New Year's Resolutions for 2012

Revelers cheer behind police barricades In Times Square in New York on December 31, 2011.

YEAR OF 2012

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

"Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed."
Cavett Robert

• Do not mistake the forest for the trees!

  As the significant stress and pains of having younger children begin to recede, don't let this miasma of general stress and overwhelmedness obscure the significant specific joys of moment-to-moment happiness of father-daughter interactions. It will go quickly, never to return.

  STATUS: As well as can be expected in the chaos of the moment. Even in difficult moments I know in my bones I am lucky to have my family.

• Undivided time and attention.

  Julia and Elizabeth Anne have never heard me say, "I can't! I have to grade papers!" Keep it that way: family first. Stay present ("mindful") of children and wife, Maria.

  STATUS: Girls have gotten my best moments, and none can complain of having been slighted in time or attention.

• No more caffeine!

  Long overdue.

  STATUS:Total failure.

• Transition year

  Get Julia comfortably into kindergarden and Elizabeth Anne into preschool.

  STATUS: Success, but not without stress and growing pains. But things progress apace.

• PRC day care

  Elizabeth Anne needs to make her peace in being under the control of adults other than just her parents.

  STATUS: Success! Only a few hiccups.

• Continue significant gains in physical conditioning, without getting injured.

  In the last four months it seems as if you are just one step away from an injury, and you are not twenty years old anymore; so build patiently on last year's gains, while exercising as smart as you do hard. See the long view. Allow your body enough time for recovery, stretch always, and build, build, build! Listen to your body as you stress it. Listen! And then consolidate and move forward.

  STATUS: Gains continue, but there is still living on the very verge of injury constantly. Much more attention payed to "prehabilitation" -- stretching muslcles before sleep at night, core and Pilates constantly, "monster walk," and constant icing. Still, need to consolidate gains so as to build a stronger base and prevent injury.

• Get feet back under oneself!

• Re-emerge from financially devastating years of ginormous child care costs.

STATUS: Doing OK, but still major child care costs on a weekly basis.

• Re-finance house

• A no-brainer financially with these interest rates.

STATUS: In process.

• Make a will and advanced directive for medical care

• You have the software and attempted to do this last year, but the very first question ("Do you wish to be buried? Or cremated?") nonplussed me to the point where I went no further. Finish the whole thing.

STATUS: Failure. Still not done.

• Eat smarter

• With just a wee bit of better planning and a jot of research and thought, you could less often resort to eating meals you have already eaten far too often. And bring some of those meals to school for lunch! Involve Maria.

STATUS: Sucess, insofar as my measly thirty minute lunch break allows. Consolidate and build on gains for 2013, especially in evening meals.

Make some kind of dent in the "to read" book pile --

Here is the lineup at this time:

• "Beloved" by Toni Morrison
  • (DID READ)
• "Feel-Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling" by Alfie Kohn
  • (DID READ)
• "Colonel Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris
  • (DID READ)
• "Talking Points" by George W. Bush
• "Closing Time" by Joe Queenan
  • (DID READ)
• "First Things First" by Stephen Covey
  • (DID READ)
• "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
  • (DID READ)
• "Moonlight Mile" by Dennis Lehane
  • (DID READ)
• "It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership" by Colin Powell
  • (DID READ)
• "How to Tutor Your Own Child" by Marina Koestler Ruben
  • (DID READ)
• "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson
  • (DID READ)
• "The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance " by W. Timothy Gallwey
  • (DID READ)
• "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
  • (DID READ)
• "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood" by Michael Lewis
  • (DID READ)
• "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness" by Kay Redfield Jamison
  • (DID READ)
• "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch
  • (DID READ)
• "The Art of Doubles: Winnis Tennis Strategies and Drills" by Pat Blaskower
  • (DID READ)
• "Absalom! Absalom!" by William Faulkner
  • (DID READ)
• "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son" by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez
  • (DID READ)
• "The General in His Labyrinth" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • (DID READ)
• "Vic Braden's Mental Tennis: How to Psych Yourself to a Winning Game" by Vic Braden
  • (DID READ)
• "Think to Win: The Strategic Dimension of Tennis," by Allen Fox
  • (DID READ)
• "Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives" by Dan Millman
  • (DID READ)
• "Hardcourt Confidential" byu Patrick McEnrore
  
  • (DID READ)
• "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" by Rob Lowe
  • (DID READ)
• "Just Kids" by Patti Smith
  • (DID READ)
• "Think to Win: Strategic Dimension of Tennis" by Allen Fox
  • (DID READ)
• "Angela's Ashes"
  • (DID READ)
• "My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands" by Chelsea Handler
  • (DID READ)
• "Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York " by Richard Zacks
  • (DID READ)
• "The Hunger Games," "Catching Fire," and "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
  • (DID READ)
• "A Clash of Kings, "A Storm of Swords" by George R.R. Martin
  • (DID READ)
• "Growing Up Brave: Expert Strategies for Helping Your Child Overcome Fear, Stress, and Anxiety" by Jonna Pincus
  • (DID READ)
• "Go Girl!" by Hannah Storm
  • (DID READ)
• "Nightwoods" by Charles Frazier
  • (DID READ)
• "Rafa" by Rafael Nadal and John Carlin
  • (DID READ)
• "It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell
  • (DID READ)
• "Tis: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
  • (DID READ)
• "House of Pride" by Jack London
  • (DID READ)

Books Read With Julia --

• "Charlie and the Cholocate Factory" by Roald Dahl
  • (DID READ)
• "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl
  • (DID READ)
• "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
  • (DID READ)
• "Fantastic Mr. Fox" by Roald Dahl
  • (DID READ)
• "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • (DID READ)
• "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • (DID READ)
• Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • (DID READ)

Make some kind of dent in the Netflix queue --

• "Prometheus"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Moneyball"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Max Manus"
• "The Grey"
  • (VIEWED)
• "The Debt"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Young Adult"
• "You Don't Know Jack"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Melancholia"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Peaceful Warrior"
  • (VIEWED)
• "The Ideas of March"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Descendants"
  • (VIEWED)
• "The Help"
• "Beginners"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Rampart"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Life Happens"
  • (VIEWED)
• "United Red Army"
  • (VIEWED)
• "My Perestroika"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Like Crazy"
  • (VIEWED)
• "50/50"
  • (VIEWED)
• "A Better Life"
  • (VIEWED)
• "The Change Up"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Game of Thrones"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Warrior"
  • (VIEWED)
• "The Iron Lady"
  • (VIEWED)
• "The Way"
  • (VIEWED)
• Martha Marcy May Marlene
  • (VIEWED)
• "Drive"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Margin Call"
  • (VIEWED)
• "Beginners"
  • (VIEWED)
• I Melt With You
  • (VIEWED)
    
• Southland TV Series, Season 2, 3 and 4
  • (VIEWED)
• "Bronson"
• "Friends With Kids"
• "What to Expect When You're Expecting"
  • (VIEWED)
• The Whistleblower
• "The Hunger Games"
  • (VIEWED)

PAST YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS:

Year of 2020

Year of 2018

Year of 2017

Year of 2016

Year of 2015

Year of 2014

Year of 2013

Year of 2012

Year of 2011

Year of 2010

Year of 2009

Year of 2008

Year of 2007

Year of 2006

Year of 2001

Year of 2000

Year of 1999

Year of 1996

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