Resolution time again. First, let’s have a look at how my resolutions from all the way back in Twenny-Levvin went:

1. I shall ride the exerbike for thirty minutes (or engage in the substantial equivalent of other exercise) at least three times per week. Nope. I played a few seasons of 7v7 and rode the bike the first half of the year, then had to stop playing ball and the bike broke down. Oddly, the weight stayed down anyway.

2. I shall cook something I’ve never cooked before, and cook it at least three times to fine-tune the recipe. Errrrrrmmmmm… nope. Tinkered with the sweet-and-sour recipe a good bit, but not enough that it legally counts as a new meal. I’ll cook two this year to make up for it.

3. I shall write at least one journal entry each week. I shall not go seven days without posting an entry. Kept.

4. If a task or chore will take less than one minute to accomplish and I have a minute to spare, I shall do it immediately. Kept as much as possible.

5. On weekends and days off, I shall awaken and get out of bed before 9:19 AM. Nope. There were a handful of 10AM rise-and-shines in there, and it turns out that painkillers make it easy to sleep through alarms.

6. When I leave my classroom at the end of each day, my desktop will be clean, organized, and ready for the next day’s work. Kept. Now I need to amend this to include the top of the filing cabinet next to my desk.

7. I shall replace my mattress and give careful consideration to replacing the ‘Rolla. Kept. I did replace the mattress, and am quite content with my new mattress. Also, I did give careful consideration to replacing my car. Did I actually replace it? Keep reading.

8. I shall buy lunch no more than once per workweek. Nope. There were a few workweeks in the fall that saw me buy lunch twice.

9. I shall, to the best of my ability, follow the “orders” in the one-goofy-instruction-a-day book my sister gave me years ago. I abandoned this one right away, partly because I kept forgetting to check the instructions, partly because I didn’t want to get arrested.

10. On any day I collect essays, I shall grade at least ten of those essays. Not kept nearly often enough, but this is a good one and will get renewed.

11. I shall make a pencil sketch at least once a week. Nope. Well, yes, but only in the most technical sense… I know I drew the same frigates at sea over and over again on trivia scoresheets, post-its, and napkins. Wasn’t quite what I had in mind upon making the resolution.

12. I shall replace the mattress by summer’s end and the ‘Rolla by year’s end. The Department of Redundancy Department informs me that this should have been merged with Resolution #7. Either way, I replaced the mattress by summer’s end… but the ‘Rolla continued to run well, and “careful consideration” never turned into “kicking the tires and test-driving.”

Four of twelve. Not good. If the world is indeed going to end this coming December, I’m gonna have to go out on a high note. So let’s start with the renewed resolutions:

1. I shall ride the exerbike for thirty minutes (or engage in the substantial equivalent of other exercise) at least three times per week.

2. I shall cook two somethings I’ve never cooked before, and cook them at least three times each to fine-tune the recipes.

3. I shall write at least one journal entry each week. I shall not go seven days without posting an entry.

4. If a task or chore will take less than one minute to accomplish and I have a minute to spare, I shall do it immediately.

5. On weekends and days off, I shall awaken and get out of bed before 9:19 AM.

6. When I leave my classroom at the end of each day, my desktop and the top of the filing cabinet next to my desk shall be clean, organized, and ready for the next day’s work.

7. I shall buy lunch no more than once per workweek.

8. On any day I collect essays, I shall grade at least ten of those essays.

No newbies yet. I’ll add four along the way and entertain suggestions.

9. I shall make a 9th resolution before January 31st, 2012.

10. I shall make a 10th resolution before February 29th, 2012.

11. I shall make an 11th resolution before April 30th, 2012.

12. I shall make a 12th resolution before June 30th, 2012.

Here goes.