My number one resolution this year is to keep in better touch with my family. This is extremely similar to last year’s resolution, the main difference being that it’s vague enough to be easily attainable. Last year I made very specific goals, and then basically forgot all about it. Which brings me to my next topic: memory.

Visiting with my grandparents over Christmas, I listened to them telling stories of things they’d done years ago. Grandpa quoted a few lines from a speech he had given while taking the Dale Carnegie course. My grandma talked about the time they were flying back to Kansas in grandpa’s plane and had to make an emergency landing in an alfalfa field.

It occurred to me that I won’t have as many stories of this type when I’m their age, partly because my memory is kind of leaky. I don’t really understand the algorithm it uses to determine what’s forgettable (e.g. entire years of childhood, apparently) and what must be kept (e.g. names of members of the A-Team), but there’s got to be a misplaced decimal in there somewhere. So I’ve decided that I need to be posting here more often, just as a memory aid.

However, the other reason I won’t have as many good stories is because I don’t exactly generate a lot of good story material sitting at a computer all the time. So I’d also like to get out more and have more experiences that would actually have some meaning to someone else if I were to explain them. So hopefully, my posts won’t be as dull as they are frequent. I don’t think I’m off to much of a start on this one.

I’m usually kind of noncommital when New Years’ rolls around, but this year I’m considering these to be secondary resolutions. Wish me luck.