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Happy New Year - A New Beginning?

© Aaron Joseph Goebel

Christmas has passed and we're relieved, at least at my house. Tempers flare even more often around the holidays. Stress levels are high, causing an increase in smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor, for those who indulge in those activities. The home routine has been disrupted, sometimes for the better with time off from school and work, but Mom gets even more vocal and nervous because of the increased traffic, more cooking, more mess cleanup. Step-Dad gets more stressed as he looks at the checkbook, grumbles, grunts and anticipates the after-holiday bills coming in. The kids have been spoiled by all the gifts and attention they've gotten from relatives over the holidays, not to mention all the extra candy and junk food they've been getting away with eating. It's just a recipe for a crabby household.

And then there's New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve most of my friends are just planning on partying out the old year and recovering on New Year's Day, laying on the couch in front of the television watching FOOTBALL! Some people actually make New Year's resolutions and plan on trying to keep them.

That's what I wanted to write this article about today -- New Year's resolutions.

I've done some research and here are some different kinds of New Year's resolutions:

New Year's Resolutions For Nerds:

Top 10 Resolutions You Won't Keep This Year (for Nerds)

10. I will not buy magazines with AOL disks bound in just to get another 1.44MB disk. 9. I will stop sending email to my roommate. 8. I resolve to work with neglected children... my own. 7. I will answer my snail mail with the same enthusiasm I answer my email. 6. When I subscribe to a news group or mailing list, I will read all the mail I get from it. 5. I will stay on the computer as long as I want. What? OK, dear... I'm coming. Never mind. 4. No more downloads from alt.binaries.* 3. I resolve to back up my new 2 GB hard drive daily... well, once a week... monthly, perhaps... 2. I will spend less than one hour a day on the Net. 1. I won't try to get onto the Netscape web site as soon as a new Navigator beta comes out. 0. When I hear "Where do you want to go today?" I won't reply "MS Tech Support." -1. I will read the manual. -2. I will think of a password other than "password."

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