Daddy and Julia in Mar Vista/Venice area of Los Angeles on December 31, 2008.

New Year's Resolutions for 2009

THE COUNTDOWN:
A new year and a new start!

Rich Geib's 2009 New Year's Resolutions!

What should I do? Where to go? How to live?

“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.”
Benjamin Franklin

• SAME AS LAST YEAR: TENNIS AND THE WEIGHTS

Same as last year's failed resolution.

• CONTINUE BEING THE BEST FATHER AND HUSBAND I CAN BE

Takes just about all my post-work time and energy...

• CONVERT TO BLU RAY

Sony BDP-S350 unit for blu-Ray so as to continue the Bravia Theater Sync.

• LEARN FROM YOUR BETTER HALF

Social isolation and physical inactivity is not what your wife has done: learn from her positive example

• DR. WHITE

Get HMO situation under control

• POTTY TRAIN JULIA

My God, will this be a blessed thing!

• PLAY MUSIC LOUDLY!

You have an uber-expensive sound system downstairs, but never make the time to use it (or find the time when wife and daughter are not around).

• GET BRENT AND BARICH ONTO FACEBOOK

Fight the lonliness of weakened scattered nature of the contemporary American life in way you can.

• MOVE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE TO ITS OWN DOMAIN

  Important task in long-term but much short-term tedious grunt work. Get it done.

• LONG AND LAZY AFTERNOONS AT THE GETTY VILLA

Lounge about for hours among the artifacts of antiquity in Malibu and read deeply of the ancients during summer break.

• RSS FEEDS TO NON-MARQUEE CLASSES

The last five yards after so much earlier hard work. Get it done in 2009-2010.

• MAKE SOME KIND OF DENT IN THE "TO READ" BOOK PILE --

  Here is the lineup at this time:

First Rung:

• "The Forever War" by Dexter Filkins
• "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith" by Studs Terkel
• "Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times by Studs Terkel
• "Facing Unpleasant Facts” and “All Art is Propaganda” by George Orwell, complied by George Packer
• "Mother on Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting!" by Sandra Tsing Loh
• "Of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford
• "Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System" by Roberto Saviano
• "Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America" by Jay Parini
• "The Strongest Tribe" by Bing West
• "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time" by Jeffrey Sachs
• "Enough" by Bill McKibben
• "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink
  • (DID READ)
• "The Abstinence Teacher" by Tom Perrotta
  • (DID READ)
• "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" by Barack Obama
• "Tess of the Durbervilles" by Thomas Hardy
• "The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861" by David M. Potter
• "Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief" by James M. McPherson
• "Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877" by Eric Foner (read in December 2009)
• "The Conquest of Gaul" by Julius Caesar
• "Mystic River" by Denis Lehane
• "Anabasis: The Persian Expedition" by Xenophon

Second Rung: On the radar screen but longer-term goals:

• "Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay
• "The School on Heart's Content Road" by Carolyn Chute
  
  
• MAKE SOME KIND OF DENT ON THE NETFLIX QUEUE --

• "Darwin's Nightmare"
• "Downfall"
• "The People vs. Larry Flynt"
• "Beaufort"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Lawrence of Arabia"
• "American Experience: The Rockefellers"
• "The Wobblies"
  • (VIEWED)
• "I've Loved You So Long"
• "The Seventh Seal"
• "This Film is not Yet Rated"
• "Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi"
• "The Edward R. Murrow Collection"
• "Dying Young"
• "Lorenzo's Oil"
• "Deliver Us From Evil"
• "Harlan County, U.S.A.
• "Bra Boys"
• "Mongol"
• "Body of Lies"
• "Enter Les Murs"
• "Quantum of Solace"
• "Battlestar Galactica: Season 4"
• "Phillip K. Dick: The Penultimate Truth"
• "Chicago 10"
• "Commune"
• "Waltz With Bashir"
• "The Wrestler"
• "Valkyrie:
• "The Reader"
• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
• "Revolutionary Road"
• "The Reader"
• "Quantum of Solace"
• "JCVD"
• "I've Loved You So Long"
• "Gran Torina"
• "Hamlet"
• "Gomorra"
• "Frost/Nixon"
• "Entre Les Murs"
• "Defiance"
• "Slumdog Millionaire"
• "Changeling"
• "Body of Lies"
• "Austraila"
• "The Shield": entire series