Resolved: That I Shall Post Tonight

We're now a few days into the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Ten, so I am now emerging from my underground bunker, cautiously optimistic that my earlier apocalyptic speculations have not come true, and that the Y2K Bug was not, in fact, biding its time and preparing to strike ten years past due, when we would least expect it. Since my accounts remain solvent and nuclear winter has not set in, whatever passes for security in this crazy world seems to have prevailed. I still refuse, however, to turn my back on a computer, lest it seize the moment to re-rout some airplanes or make nonsensical edits to some poor soul's Wikipedia page.

A fairly major change in my life has accompanied the new year; I'm back in school again, enrolled at Pacific University's MAT 5th Year program for teacher training and educational studies. That's right: if all goes as planned, I could soon be unleashed upon the high school students of Oregon, filling their heads with subversive, revolutionary ideas and becoming dangerously addicted to caffeinated beverages. Today was Orientation at the Eugene campus, and if there's one thing I've learned so far, it's that things will definitely be different this time around.

My four years at the University of Oregon were wonderful, precisely because they had little to do with the real world. I spent them on an extended academic adventure, paying little mind to the practical applications of any of it, while trusting in the inherent value of learning for it's own sake. Now I've got a fancy diploma framed in some fancy red wood hanging on my wall, demonstrating my prestigious new degree, Bachelor of Arts, in all its glory. It testifies to my ability to read many books, write many papers, not drink too much, and show up most of the time. Now, the expectations are changing. The focus is no longer academic, but practical (I shudder), and the curriculum will soon have me out in the real world doing real things that matter to real people. This will take getting used to.

It's a new year, so I suppose that I should have some resolutions prepared, and furthermore that I should post them here, so that I may be held accountable for them next January, if I should fail to remain resolved. So here they are:

• Resolved: That I shall make the best of my new schooling situation, and do all that must be done, and earn my Master's degree.
• Resolved: That I shall become gainfully employed, and eventually, financially self-sufficient.
• Resolved: That I shall make new friends, at least one of whom plays the drums, because dammit, we need some drums.
• Further Resolved: That some of those friends shall be females, whether they can play the drums or not.
• Resolved: That I shall finish in the next twelve months New St. Luces, a lengthy story which I have been meaning to write in one form or another since late 2006.
• Further Resolved: That it shall not suck.
• Resolved: That I shall post on this blog at least once a week, whether I have new material, or good material, or not.
• Resolved: That I shall finally type up my journal from my epic European vacation, so that it may no longer weigh upon my conscience like an anvil squashing a coyote.
• Resolved: That I shall learn more guitar chords, and eventually, guitar songs.
• Resolved: That I shall ride my bicycle much more often, just as soon as the weather justifies it.

A happy and successful new year to all, especially the economy of the United States; wake up, dammit!