Saint Nickanuck of the Tundra

It’s been quite a busy month, even by my own standards. Clearly, I’ve not been totally successful in keeping with my theme for the year. I have some more cogent ruminations on that coming down the pike in a few days.

In a brief bit of site news, I have resurrected the Gustatory Libation Front from a period of neglect (although it has suffered from the same update-paucity of late). While I’ve enjoyed putting my beery ponderings up on Saint Nickanuck, it has become evident to me that said commentary appeals to a slightly different audience, so having its own forum is worthwhile. I’ll be putting some culinary and beverage observations from my recent travel to New Orleans and Chicago there shortly.

But, first - this weekend is RavenCon at the Crowne Plaza West in Richmond, VA! The convention is in its third year, and I’m pleased to say that this will be the third year that Laura and I will be participating as guests on the science track. Past experience has shown this con to be well-run and an absolute blast, so if you aren’t already planning on attending and happen to be within striking distance, I encourage you to stop by and check it out.

Laura will be doing a number of panels relating to space science, including the latest on her work at NASA and the International Space University. As to my own schedule, it is as follows:

• Thirteen Dooms (Friday, 11pm, Potomac) - A multidisciplinary science panel addressing the various ways in which all life on earth might be eradicated. Bwa-ha-ha!
• Live Recording of Mr. Adventure (Saturday, 11am, James) - I’m uncertain as to what role I’ll be playing, but I understand it may be evil and nefarious. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
• The New Reds Deaths (Saturday, 2pm, Potomac) - In which I will consider many horrific and interesting diseases, from Poe’s Red Death to the latest modern day terrors. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

What? You sense a disturbing theme? No… I think not. But, that means you’ll just have to come out and see for yourself.

BWA-HA-H- uh… sorry.

With a new year, invariably, comes chatter of resolutions. (Top Ten lists as well, but I digress.) Many people make them. Very few stick with them. Some pay the concept no mind. As Mur astutely points out, it negates the idea of a “resolution” (namely, the whole “resolve” part) to stop talking about it after a few months, then after a few more, looking forward to making resolutions again for the following year.

My own history with resolutions hasn’t been all that successful. The only one that I can recall keeping was that of losing weight a couple of years back, and that was motivated not by an arbitrary numerical date change, but by a significant personal event. That said, the idea of making resolutions to time with a “new year” isn’t necessarily flawed - a flip of the calendar is as good as any symbolic milestone to use as a starting point for changing something about one’s self for the positive. Without some other independent factor, though, the follow-through usually fails.

Instead of resolutions, then, several of my friends have been establishing hopes or goals to look forward to in 2008. I’ve pondered doing something like this, but I’m finding the potential pool of candidate goals is quite large, and all seem to be equally screaming for my attention. If there’s one thing I truly want to change, it’s less specific things (i.e. lose 20 pounds by June), and more a global approach to my daily living and workflow that will allow me to do more of what I want, and make what I do better. As such, I’ve decided to experiment with the following - I’ve selected a theme for the year:

Balance.

Despite all that I’ve accomplished over the last year - some of the more meaningful items included moving out of fellowship into full-fledged attending physicianhood, passing my Infectious Diseases boards (I never mentioned that, did I? Well, I did now!), and actively participating in some podcasting voice work - there’s a lot more that I didn’t get to. Be it finishing research projects from my fellowship, gaming more, combating the entropic beast that has taken over the house, keeping in closer touch with meaningful people both near and remotely (and yes, that includes blogging), or realizing a seekrit projekt or five, balance is the key thing needed to shoehorn these into an already overfull schedule. Noone will ever accuse me of having a lot of so-called “free time,” but it is true that what I do have I often don’t put to the best use possible.

So here’s the experiment: I’m committing to regularly discussing “balance” in this space, at least once a month. A Balance Report, if you will. While I’m not aiming to discuss specific goals, I have a few ideas on how I can balance my existence better in the coming months that I’ll ruminate on, and maybe even enact. At the very least, it will keep my Theme for 2008 in the forefront of my mind.

Oh, I will be putting up a couple of “2007 retrospective posts” in the coming days. Not out of any sense of nostalgia, mind you, but more because I promised to blog about several date-specific topics (conventions and movies, for instance), and didn’t. That will be remedied.