I don’t usually announce (or even pick) a New Years Resolution, but this year I came up with one that suits me well. While most people choose to do something (and let’s be honest — it’s usually an attempt to work out more), I will be restricting myself from doing something. What’s the something? Writing really long posts on this blog. It’s not that I intend to write less; it’s that I want to redirect my efforts into different types of writing — namely essays and short stories. And since I’m working full time right now, I only have so much time and mental energy for this sort of thing.

I’ll probably being much as I did before, but only the shorter work will appear here. In other words, any time an article goes beyond 600 words, I’ll post it as an essay on Supraterranean or attempt to publish it elsewhere. That’ll make this more of a blog and less of a column (currently most posts run around 1,000-1,400 words!).

In early December 2009 I submitted my lengthy essay “Indecision Over Michigan” to the Cooperative Press, a branch of the group Michigan Writers that helps emerging writers publish a chapbook in the literary genre of their choice. It’s a program intended to educate new writers on the entire publication process. As it says on their website, “Selected authors share the publishing costs and marketing responsibilities with Michigan Writers in return for the prestige of being published by a press that prints only carefully selected manuscripts.”

I thought it sounded like a great idea, and I was totally willing to foot the $250 for the actual printing of the books. I even rushed to cut my essay down from almost 12,000 to just under 10,000 words, to stay within their submission guidelines. I printed and mailed the literary spawn, and I waited patiently. Then on Sunday night I got an email notification that my essay was rejected. They received 14 submissions and had picked three for publication.

I’ve come to dislike New Years Eve very much. Not only will it never live up to my romantic vision of the night, but lately it’s become a source of frustration that I’d rather avoid altogether. I suppose part of it is about forcing ourselves to look back at the year we just finished, and to look ahead at the year to come. But people don’t genuinely reflect on the past year’s worth of experience and try to extract some meaning from it. And as far as the year to come, people usually announce some half-assed “resolution” that they have little intention of fulfilling (though, due to the shallow nature of most resolutions, it doesn’t make much difference anyways). Example: the gym was jam-packed tonight, but I hardly ever saw anyone there during the last two months.

Anyway, I’ve been attempting to gain a sense of closure on the decade. But due to complications offline, I haven’t had much chance to think (let alone write) lately. I first struck out to discuss my favorite music of the decade — albums released between the years of 2000 and 2009. So far I have an audio slideshow of my 50 favorite albums, and a PDF of my favorite 200. I intended to provide more explanation, but simply haven’t gotten around to it yet.