heliopausa: (Default)
heliopausa ([personal profile] heliopausa) wrote2017-01-18 02:13 pm

All this and resolutions, too.

Well, "all this"  is probably false advertising, but here's two things which caught my eye in the morning's news:

Horse-snowboarding!  A new snow sport. (link goes to German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, with link to video, 1 min 40 seconds.)

This one doesn't reflect well on me, because the article is about serious stuff (refugees in Belgrade) but I was distracted by the photo that went with it.  It struck me as very Caravaggiesque, in the bold perspective as well as in the light-and-dark of it. At first I didn't understand what the main figure was doing; his lifted hand seemed to me to be raised in recognition of significance, or maybe sheltering/shielding the other figure - which was my misreading entirely, of course, but I thought I'd share the picture with you nonetheless.  (And the article's good, too.)

Okay! Resolutions -

I had ambitious plans for language learning - to make marked improvement in French and Vietnamese and to learn one Chinese character a week, ending the year knowing fifty characters.  Well - my French is about where it was, my Vietnamese is definitely better :) but I've only learned twenty Chinese characters.  So... veering close to a fail.  But on the other hand, it's fun to see that even with that tiny Chinese "vocabulary" I can generally pick out at least two or three characters in any body of writing, even short ones (because I chose from a list of the hundred most common ones).  So in the language acquisition category, I'm scoring that as breaking even.

I was going to knit my first ever pair of socks; in the end, I've finished one, and not-finished the second, and I've decided to avail myself of todayIamadaisy's useful scoring system, and count that a pass. :)

In terms of writing, I resolved to finish and send away one original story - it's finished but I'm still trembling on the brink of sending.  I also resolved to keep on with the Atrementus collection, which I have, but much more slowly than I would like.

Practising the recorder: for the second year in a row, utter dereliction.  :(

Tai Chi: well, I'm not much better, but I was, until the last two months of the year, going fairly conscientiously to the morning sessions - so I must be somewhat better, surely?
and

So what's the plan for 2017?

Languages: I think it's worth picking up the Chinese plan again, but will only have the same shamingly low ambition - to end the year with fifty characters.  To continue with Vietnamese, and make measurable progress.  French... ummm... no resolution recorded.
Reading: To read the entire Palliser series, in order.   I've read the series before, but piecemeal, and not attentively.
Oh - this year, to actually keep a record of books read, starting today; I'll make a sticky post of it.
Writing: to advance the Atrementus collection by four stories, which should take me pretty close to the end. 
To write and submit another original  story - with plot, this time!
To write at least one actual postage letter a week (postcards count).
Recorder:  I think I need to be more precise in my aims, so: to practise for twenty minutes a day, every day until the end of Tet.  Yes, I know that's paltry, but I'm hoping it will prove that it's manageable, and it avoids making wild resolutions that lead to failure.
Tai Chi: return to daily sessions five days a week, after Tet, when it will be a little less cold and dark in the morning.
 

There!  The long-delayed New Year's resolutions post is done - and now to make a sticky post to record books I've read, as I read them, in 2017


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