2013 Self-amatums

I find the notion of 'resolutions' precious.  However, I do respect that made by 'kamo' as ambitious, and those by 'Ourmani Nabiko' as eminently healthy.  I will make none on how to be a decent father and husband: doing right by that is part of the job, and to attend to it poorly and make up for it with a resolution would be no achievement at all.  No, the things I determine to do are to the purpose of bettering myself beyond the baseline.  I will not achieve all, but will achieve most.  Thank god the J-wife is happy to be rid of me a weekend or two a month.

1. Run that marathon
I am three weeks behind where I should be, but I might make it up for the one I have already registered for at the end of March.  If not, I can run my own route alone any time after that and before mid-May, when it starts to get too hot and humid.

2. Brevets
At least while in Japan.  I keep spending money on my road bike, so I might as well get the use of it.  Maybe a couple of 200s, a 300, and if I do not bone-up too badly, a 400 and a 600.  No 1200 in Japan this year, and I am not flying to Paris to ride, so that distance will wait till next year, or not happen.  Also, need to ride from Nikko over the Irohazaka past Chuzenji-ko and Yumoto.  Sadly, I doubt I will keep this up near Toronto as I want to live to see my children become adults.  After I do one of the 200s, I am going to reward myself with switching the wide Q-factor triple (165mm) for a narrower double (145mm) that takes mountain climbing chainrings.  This is a hilly country, and I don't juice.

3. Hikes
Knock off some more of the overnight hikes long on my list in Japan:
- Minami Alps: Akaishi and Hijiri, Kai-Koma and Houou
- Kita Alps: Hodaka and Kasagatake
- Tohoku: something of Bandai, Azuma or Adatara, but the latter is unlikely even though I do not plan on more kids - hit by Fukishima Dai-Ichi fallout, so surface water is not the best idea...

4. Plan and flesh out what I will write
No way as a father of two I am going to finish a novel this year, but I am going to determine what I will, and assemble the pieces.  Essential to it is that I may get no audience, so I'll write it to the kids at least.  Hey, I just thought of that...  I may be going the way of essays, and do not think any will be suitable until the kids start swearing themselves.  May start with one of my rules for each, and then split each theme along who and what is worth your time, and who and what isn't, and where and why your obligations lie.  Not that I expect the kids will listen enough.  Fiction... it would be a false choice for me for many reasons, and if the writer can't believe in his characters...

5.  Same amount of reading, but less online
After all, I bought a fucking Kindle.

6. Find a cause whose members don't appall me, and there's some point aiding
There are many things worth contributing to, and just as many organizations filled with the self-serving.  Also not into ameliorative charity, when the real social and ecological problems on Earth are rooted in economic and political disparity.  I am aware of a certain elegance to the starfish metaphor, but it would be nice to believe my efforts don't evaporate the moment I stop pushing the rock back up the hill.  Cumulative sociopolitical solutions I'd hope to be involved in, but such things come when a society is ready for them, which ours is not.  In the absence of that hope there is no point making a martyr of myself when I have mouths to feed.