I gave up making New Years’ resolutions several years ago, mostly because 100% of them were either dull and boring (watch less TV), or unattainable/unsustainable (read 100 books this year!). But I’ve been looking online a bit this morning and have seen several people who have listed what they want to accomplish in 2009. I know it’s a subtle distinction, but I figure that I’ll feel less pressure if I state things as “gee, it’d be nice to…” rather than set myself up for failure by making it an Official Resolution.
With that in mind, here’s a random list of things I’d like to see out of the new year (some are resolution-like, and some I have no control over).
1. Chrome for Mac. Google has a new browser called Chrome that is supposedly all teh hotness (1.5: stop saying “teh hotness” before it goes out of style and starts marking me as a greying member of the almost-40 set. Too late) and I’d like to see it come to the Mac in 2009. I use Firefox for 99% of my browsing and love it, but it still has some niggling issues (I’m looking at you, Flash). Chrome is supposed to be neck-snappingly fast, which would be nice on my aging G4.
2. Fix my computer. Do a full clean/wipe/new drive/more RAM for the current machine. I was going to upgrade to a new tower, but the combination of economics and gear compatibility has convinced me to try to get a few more years (!?!) out of my current machine. So now instead of spending $eriou$ ca$h on a new Mac and associated hardware, I’m going to spend a few hundred dollars and try to eke out a bit more life. My computers tend to last about 6 years, at which time they’re ready to be put out to stud. My current 1.25Ghz G4 (G4! Don’t laugh) was bought in August of 03, so it just passed its fifth birthday.
3. Acquire New Maker Skills. Here’s the big one. I’m currently learning how to make stained glass and loving the process. This past year I learned how to do RTV molding as well as a few other useful small skills. I love the idea of adding to my “Maker Skills” bag-of-tricks, so from now on I want to start each year with the idea of consciously looking for one big skill and several small skills to add each year. Not sure what that’ll be this year, but by next December I hope to be able to do something that I can’t do now.
4. Continue to edit my distractions. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m almost 40, maybe it’s the ongoing reverberations from Erin’s father’s passing, but I’ve become more conscious of how precious time is. I’ve become more aware of time-suckers in my life and less tolerant of wasting time on meaningless things. I think this is why I tend to get impatient at stoplights (and in long lines at the grocery store, and waiting to get my oil changed, etc). The idea that events have conspired to cause me to waste irreplaceable time on trivial things drives me bonkers. I’ve been trying to get rid of those things that distract from meaningful time, and part of this process is defining for myself just what “meaningful time” is. For some people, reading a book is a waste of time (Erin and I know someone for whom this is the case: you can’t sit down and read a book w/o being given a job), for others, cleaning house wastes time. It’s different for everybody, and I don’t want to preach that there is one set of timewasters. Hear that Kat? I’m not going to say that TV is bad for everybody. 
But what I am going to do is this: this next year I want to look at my life and continue to decide what things are time-wasters, then figure out ways to eliminate or reduce the amount of time that I spend on those things. Then deliberately use that saved time to devote to the things (and people) that matter to me.
5. Not stress out if I don’t follow this list exactly. The point is for me to become more aware of where my time is going, and to make sure that I’m spending more of it on the important things. The point is not to get all bent if I mess up every so often.
So, what about you?