I took a break during the holidays to enjoy time with my family and friends. I didn’t read much online but caught a few outstanding blog posts and conversations, particularly Joe Flower’s post and resulting comments about his decision to not renew his ASAE membership and a follow-up post by Maddie Grant. I’ll go into this topic further in my post this week at SmartBlog Insights.
The Blizzard of 2010 hit Massachusetts last week while I was visiting my family. My hometown got a foot and a half of snow so I spent several hours shoveling. Newark NJ mayor Cory Booker also spent many hours with his shovel and mobile Twitter application. Amanda Hite wrote about his tweets to constituents throughout the storm — a “new standard for politicians.”
I didn’t make official resolutions this year (yet) but I’m thinking about changes I want to make in my life: make my health a bigger daily priority instead of taking it for granted; and make more time to think, read books and nurture my creative side. I discovered some of Virginia Woolf’s resolutions, thanks to a tweet from Ayse. I especially like, “to fill my brain with remote books & habits.” What a cool glimpse into her head.
The Virginia Woolf tweet trail led me to Tracy Seeley sharing the LA Times’ list of the literary resolutions of 37 writers and readers. Here’s one I’ll steal for myself, “To converse more with my books. To write in the margins.” There are even more entertaining resolutions in the list. Do you know of any other historical or literary icon’s resolutions? I’m sure I could google this but rather hear about your favorites.
I bet many of you have at least thought about fitness or wellness in the last few days. “This year I’ll exercise at least 30 minutes a day,” or “This year I’ll get out into nature more.” If this sounds familiar, and if you live in North Carolina, you’ll love Joe Miller’s blog, Get Going NC. He writes about hiking, running, cycling and other fitness and wellness topics.
This is the best thing I’ve read lately on writing blog posts. Carol Tice gives 40 simple writing tweaks for better blog posts. Bookmark it and keep going back to it; I just did.
Ali Luke shares several good ideas on ProBlogger on how to improve your writing by getting outside the blogging bubble. Perhaps you’ll find some fodder there for New Year’s resolutions?
Association Brain Food 
Nice blog. I too have not made an official resolution, but I have decided to make some changes and additions in my life.
Looks like quite a few people around the world had a white Christmas. I’m a Newark native but spent Christmas in Wiesbaden, Germany where it snowed for days before and after Christmas. Luckily for me I stayed indoors most of the time.
My family in NC told me they had an unusual amount of snow this year as well. We always laughed that NC shut down with a few flurries, but I was told that this year there was real snow!!
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Thanks for visiting. I’m definitely going to be checking out your blog and traveling vicariously with you. I was in MA while my town in NC got hit — 8 inches! But most of it had melted by the time I got home. Since writing this post I’ve realized that with all the traveling around Christmas and then a surprise trip around New Year’s, I haven’t had a chance to catch up and reflect upon the new year — goals, strategy, etc. I’m hoping to spend a few days doing that if my workload cooperates, we’ll see.
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I didn’t really make any resolutions per se but I did follow Oprah’s Dream Board idea thanks to Heather O. You can see my Dream Board here: http://www.oprah.com/odbimage/db_208992713_1. I believe I created some attainable goals for myself. I love how I’ve started out the week since creating it and posting it up in my “office” too. It was easy to create since I already knew what I wished to get out of 2011. 🙂
Now…about that photo…I thought that was YOU in the snow. I was highly disappointed to find out it wasn’t. 😉
Love the idea of “conversing more with my books”! Totally going to give that a whirl this year. And thanks for the link to the Get Going NC blog as well. I’ve bookmarked it.
Thanks for sharing, Deirdre…as always!
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It simply amazes me how hard the blizzard hit this ear. I’m surprised that these cities seemed unprepared for it however, when they are in normal snow areas. Shouldn’t you always prepare for the worst?
For the last several weeks we’ve been getting a lot of rain out here in California. Several cities around here have gone into states of emergencies due to flooding, and homes lost.
When it wasn’t raining for a day, and predictions stated rain would happen soon, the city was out there working in our canals to control the flooding, widening them and quickly building others and more reservoirs to store the excess water.
Why weren’t these cities prepared for blizzards, as my city prepared and fought this flood and won? We lost nothing.
Glad to see your 2010 was well! Sorry for going a bit off topic. XD
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Thanks for commenting. I imagine that city budgets have been depleted with loss of tax revenues and builder impact fees, while expenses continue to rise. The NYC debacle has been blamed in part on the unions who are alleged to have not done the job (plowing) they were paid to do. Who knows! My town in MA handled the blizzard really well. Our main streets were down to pavement quickly and the side streets were definitely passable within 24 hours of the snow stopping. Here in North Carolina, they don’t have the equipment to handle big storms because we normally don’t get them. I wonder if that pattern is changing. Happy New Year!
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It was nice to read your blog tonight. And, thanks so much for the mention. Happy New Year Deirdre!
Authentically,
Amanda Hite
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You’re welcome, Amanda. I’m glad you liked it. Happy New Year to you too!
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