Resolutions New and Old

Last Year's Resolutions
1) Start and complete a short comic.
B. Sixteen has 11 pages, but (a) it's only half done, and (b)it's kind of a practice comic since I'm basing it off of someone else's short story.

2) Be able to hold a rudimentary conversation in Japanese.
F. Complete fail. Did not practice/learn Japanese at all. (Did learn a tiny bit of Brazilian Portuguese for Brazil trip)

3) Practice Banjo consistently
C-. Yes, for a few months.

4) Travel to somewhere that I haven't been before!
A. Definitely. Especially rewarding in the experiencing new cultures aspect -- Italy, Croatia, Brazil, and Turkey each have a very different position on the world stage, and relate to the rest of their continent/world differently. Brazil showed me a very different way of dealing with colonial legacies. Turkey showed me a modern moderate Muslim nation. Italy and Turkey gave me new appreciation for Rome and the Renaissance. Croatia was a nice contrast to Italy as "not one of the major European nations", and also made me much more intrigued by the Balkans.

5) Eat healthy.
B. I've been pretty moderate about following any sort of diet, but I'm okay with that. Generally I've tried to be more aware of when I'm actually full and not eating just because the food is there. I definitely eat less sweet things now, and amazingly, I don't miss it. On the other hand, when I do have a chocolate craving, I just get some chocolate and eat it, so I'm not super-rigorous about it or anything.

6) Reduce material consumption (buy less crap. Reuse more.)
F. Um.... I totally forgot about this, and I've bought a lot of crap.

I want to re-create that sense of challenge and excitement in life. I want to stay productive and active.
B.

Overall Average: C


2012 Resolutions
This year I'm not putting in things that are pretty definitely going to happen, such as "Live in China for 2 months" or "Travel to Africa" or "Keep eating moderately healthy". And it seems like off-the-wall goals for something that's not in my normal routine are quickly forgotten, so no "Take voice lessons so that you sing less atrociously at karaoke". Instead:

1) Be more consistent in pursuing personal hobbies and skills (comics, sewing, banjo)

2) Read more books

3) Reduce material consumption (buy less crap)

4) Become a better teacher

5) Harness the power of HTML 5 (for teaching)

The last few days have been SO GOOD!

Starting with the evening of the 29th -- old-school Chinese feast at my parents, with the usual Chinese families attending. We "the kids" have all grown up, and as a result, a lot of those age differences seems to have vanished. What used to be awkward hang-outs when we were 16, 15, 8 and 7 is now the comfortable comraderie of 28, 27, 20, and 19. They've become like cousins that we see a few times a year at family gatherings. Then Jono picked up Alexis and Isaac from the airport, and it was good to see them and talk to them again! Then we watched Mission Impossible, which was a very enjoyable romp. (Everything in it worked too well, though -- it doesn't have the spice of hilarious bad-ness that came with Sherlock Holmes).

On the 30th Jono was working from home, so we had a slow morning of catching up and chatting with Alexis and Isaac, cleaning the house, and then grabbing lunch at Tofu House and running errands. Then my high school friends showed up around 7pm, and so we whipped together a simple meal of dumplings, samosa and stir-fry, and spent the evening chatting about random things. (Jono was amazing in taking care of the dumplings and samosas. <3<3). My friends brought apple pie for my birthday, which was just what I wanted after the richness of the feast the day before. Hanging out with high school friends can sometimes be awkward for me because I'm really tapped into the channels of information that keep me updated about them during the year (chat and facebook, I think??), so every time I see them I feel like everyone has changed and I have to re-negotiate how to talk about things again. You know that feeling when you come home after going to college, and find yourself having to re-negotiate your relationship with your parents? It's like that. I feel like we've all changed in unexpected ways. But this time it was less awkward! I think this was in part because I decided to just be unabashedly my current self and actually treat my high school friends like current friends, instead of trying to harken back to high school friendship roles. Another reason might be that from the divergence of college, we have each had our individual struggles regarding work and school and life, and now as we draw nearer to the end of our 20s, we are growing more settled in our general life paths and self-knowledge, and so we are re-converging.

On the 31st we went to Taiko rehearsal for the New Year's show, after which we promptly drove home to prepare for the mini-RPG party that we were hosting. We got home at 3pm, and I was tired and hungry, and also a bit nervous because lots of new different people were coming. But with the help of Jono, Chris, Alexis and Isaac, we had 4 different dumplings done and ready by 5pm. We had good eatings followed by Bliss Stage, 1001 Nights, and a half-game of Hot Guys Making Out. Most people cleared out by 9pm for their own New Year's Eve plans. Alexis was sick, so our usual festivities were shortened, but we managed to stay up til the New Year and sing Auld Lang Syne anyway.

On the 1st Jono and I woke up early, and I made sushi and Jono made miso soup and onigiri and oden (he woke up earlier) for the Taiko New Year's party and performance. Then it was off to the Taiko rehearsal. Friends showed up for the food, mochi pounding, and the show. Last year Jono and I only got to play one song (hachijo), but this year we played 2 short ones and 2 long ones (Kenka Yatai and Umi). So yay! It was lots of fun. I made lots of signs about bathrooms. Then we had yummy Afghani food with Chris, and then we drove home, grabbed boba and spent a relaxing evening at home with Isaac and Alexis. We screeched out one line of Zankoku!

I think... I might be getting better at interacting with people? Irregardless, the last few days have been good because all of the social interactions were SO GOOD -- hanging out with so many people from so many different stages of my life, but without awkwardness. Doing the things that I love with people that I love. Yay!