Tonight, corks will be popped and resolutions will be made.

New Year’s Day represents the start of an annual mass-cultural effort to make positive changes in our lives, and improve our respective lots.

Whether you seek to abolish bad habits, instill good ones, become a better parent or partner, eat less saturated fat and sugar, regularly use dental floss, travel more, start a new hobby, clean out closets, go to therapy, learn to cook, take up hip hop dancing, actively listen, paint, be kinder, volunteer, resolve debt, go gray, change jobs, go back to school, face your fears, see a doctor, finally quit smoking/drinking/biting nails/complaining/being late/slacking/gossiping/coveting/texting while driving/ or, well … whatever — this is the traditional time to take it on.

We wonder how you all feel about resolutions. Are they inspiring, burdensome or a crock of hype? Do they work? If so, for how long? Should self-improvement efforts be so focused on one time of the year? Do we need a new holiday, “National Resolution Reminder Day” in July?

Take our poll and let us know, and if you want to publicly declare your resolutions for 2011 (albeit under the safety of commenter anonymity), go ahead and shout it out below. After all, simply stating our intentions can sometimes be the first step in making them so.

Good luck with whatever you resolve to do this new year. We wish you all health, prosperity, happiness and the strength to make improvements in your lives, should you see it fit to do so. Happy 2011, Baristaville.

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17 replies on “It’s New Year’s Eve and Resolutions Abound”

  1. I resolve to become a member of the Republican Party. I further resolve to use the words baboon, tax and spend liberal, threat to our national security, global warming is a hoax, and so on, fervently and with great conviction.
    Happy New Years, all.

  2. I plan to make a series of strict resolutions for 2011 involving personal relationships, work ethics, healthy diet, exercise, compassion for conservatives, road rage, and suffering fools with much more sympathy. Then I plan to give them up for Lent.

  4. Last year, on this date, i quit smoking cigars.
    It’s 365 days later, and I have kept that promise.
    I still miss them; but it’s mind over matter ! I
    will not slip back.
    This year ? N-O-N-E !!! Cold Turkey quit, too.

  5. I’m planning on working on the entirety of paragraph three, at the very least one or two of them.

    But seriously, despite cathar’s lamenting the growth of Baristanet, his disparaging of the quality of more recent repartee, and the rise of new posters, I, as one of the newbies this year, have so enjoyed this site. My easy resolution to visit again will be the promise that I will more than likely keep.

    I wish all of you thoughtful, clever, funny, intelligent people a wonderful, prosperous and most importantly a healthy new year.

  10. Bravo Sandy! That’s a difficult battle!

    Conan, were I to make that resolution about fools and bad drivers, it would be ruined the moment I got back in the car. Props to you if you can actually do it for a few weeks! 🙂

  11. I hereby resolve to be more like DagT in disposition, though I doubt that will last much beyond 4 pm this afternoon.

    Uptown is still there, jerseygurl. Somewhat downscaled since its opening pre-financial crisis, but the doors are still open for business.

  12. Is Uptown on Valley Rd. part of your New Year’s Resolution, jerseygurl? Or were you just gracefully changing the subject? Or was that just a random interjection?

  14. Is 2011 a prime? It kinda looks like one.

    I resolve to:
    – Watch less TV
    – Learn the Mark Knopfler riffs in ‘Down to the Waterline’
    – Eat more Raisin Bran Crunch
    – Release Walleroo from my basement bomb shelter.

  15. MB,

    Yes it is, the first since 2003 – I’m expecting a Prime Year!

    P.S. Yes – please releae Walleroo back into the wilds under Liz’s porch…

  16. If you’d also resolve to learn Peter Green’s riffs from both “Albatross” and “Oh Well” during this new year, MellonBrush (and welcome back), I’d even pay to see you play myself.

  17. Cathar,

    I recall seeing Peter Green play in December of 1968 w. Fleetwood Mac at the Filmore East. I wasn’t prepared for the supercharged blues onslaught that transpired. The music bludgeoned me into submission as I watched, in mute wonder, one of the best concerts I will ever see – even though I didn’t know it at the time.

    I’ll get digital copies of the songs you mentioned and put them on my ‘must learn these riffs” stack!

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