Resolutions

Wow. It's been a while. Happy New Year!

I have to say that it was one heck of a December. Stretch run for the first semester in the PhD was brutal, but we survived. Got out my first journal submission in my very short career as an academic. Took a road trip to St. Louis for some Braggin' Rights. Rolled out to Columbus with my boy "Kubla" Curran. Had a TFS reunion in St. Louis at Jess' wedding. And I managed to squeeze in about 80 hours of PS2 action over the last 2 weeks. A pretty full month, really. But really - let the good times roll for 2K5.

The Chairman's List of Things to Do in 2005, in no particular order:
1. Own your shit... whatever the hell that means.
2. Always hit on a soft 17.
3. Get back to looking mean and scary without a shirt on.
4. Really learn to play poker.
5. Play the piano like I could when I was 14.
6. Get the knees and legs back into shape.
7. Read more and veg out less.
8. Finish up my novel, and give Daniel Lawson a story that he deserves.
9. Get my butt in gear and wrap up the Nano project.
10. Figure out what it is that PhD students really do.

I need to figure out all sorts of things as I go along, as well. One of the current theories is the "asshole" theory that the guys are working on. Basically, you act nice and be yourself at first, to get the hooks in. Then you need to alternate being an asshole and doing things that are nice, though progressively less nice as time moves on. Sort of like a drug dealer. The first one's free, and after that you throw in some freebies, but less and less, since you've got a captive audience. Something like pulling out all the stops to romance a girl, and then not calling for a week, and then sending flowers, before not calling for a week, and then taking her out for Arby's, etc... It just sort of dwindles away until you have pretty much a no lose situation. If she stays, whatever. If she goes, then you've pretty much removed any interest that you may have had initially from play. Of course, you can always pick it up again. I think that this may be foolproof, but we should provide the perfect test. My thing is that I usually forget that order - nice, then asshole, then nice, then asshole. I tend to just do the asshole thing all the time, which doesn't seem to do quite as well.

All kidding aside, this recent adventure with TFS revealed a couple things in our lives. We're very good at some things, and not so good at others. What are some of the results? Read on.
One thing that's big on the list right now is just simply owning my shit... whatever that means. I think that it means that you're in control of whatever you do, so that it's always moving forward. You don't let other people dictate what you do. You take care of business so that no one else has anything to say to you. You own your shit. It seems like sound advice to follow.
Looking at my list, it seems that we've got some writing to take care of, in all sorts of different arenas. We've got some physical goals. Some personal goals. But, "Always hit on a soft 17?" What the heck does that mean? No, I'm not going scouring for jail bait. It's very related to owning your shit. In Blackjack, a soft 17 is when you have an Ace and a 6. It can be either a 7 or a 17. 17 is an awfully mediocre hand. You're basically hoping that the dealer busts. If the dealer doesn't bust, then you're at best going to push, and you're likely to lose. Now a soft 17 basically give you a free hit to get that 4 (or 3, or 2). You may end up with a worse hand, if you get like a 9, and get stuck on 16. But really, it is that much worse than 17?

How that makes the list of things to do is that you can't settle. A 17 leaves so much to chance - you need the dealer to bust, otherwise, you're no better off, and likely worse off. How often do we just sort of be mediocre and just hope that the dealer busts? No more of that. I'd rather go down in flames trying for the win than sit there and watch the dealer take me down with 18. Whatever you do, do it well. Dial in and be good at it. If the deck is stacked against you, don't play. If you're in the game, you play for the win. Whether it's in romance, career, academics, athletics, or whatever, go for it. You may find out that you suck, and that it's not for you. That's fine. What's not fine is not finding out if you're any good at it, and just doing it half-assed.

So there you have it. Own your shit... whatever the hell that means, and always hit a soft 17.

Words to live by.

-Chairman