Belated Resolutions Post, Or, I Still Don't Know What I am Doing With My Life

I have been somewhat following these goals while not feeling the time/alertness to post much that is interesting in this space (I have been getting lots of prep-ahead work done, which you would probably agree is more important), but I am worried that without making these much more specific and public I will fall off them before long.

Resolution/Goal # 1: Having established a beachhead and planted a flag, I should explore further out into the territory. I was going to make a joke about being saved and fed thanksgiving dinner by friendly Indians, but on further thought realized that put me in the role of really shitty and terrible people who went out and colonized and exterminated everybody, so maybe I don't want to be using that metaphor. Anyway, a character weakness I have is the tendency to hide at home and waste time on the internet looking at stuff I am not even interested in, so this goal covers exploring the area, going out with people and doing various activities, and meeting new people, and in general do stuff that will result in wonderful memories, not vague feelings of regret like when I binge on Go Fug Yourself and cat pictures. And this goal has some additional difficulties I will return to and discuss in a second.

Resolution/Goal # 2: Read more books for pleasure. Again, inertia and the internet work against this, but I love reading things just because they are awesome and I am not doing enough of it. Since I have an unhealthy obsession with lists, and with checking things off, I might need to do some sort of checklist or log on here.

Reading for work and grading do not count under this goal, which leads us to:

Resolution/Goal # 3: Start grading earlier; stop grading earlier. I need to just get the grading done in my grading sessions and not sit around feeling terrible about the grading I am about to do but haven't actually jumped into yet. I should also work on using the pomodoro method, as it is not the working but the breaks that then stretch on way too long that get me. Start, finish and then get outside!

Resolution/Goal # 4: Get back into the practice of my yoga practice. This is actually the one I have been having most success with so far. I hope I have a workable teaching schedule (9am classes are a bit early to yoga and shower and get lots of crap ready beforehand. And I am not good about getting to bed early.) It is my hope that getting back to my 3x a week yoga practice along with weekend walking/hiking will lead to my next goal,

Resolution/Goal # 5:  Lose the beer gut! Actually, it's probably a cheese and ice cream gut. I would really like to drop off some of this weight so I don't have a fat roll in pictures where I am sitting down. However, while I eat pretty healthy, this goal conflicts with the parts of Goal #1 that involve eating out or drinking with new friends, as well as Goal #6:

Resolution/Goal #6: Learn to cook more things, including for other people! This would involve inviting people over for things, which I haven't done in sooo long. I have some cookbooks I have barely opened, and cooking is always fun. 

And finally, I am not sure if this is a goal or not, but I want to learn how to really use my fancy camera. I think this means I want to take a class, but I'm not sure. I will ponder and make decisions later, and possibly this will be a big goal for next year instead.

Now I am going to go to bed and tomorrow will post about the problems with these goals and the pitfalls of The Hot Place.