New Year's resolutions

It's January 1, and my resolutions for today are as follows:

2 lb. 85% ground beef
2 green peppers
3 medium onions
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans

Yes, I know that sounds more like a shopping list than a resolution. But I'm resolved to making chili tomorrow and that makes acquiring the ingredients a resolution.

Like many of you (I presume), I've always thought making New Year's resolutions is stupid. I mean, they're not any stupider than making resolutions on January 2 or March 11 or whenever. Making resolutions is always dumb unless you are actually resolved to doing something. It's not the same as saying you want to do something.

When I resolved to lose weight, I was ready to completely change the way I ate permanently. I had to be, or it would have been a wanna do and not a resolution. It was and still is an every day, every snack and meal project. I've lost 15 pounds and kept them off for nearly 2 years, but the food is still there.

So here are my New Year's resolutions. They're roughly in order of priority

1. Drink 33% less alcohol. I like to drink alcoholic beverages of many sorts. I have done so for the past 40 years. I don't like to and therefore virtually never get drunk and I don't let it interfere with my functioning, but according to the statistics, I am drinking 50% more than is good for my long term health. Fortunately, thanks to the way percentages work, changing that only requires that I drink 33% less. I've come to this because I've done virtually everything else possible to improve my health and this is what is left.
2. Read more, especially fiction. I've already started doing this and am pleased with how it takes me out of my own head. So also good for my health I think.
3. Write more. Either blogging or some other form.
4. Make my math tests way way harder. No, not really.

I think that's it for actual resolutions. Wanna do's are unchanged from the past- see more live music, go to New York more frequently, see friends and close family more often, get more sleep, that kind of thing.

I wouldn't say that 2014 was an especially good or bad year. It was eventful and quiet and happy and sad, like you'd expect a large collection of days to be. I'm looking forward to 2015.