Projects for the New Year

posted at 1:17 am
on Jan. 5, 2010

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I have a few personal projects in mind for the new year, but before I announce them, I’d like to get started on them.

I find, perversely, that announcing my projects tends to deflate them.  That I say I’m going to do a big thing, but then it doesn’t happen.

That goes contrary to the advice I sometimes get (and give): that you should announce your intentions publicly, so that you have more on the line to carry through with them.  I’ve seen several people do that this year, not just about resolution,s but with pictures of themselves at a certain weight, with photo projects, with aspirational quotes and shared To Do lists.

* * *

Susie’s hard drive died on Sunday.  She has a Windows machine, and we can’t find her XP discs.  So it’s $200 for Windows 7, $100 for Office, $150 for a new hard drive, and hours of setup and data recovery (yes, we have a backup, but it’s not like it just kerplunks itself back into place.

Thing is, for that much money and time, should we just get a new computer?  I don’t know.  It’s only two years old.  It’s a decent tower with a decent CPU.  sigh.

* * *

Dinner Wednesday is going to be some delicious chicken ball soup with vermicelli noodles. Susie got a Noodle recipe book for Christmas and I’m looking to benefit mightily from it.

Noodles are a strange thing: how old can they be and still boil up fine? Years, I bet.  That’s pretty amazing.

Noodles and relationships—they can sit dormant for years and then one day, boil back into life, revitalizing and filling you up.

It’s kind of like that for the nice long phone call with my Dad on Boxing Day.

It’s the first real conversation I’ve had with him in four or so years.  I’m looking forward to our next call.  I called him; there was about 2 minutes of awkwardness, and then we started talking about car headlights and it all just kind of felt like it should.  I’ve missed him a hell of a lot.  It’s not always possible to get someone back if you’ve put them out of your life, and I don’t know that my Dad’s going to be back in mine, but it feels promising as of today, and that feels good.

* * *

p.s. one of my personal projects is to blog more this year.  Are you surprised?

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