1. Q: How did the last waking hour of 2011 end for you?
A: With a remote online chat with a friend, the finishing of Chapter Four of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a couple of muscle relaxants/pain relievers, and a belly scratch for my doggy, instead of a New Year’s kiss for someone else. That’s all. No parties, no booze, no games, no other social entertainment. It seems to be a disturbing trend: with past few years ending for me with some kind of sickness or pain. For the end of 2009, an eye infection; the end of 2010 was acute abdominal pain; now it’s seized up back muscles for the end of the year 2011.
2. Q: How is the book?
A: It’s an eerie coincidence that I chose to start reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo now, since the setting is in phase with this actual time of the year, in the gloomy darkness around the winter solstice. With southern Sweden (the book’s setting) and my location being generally on the same latitude, I can really get a vivid feel for the atmosphere. I don’t usually or intentionally read stuff with this degree of political/legal intrigue, so I’m surprised that I’m getting so wrapped up in this story. The focal male character in the story, Mikael Blomkvist, a guy close to my own age, is ending his year off being quite down on his luck; perhaps I can just empathize and relate with him all too well. I’m resisting the urge to run out and see the movie before I finish the book.
3. Q: How was the first waking hour of 2012 for you?
A: Thankfully, less painful. I got mindful to start the year with a good long look in the mirror, and to read and meditate on something inspirational. At least when I looked in the mirror, I saw a thinner fitter person than the one I saw staring back at me at the beginning of 2011. To opt to open myself to inspiration will hopefully help to drive me forward and keep a momentum for the ways I want to use this year to make some changes.
4. Q: Changes? . . . What kind?
A: Course corrections . . . on a lot of levels, most being too personal to mention here. I do know that the whiteboard in my office will be my best friend throughout this day. I mentioned deploying a scorched earth policy a while back; that was rash to say. More accurately, I have to do some selective burning, to clear away what is bad and useless, and to keep and further enhance that which is good and functional. There still has to be a plan as to where one has to light the fires. I only know for certain that 2012 will be the year of language(s) and finances, and forcing myself to learn stuff even more abstract than those things, as well as maintaining my health and fitness.
5. Q: Besides planning stuff, what else are you going to actually do for today?
A: In keeping with accordance to a resolution to implement more measures of frugality and having fun doing it, I believe I shall be making some beer today, or at least get myself set up for it (converting my kitchen space into a lab), depending on what kind of time I have before work. I know I can’t stand having another day of being idle and reclined most of the day like yesterday. It would also be a good time to inspect my pantry, and make use of what I have; creating abundance with my essentials instead of absent-mindedly running out and shopping for food impulsively.
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