lists December 31, 2005
Am I going to make a list of resolutions this year? If I do, it will be shorter and less ambitious than this list from 1981 that I found while cleaning my desk. Amazing artifact of ancient times, isn't it? 1981 New year's Resolutions and Modest Goals In 1981 I will see more movies watch more PBS shows read less science fiction read more real literature eat more hot peppers (yes, especially on tuna subs!) play more racquetball play less volleyball learn to play squash learn to ski swim a mile in less than 1/2 hour lift weights worry more about weatherstripping and insulation worry less about clothing and hairstyles wear shoes more often and sneakers less often wear skirts bike to work once a month in warm months travel more avoid Joplin, Missouri turn 30 not lament turning 30 seek out new experiences go to church more often find non-DEC friends drink less alcohol drink less caffeine write the "great American novel" write any novel, short story or whatever that comes to mind write program learn pascal forget fortran watch more hawks watch more sandpipers camp out more often hike more often go canoeing more than once learn to sail not let February get me down not let January get me down not wear my down jacket in the rain spend less save more invest not wear sneakers in the rain eat out less cook fancier feasts entertain more bring more brown bag lunches buy more furniture buy more records buy fewer books buy fewer, more stylish clothes get more haircuts socialize more change my life Pascal?!? Pascal?!? In those ancient days there was a pitched battle within DEC over whether the official implementation language would be BLISS or Pascal. BLISS won. I guess it helped that the first Pascal compiler they had seemed to give a "Stack overruns heap" error for just about everything you tried to compile. Nobody even brought up C. Non-DEC friends? We called them non-Digits in those days. Evidently it took me almost 2 more years to realize that the only way to meet non-Digits was to work someplace else. Curiously, I've been telling people for 20+ years that I left there because I wanted to do UNIX and they were slow to adopt it. Apparently the real reason was to meet non-Digits. With a few notable exceptions, the closest and longest-running friendships in my life were formed at It Doesn't Suck. I do remember getting completely turned off to science fiction shortly after I turned 30 but I did not remember making a resolution to read less of it. Nowadays I don't read much "real literature" either according to the NEA Dana Gioia definition of literature as fiction, poetry, and plays. I read a lot of travel journals, history, nature writing, Thoreau and Emerson (which as you will recall are not literature according to Gioia), memoirs, that sort of thing. Of the three things I'm reading simultaneously right now one is a 19th century boys' adventure novel (which counts as literature), one is popular history, and one is travel writing. They're all about boats. Oddly I still have not taken sailing lessons. I'm sure the one sheet skiff is in my future as one last project with the kids before Lizzy graduates from high school. Of course, I haven't managed to talk them into this yet and it wouldn't involve a sail anyway -- oars are the way to go. Hmm, I saw a flyer today at The Tannery advertising a course at Lowell's Boat Shop to build a Salisbury point skiff. Maybe a wooden boat is in my future with or without the kids. I still put hot peppers on everything but don't eat tuna subs anymore, having become vegetarian. It took me 8 more years to give up alcohol. I haven't given up caffeine. My cooking has gotten much better but not exactly fancier. Records have become obsolete. I still buy too many books. My house is being taken over by them. I still harbor grandiose dreams of writing a novel even though I've proven over the last 10 years that I can't write fiction worth a darn and the only thing I really want to write about anyway anymore is piping plovers. Maybe this year's list should be: write what you know, just write it.		Today's Reading Down the Bay by Wallace P. Stanley, When China Ruled the Seas : The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433 by Louise Levathes, The Edge of Maine by Geoffrey Wolff This Year's Reading 2005 Booklist
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