I had a bigger house or another house to furnish). We had to dash back for the next round, which pretty much set the tune for our merriment which included being accosted by an elevator, and teaching Bella what life on Jupiter must be like, include harder breathing with the greater gravity.

After their drinking for another two hours, three clinking of beers, we dashed off to P.F.Changs to pick up dinner and continued to Andy's house. We were originally going to go to Heidi and John's house, to continue our 5 year tradition of celebrating New Year's with them, but the boys were ill, and my house was a mess.

Besides, at Andy's everyone is greeted at the door by a chicken. Why would you want to go any place else?

Jessica and Eric joined us soon after for dinner. At this point, I didn't know if I should be embarrassed, embarrassed for Kris and Andy, or indifferent to their New Year's shenanigans. When Eric joined in and started drinking with them, I decided I didn't need to worry. Thankfully, Jessica was willing to drink the bubbly apple juice, so I had some who could easily interpret my eyerolls.

We had dinner, then toured the chicken coop, and noticed the blue moon with enjoyment.

Annoyingly, I discovered the time on my camera was off by an hour. Yeargh.

Around 8PM, Andy suggested a game of PowerGrid, with his Christmas present of the China/Korea board. In retrospect, that was a mistake. The game lasted FOR-EV-VER. Gah. The Chinese version had a different power station distribution model, with a much, much slower pace. The game we played before took 3 hours, this one would have taken 6 hours if we had bothered to finish it. Needless to say, the soufflés were MUCH more interesting, both to bake and to eat.

THAT tradition was definitely staying, even if going to Heidi and John's wasn't.

So, the night became each hour, we'd stop for a toast. Five minutes before, we'd be caught off-guard that an hour had passed already, the beers would change, we would be completely unable to find the ball dropping in NY on any cable channel including the Spanish channels, we'd cheer the hour, and continue playing.

Even after midnight, Andy and Kris were intent on continuing drinking and playing PowerGrid. They had beers for 1AM and 2AM. Jessica was done at midnight, even though Eric seemed willing to continue. I, too, was way done, especially with PowerGrid, so we managed to shanghai the drunken boys into ending the game. Oh, thank GOODNESS Jessica was there to help me on that one.

After Jessica and Eric left, Andy, Kris and I hit the hot tub. I was more than a little worried when the two of them started slurring their speech, but figured as long as I was alert, I could keep them out of most trouble. That midnight beer was not a good choice. The two of them were blasted.

The evening wound down with the three of us watching some really, really bad videos. They made it through thirteen beers in twelve hours, some of them really impressively alcoholic (the 12% one was a little overwhelming). Kris never managed a BAC less than 0.4 according to the breathalyzer he was using, which caused much mirth throughout the evening.

While I have to say being the sober person in a group of drunks isn't exactly the easiest way to transition to a new year, it's still an entertaining way to do it.

Welcome 2010. There are a few ways you could be worse than 2009, but let's not go there, okay?

Years ago, Mom, Eric and I went to Curaçao on vacation. We went to see the eclipse that was crossing the island, with Aruba being just too darn expensive. The eclipse following desire was the inspiration for my trip to Peru in '94. I can tell you, if you want to travel the world, go see eclipses. You'll end up in amazing places along the way.

I had brought along my spiffy new clarinet, as I was teaching myself how to play (a feat that surprised and impressed Eric, that someone could pick up a musical instrument on one day and be able to play a number of tunes on it fairly well a week or so later, having never played a reed instrument before). I spent a number of hours by myself, making sure Mom and Eric had time to be alone without the third wheel known as Kitt. I spent the time by myself, but I needed that time to think, away from life, away from distractions, away from work, to just think. I'd sprint on the beach, play my clarinet, and think.

Aside from the wind and lack of fresh milk, it was a good place to be to think.

Mom and Eric were more adventurous than I was, but I'd still head out with them to various ports or museums or other adventures. A wind-swept island with little vegetation doesn't offer much in the way of lush hikes, but some adventures could be found.

On our way to one adventure, we drove along a dusty, yes, wind-swept road, following the gentle rolling of the terrain. Where the ground was low, lush trees and bushes grew, away from the wind. Where the ground was high, the land was barren, as the ocean breezes kept anything from staying in one place long enough to set roots and stay.

Along one of these small hills with no vegatation was a house. Surrounding the house was a large number of cars in various states of disrepair. They were all older cars, seemingly waiting to be fixed up, rather than just providing parts for other cars. I tapped Mom on her shoulder, and pointed them out as we drove past.

"Each one of those is a Someday," I told her.

Those cars represented a Someday for the owner. Some day, he was going to get to them. Some day, he was going to fix them up. Some day, he was going to have that car to drive. Some day. Some day. Some day.

We all have our Somedays, that one wish, that one dream, that one goal we want to accomplish. Some of us have many more than one. Some of them linger a short while before disappearing. Some linger for a lifetime, never quite arriving.

A large number of my friends are selecting a word to define the new year (admittedly, some of those non-internet friends are doing them at my suggestion). I like the idea a lot, but instead of a single word, I am choosing a full sentence to define 2010 for me.

Someday is today.

Life is way, way, way too short. The end can come unexpectedly way too soon. I can't bear to arrive at the end and think, "But, but, some day I was going to ..." Someday has to be today, or it will never be.

Someday has arrived, and it is 2010.

Kyle and Emily often take pictures of themselves with entertaining expressions. The pictures of their being goofy crack me up. I love them.

Probably helps that they're both beautiful people.

I've been wishing for the courage to not only taking photos of myself with goofy expressions, but also post them. Funny how posting artistic photos is easy, but entertaining photos isn't. I guess some traits run in the family.

I'm going to try to be more bold as part of my new year's resolution to live deliberately. One of 26 resolutions, I forget which number this one is.