a frosty new year and some resolutions reviewed
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
I woke up before the dawn, and realized that I had a chance to photograph the year's first sunrise.
So I climbed into my half-frozen clothes and ducked out the front door. Not far from Mari's family's place is a rickety little concrete road that snakes up the wall of the valley. Despite its proximity, I only discovered it on one of my latest visits to this town, and I was pleased to find that it was still in use. Many of the local buildings have fallen into disuse, recently, and there are other roads that have fallen into decay with surprising speed. Such is the one that Mari and I walked when I asked her to marry me; inviting then, it's now an overgrown track.
Climbing the hill I found that the grass and other ground cover was all fringed with frost, and that in the soil itself there was a type of frost that had grown in long tendrils, each with a tiny lump of soil at its top. With my wide angle lens I can get right down to about 15cm from any subject, so I hopefully managed to capture some of the temporary sculptures.
The sunrise was given some shape and contrast by low ragged clouds on the horizon, dragging over the Pacific that starts only a few clicks from here. With light streaming through bamboo and orange trees, it was a fine start to the year.
But now let's have a review of my resolutions from last year.
1. make time for the boy
2. get the new business launched in April
3. pass the level three Japanese exam in December
4. cut my use of film by 2/3 immediately
5. learn to juggle by June
6. complete another draft of my novel
#1 was a resounding success. I made this a priority, especially in support of my wife.
#2 did not happen. Given the insanity of trying to juggle so many things at once, Mari and I struggled through the early part of the year as I was working 7 x 14 on the business and neglecting everything else.
But an April launch was ridiculous in any case. I didn't know anything about the jewelry business when I wrote this list, and I sure didn't know that I was going to have to spend months developing relationships in the industry before I'd get as much as a price list from anybody! Given the circumstances, I think we're in pretty good shape.
#3 was never going to happen. I completed a course that took me to the half-way mark by the end of March, but I recognized that to get my other objectives moving I'd have to let this go. I get a surprising number of compliments on my improved Japanese of late, so I must be making some progress.
They're now changing the tests, I don't know where I'll fit in the new test scheme, or if I'll even sit the thing. I know I could pass the level IV test under the old regime, but I've slipped badly from where I was in January in some respects so I'm nowhere near ready for the old level III.
#4 Um, no. I cut my use of film by 0% and left it at three rolls a week. I blame the trips to China, in which I shot rather a lot of film. 47 rolls. Signs overall are encouraging, though, because I managed to otherwise cut out 1/3 of my consumption.
#5 Yes, I can now juggle three balls. No fancy moves, just simply keeping them moving. I even performed in public in April, trying to attract attention for a friend's booze stall.
#6. Yes, I more or less did manage a substantial bit of work during the first half of the year before shelving all work in favour of the other things on my plate. More importantly than redrafting the work, I studied the results I got back from the editor I worked with in 2008 and made what I think are some vast improvements.
So a mixed bag. Only three hits out of six, but the important one (#1) was there.