Joseph Weisenthal

2011 New Year’s Resolutions

God, is there anything more trite than being anti-New Year’s resolutions? Being anti-prediction comes in a close second.

If nothing else, resolutions make for a good way of measuring your frame of mind at a given time. For example, for 2009 I resolved to read all of Human Action. I didn’t do it, but as a reflection of where my mind was at in late 2008 — during the worst of the financial crisis — it makes for an interesting mile-marker.

So, blah blah blah, here are my resolutions:

1. See the movie Country Strong.
2. Get washboard abs.
3. Start writing music again. Write, perhaps, a whole country album or a gospel album.
4. Stay better in touch with family. Call Mother, father, and sister more regularly.
5. Unplug from the internet/phone more frequently when I’m at home.
6. Get out and meet people more and drink with people more like actual reporters do
7. Play more poker, and perhaps learn a new game like Go or Backgammon.
8. Crank up the effort on hygiene and attire a notch. More frequently be at the office wearing a shirt that’d be appropriate for going on TV or meeting semi-serious people. Shave more.
9. Cook more at home, and eat out less. Specifically learn to cook some more basic meals, like, say, a pork roast.
10. Eat more Korean food (big one!).
11. Discover some more Chinese restaurants in Chinatown and in Queens.
12. Get into more fights on the internet.
13. Reorganize finances. Start trading currencies because everyone else is doing it and it looks like a lot of fun.