- returned to Korea
- grew a beard
- learned how to play pinochle
- started playing cards with the fellas on Thursday nights
- rode the mugunghwa (the Korean diesel train)
- successfully completed my first NaNoWriMo
- explored five new cities
- sent socks to the D.P.R.K. via weather balloon
- familiarized myself with the Seoul subway system
- ate Jordanian food
- smoked a real Cuban cigar
- got interviewed by Reuters
- took a night cruise on the Han River
- went to the Seoul Zoo
- survived a typhoon (or two)
- climbed a 2,426-foot mountain
- took an interest in jazz
- filled up my liquor cabinet
- spent three hours at the National Museum of Seoul (and that was just the first floor)
- went bike-riding in the snow
- (finally) located the best hamburger in Seoul
And here's what I'm hoping to accomplish next year:
- become proficient in Korean
- pay off my credit card debts
- get some fiction published, including that NaNoWriMo novel
- lose the gut; improve flexibility and core strength
- ride the saemaeul (the second-fastest class of train in K-Land)
- foment good daily habits, such as stretching, exercising, yoga, writing, reading, and intellectual improvement
- change my Facebook cover photo only once a month
- acquaint myself with basic physics
- read 30 books
- bathe in both the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan
- visit the Busan Aquarium
- go to a jimjilbang (a Korean bathhouse)
- ride every line on the Seoul Metro
- look into Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Miles Davis, and Thelonius Monk, and thereby augment my jazz collection
- find the best taco in Seoul
There's an item on this list that I haven't mentioned, because it seems apropos to discuss it in greater detail.
I'm going to make this blog more professional.
In 2009, when my English friend (known only as "A") told me to start a blog and use it as a repository for my travel writing endeavors, I didn't quite take his advice to heart. He intended for me to create a sort of electronic portfolio, a reference guide for prospective employers. That was and still is a sound idea. For almost four years now I've been using this blog as a creative outlet, but not as a vehicle to further my writing career.
That changes in 2013. I'm going to specialize. Instead of splattering myself all over the place and writing about booze, flying, literature, writing, and travel, I'll just do travel instead. Maybe the occasional cocktail review, we'll see. I'm mulling over the idea of starting up a secondary and perhaps even a tertiary blog to cover my aviation and literary pursuits, but those are still in the planning stages. Henceforth, however, "the Sententious Vaunter" shall cover travel, and travel only. You may want to sign off now if you ain't interested.
Also, in lieu of the new year and the overhauls intended for this blog, I've set up a new profile picture, one that's actually of me and not my favorite fictional character. So here I am, in all my glory: my favorite lumpy hat, my new and extra-fluffy scarf, my old military-style winter coat, and in my favorite chair. Blog heaven.
6 comments:
Hmm, I certainly understand why you're changing your focus for the blog, but I will miss the eclecticity. (Blogger is telling me eclecticity is not a word, but I don't care.)
You did so much in 2012! I am struggling to think of anything much I did in comparison. Haha.
I look forward to your travel writing! I mean, I enjoy your posts anyway but yes. I am very much interested.
Love the hat. I am a collector of hats.
<3
What a wonderful and full year you have had! Looking at the things you have accomplished, instead of failed at, is something I desperately need to get in the habit of doing. Thanks for the idea.
Also, I don't care what you write about, as long as you continue to share it here. How's that for encouragement, hmm? Always have been, always will be a fan of your writing :)
So Happy New Year, dear friend. May you complete at least some (if not all, or more) of your goals for 2013. See ya around, eh?
Your forays into jazz interest me. I attended a Thelonius Monk concert...he entered from the back of the auditorium in a heavy overcoat and scarf....walked up the aisle and onto the stage, dropped his coat and scarf onto the floor, then sat down at the piano and started playing.
Whatever the subject of your blog, I will read. Two blogs? I'll read both. Just keep writing.
Polly: Really? You never thought the blog lacked focus? If the eclecticity (I like that word and I'm keeping it) is a bonus instead of a drawback, I'll keep it. I must admit to having second thoughts about this overhaul myself...hmm.
Mia: And yet...it still doesn't seem like enough. I don't know why, but I feel like I hardly did anything. It's annoying really.
Thanks for chiming in. Any feedback I can get on this overhaul is welcome.
Aren't hats great? Like one of my friends said, "Every man should own at least one hat with character." This is that hat. I love it.
JJ: That's what I thought, too. Instead of focusing on the negative I should remind myself that I didn't just sit around at my computer and blow up aliens. Thanks for noticing.
Oh wow, that is a huge confidence booster. You don't mind what I write about. Extraordinarily encouraging. Maybe I better rethink this overhaul as long as people are still interested.
And do keep blogging yourself. Your fresh, heartfelt writing is like a dose of tonic amid the sea of stagnant prose I find elsewhere in the blogsphere.
Here's to the completion of goals in 2013. [clinks glass] Cheers!
Jerry: And your voice joins the unanimous vote. Zounds, perhaps I'd underestimated this blog. Maybe splattering myself in all directions wasn't such a detriment after all. Thank you for your continued patronage, sir. If I had any coupons or discounts to give out, you'd be first in line.
I've heard that Thelonius Monk has quite the stage presence. Most of the people who tell me to check him out refer me to a video instead of a music file. I'll let you know what I discover on Planet Jazz.
Well, even if the topics of this blog don't specialize, I will still make the travel posts more professional: bus fare, hotel rates, maps, directions, operating hours, and all those sundry details of use to the modern wayfarer. Hold me to that, people.
I really do think that the mixture of topics here makes this blog unique and noteworthy (and shows off your writing and research skills in a variety of ways). Perhaps you could just put a link at the top of the page to all entries categorized with a "travel" label?
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