new-years

One goal, one resolution and one I don't know

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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:

Compare and contrast

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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.

Kris asleep

Andy, awake and productive at 8am.

IMG_5720.JPG

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

Celebrating the New Year Around the World

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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.

Goodbye 2009, and good riddance

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Years ago, Mom, Eric and I went to CuraƧao 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.

Learning to be bold

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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.

First photo of 2008

Daily Photo

By taking lots and lots of photos as the hour of the new year approached, we managed a good first photo of the new year.

2008 is so way going to be the best year in a long, long time.

New Year's 2008

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As we have established as a now 4 year tradition, we spent new year's eve over at Heidi and John's, though this year it was Heidi, John and Adrian, the cute little boy whom we finally met. Somehow, I managed to convince Heidi and John to stand still long enough without baby in arms to take a picture of the four of us. To my surprise, it was not only centered, but also a good picture of all of us:

Bridge, Pei and Pei's brother arrived after we had eaten dinner. We were going to immediately kick them out of the house, but Pei bribed us with her handmade chocolate truffles. Did I mention truffles? Did I mention chocolate?

Yeah, we let them stay.