{"id":1286,"date":"2008-12-31T06:55:58","date_gmt":"2008-12-31T12:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=1286"},"modified":"2022-01-02T07:36:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T12:36:02","slug":"revisting-those-top-ten-2008-anti-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=1286","title":{"rendered":"Revisting Those Top Ten 2008 Anti-Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s the last day of 2008; tis the season for end-of-the-year reviews. Remember those Top Ten Anti-Resolutions that I made back on January 1st?<\/a> Maybe we ought to check in and see how much regress I made in doing those things “that I know, absolutely without a doubt, I will never, ever do this year\u2026”<\/p>\n

1) Serve on another committee. <\/em>No problemo, 100% failure on this one. That Machiavellian committee experience back in 2007 got that little itch out of my system for decades to come. I fastidiously avoided large rooms with conference tables and PowerPoint projectors or any situation where more than 2-3 people were gathered together gesticulating madly while arguing over petty politics and personal agendas.<\/p>\n

2) Mistake an automatic shower self-cleaning unit for a shampoo dispenser. <\/em>Check. Or is it not-check? I was at Mom’s house twice this year and in neither instance did I get spritzed with ammonia. I did have a run-in or two with a rogue lawn sprinkler, though.<\/p>\n

3) Take it for granted that the Crimson Tide has a game in the bag. <\/em>No chance of that after the Lo-Mo debacle. In fact, if anything, I underestimated them. 12-1 at the end of December? Not in my most technicolor houndstooth dreams.<\/p>\n

4) Run two days in a row<\/em>. Total failure. In fact, sometimes I even stretched it out to 3, 4, even 30 days without hitting the asphalt.<\/p>\n

5) Not take a real vacation.<\/em> Not only did I not not take a vacation, I took two–one to Florida and one to Washington, DC (wrote about both of them in The Huntsville Times<\/em>). I have a real itch for not going to either St. Louis or Colorado in 2009 (maybe neither?). We’ll see how unsuccessful I am at that.<\/p>\n

6) Do an early morning workout consisting of 2 x 1600, 2 X 800, 4 x 400, 4 x 200 repeat intervals on the Grissom High School track. <\/em>Closely related to #4, I’m proud to say I didn’t go anywhere near the Grissom track this year, and I have the extra 10 pounds to prove it. What with my ongoing battle with chronic Achilles tendonitis, “Turf Toe” (Stop laughing–it’s an orthopedic condition, not a flesh-eating fungus) and Sister Sciatica (more scary–and painful–than a nun with a ruler), speed work was totally out.<\/p>\n

7) Teach a Sunday School class.<\/em> Blew that one too. Frankly, I’ve enjoyed the break. I’m more at ease tapping on a keyboard these days than speaking behind a lectern, and I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

8) Engage in another debate with an atheist online or anywhere else<\/em>. Nope, didn’t do that either. Didn’t even see Ben Stein’s “Expelled” and have no plans to. I did get into a few political debates, though. Man, am I ever glad that<\/em> election’s over.<\/p>\n

9) Use the phrase \u201cWhich is better, Alabama or Auburn?\u201d instead of \u201cWhich is better, one or two?\u201d when I grow bored of doing refractions day after day. <\/em>No need to. Everybody knows the answer to that one anyway. Right Tommy?<\/a> (Roll Tide!)<\/p>\n

10) Take the people (especially my family) and the small moments of pleasure that are a part of each day for granted. <\/em>Thankfully, I bombed this one, too. I even had one of my own sons tell me that I really stunk that one up. It was one of the highlights of my year.<\/p>\n

My top anti-resolution for 2009? To make another Top Ten list of anti-resolutions. I’m pretty sure that’s not happening.<\/p>\n

Happy New Year, everyone.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s the last day of 2008; tis the season for end-of-the-year reviews. Remember those Top Ten Anti-Resolutions that I made back on January 1st? Maybe we ought to check in and see how much regress…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,36,48,46,44,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alabama-crimson-tide-football","category-eyes","category-family","category-holidays","category-humor","category-huntsville-times-community-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9230,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions\/9230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}