Has New Year already come to you ?

This is the place to carve in cybernetic stone about your good intentions !

So what will it be ? Lose a few pounds ? Stop smoking ? read more ? Read better ? Tackle a tome ? Post more reviews ?

Let us hear about it !

FINISH MY MASTRRRRRRS

A noble goal Martini.

You know, I have 18 years of formal American education. As a result I can sit, stay, AND roll-over.

My goals? (1) A 25+ minute 5K would be nice. (2) A full marathon (any duration) would be REALLY nice (please, please grant me this wish, oh withered, decrepit left medial meniscus!) (3) A few inches off the distended swag-back dawg belly. (4) Read a lot more Shakespeare. (5) Read Infinite Jest over at the DFW Group, in accordance with EF's suggestion. (6) Finish Tristram Shandy (7) Kill that growing pile of "To be finished" books

(8) Spend more time wearing a Black Cowboy hat, white shirt, jeans and no shoes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xSGLZd9Vg4

Good intentions? Hell, yes, you can follow my well-paved road all the way.

In 2013 I'd like to
• keep going in present weight-losing mode until I'm down at least 10 more pounds,
• read more books from the library than I purchase from Amazon,
• unload a bunch of clutter and clear some space in my study,
• make one thing that is both useful and attractive,
and
• quit stewing over past good intentions that I never managed to carry out.

I intend to find out what really happened to bin Laden, and when and where.

Though I was given a black survivalist assassin pen I intend to use it only for writing.

I intend to scorn all United States befoulings of the globe that come to my attention.

I intend to drink without driving while drunk or drinking unless it's the first beer and I am on my way home.

I intend to earn enough money to afford 45 minute drives into Italy to where my son can join a baseball team, and I intend to nurture his interest in the game and counter all capitalist style coaches/parents/players so that he may enjoy the baseball moments regardless.

I intend to quiet as a lammergeier watch over the education of my daughter, hoping it is not necessary to intervene, to make surprise landings to encourage her intuition and frighten off jackals of reason and misguided good will.

I intend to mail a box of things to Urania.

I intend to mail three copies of Arjun and the Good Snake that are long overdue.

I intend to drink only beer tonight and began the new year (if it is indeed a new one and not a retread) without a hangover.

I intend to write between three hundred and six hundred pages of fiction in my last US novel which is now approaching its 70th page.

I intend to be kinder and more joyful than ever.

I intend to thank the sea every day and the mountains when I can see them.

I intend to attend taverns as the need, feel, occasion arises without getting tossed out of any.

thank you

I wouldn't have thought to mention this, but like Sandydog the First, I think I will wear one of my two cowboy hats more than I have been.

My resolutions

To wear my beret before it gets too hot

To still be blowing down my saxophone at the end of the year

To get past chapter three (thats the one about key signatures) of the ABC guide to music theory

To not get so depressed when my football team loses

to read more books in French - one would do it

To renew my British passport as long as England does not leave the European community

to eat in the salon and drink in the tavern

er um..... to read more books and listen to more music.

To visit a salonista or two or three on their home turf.

To study harder in Chinese.

To visit more museums and art galleries.

To take good care of my beloveds and myself.

To see more plays.

To participate in some creativity.

To immerse myself in the culture, read the books, drink the wine (coffee, tea, juices, liquors) and eat the food of every place I visit, except when I visit London, when I will see British plays and read British books, but look at Greek art, drink French wine, and eat Indian food.

To work less hard.

To fail at fewer than three of the above.

Slovenia awaits thou, Samson

- Read IJ
- Read The Baroque Cycle
- Read Celestial Harmonies
- Stay out of prison in what is soon to be a dictatorship here in Greece