New Year's Day ice flowers, and resolutions

[asakiyume]

It is very satisfying to walk out into the deep cold well enough wrapped up to not be bothered by the chill.

I paid a visit to a frozen creek. I didn't pick the ice flowers.









Last year I resolved to write creatively at least two days a week, to work on Spanish every day (or to make up days I missed), and to record the things I notice each day. I failed at the first and third of those, but I did the second and am pleased to know significantly more this year than I did this time last year.

Two of my goals this year are related:

(1) Continue to work on Spanish in the same manner, but added to that: find a person or people to practice conversation with. The duolingo bots have their limits. I'm aiming for in-the-flesh rather than online, although with skyping, etc., I know online can be very good ... I should probably set a date by which I'll achieve this. How about the end of January...

(2) Write a bit every day. Maybe phrasing it that way will make it more achievable than saying "Write at least two days a week."

(3) This is the different goal: Read a bit every day (not counting social media). I can double-dip with this a little as I have a Spanish-language book to be working on.

I'll be looking at my friends' entries to see if they've got goals/resolutions, but if you haven't shared in an entry and want to share in comments, I'm all ears!

Comments

[sartorias]

Oh, what gorgeous photos! That like its so beautiful!

Those are terrific goals. I always like seeing goals that a person can actually achieve, and feel good about, instead of anxious.

[asakiyume]

Thank you! Yes: I like to try to make goals that are things I can use to encourage me to keep going. Nebulous character-changing goals aren't going to work for me.

[ivy]

I read a radio program that said that good resolutions are specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic, and timely. So it sounds like you're rocking it!

I'm not making a resolution per se, but my ongoing projects of the moment are:
1) Stay on top of health -- running and stupid diet.
2) Work on Irish before your May trip. I ought to finish the Duolingo tree this month, and I'm reading a children's book before I go to bed. I have four more books where that came from.
3) Figure out what I'm doing with my life where I want to buy a house or condo when I move out of my current place, and what is available in my price range.

[asakiyume]

Your approach to Irish sounds like mine with Spanish--high fives!

I approve of the strikethrough in goal 3. Figuring out what you're doing with your life would have been a terrifying and potentially paralyzing goal ;-) I wish you best of luck with its reformulation, though, along with goal 1 (and 2, of course!)

[osprey_archer]

Good for you to sticking to that Spanish goal! And I'm so pleased to hear that it's led to measurable progress, too, enough that you can read a Spanish-language book. Which book, if you don't mind my asking?

Loving the ice flowers. Probably wise not to pick them. They look like an ice garden, and I wouldn't be surprised if the gardener didn't much like having her flowers picked...

[asakiyume]

I thought this too about the flowers! Watch out for the gardener.

The Book is Leidy Tabares: La Niña Que Vendía Rosas--it's the real-life story of Leidy Tabares, and it was what the telenovela we're currently watching used as its source material.

[queenoftheskies]

Those photos are so beautiful.

Everything looks so crystalline and delicate.

You have some great goals for the new year!

It's too bad you don't live around here. So many people speak Spanish.

[asakiyume]

There are lots of people here who do too--all my students in the nearby city, for instance. (It's why I wanted to start learning in the first place.) But actually asking people to agree to a regular meeting time is something I haven't had the nerve to brooch yet. (I would pay--it's just bringing it up is hard.)

Thanks re: the goals! Wishing you success with yours, too.

[ivy]

Does it help to think that they might be delighted? Many people don't always think of things that they know how to do as a valuable skill, so when someone else sees it as something to aspire towards, that gives them a self-esteem boost.

[asakiyume]

That's a very good point, and it does help! I still do have inhibitions, but it does help!

[mount_oregano]

Here in Chicago, Meetup lists Spanish conversation groups all over the city, and they're a great place to get practice. Here, at least, people of all skill levels are welcome.

Espero que aprendas mucho este año.

[asakiyume]

Gracias por la información y los buenos deseos! I'll see if Meetup exists in my neck of the woods. For my part, I wish you all the best for this new year!

[zyzyly]

The frozen landscapes are so lovely. I need to spend a season in a freezing climate.

[amaebi]

I would love to see what you did with it.

[asakiyume]

I'm sure you'd discover many beauties!

[cmcmck]

So much pretty! :o)

[asakiyume]

Yes! Winter has its beauty, for sure.

[missroserose]

It really is satisfying, isn't it? In weather like this I'm so grateful to have lived in the Arctic - both so that I have a basis for comparison (hard to complain about -5 when you've lived through -85), and for my wonderful warm wolf-fur parka. I feel invincible when I go outside and the cold barely touches me.

Thanks for the lovely photos! And here's to further adventures in bilinguality. :)

[asakiyume]

Wolf fur parka! For real?! That is beyond awesome.

And 85 below?! Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! Tell me what that was like (if and when you have time)

[missroserose]

Oh yeah! I used to live in Barrow, Alaska, which Wikipedia tells me is now officially known by its Inupiat name, Utqiaġvik. It was just for a couple of years when I was in high school, but they left an impression - and I still have the parka, fifteen years later. It was custom-made for me by Marita Aiken in the traditional Iñupiaq style, albeit with Thinsulate rather than fur lining. But it has a giant fur ruff around the hood that makes the most amazing wind barrier. And boy, do you need it in the Arctic - wind chills of -120 are not uncommon this time of year. As Brian put it when he came to visit me and meet my mother over Christmas (this was at the very start of our relationship, she lives in Anchorage again now), "I've never been anywhere where the weather has a lethality index before."

[asakiyume]

You should have seen my face when I read the -120. I honestly did not know planet Earth ever felt that cold.

The parka is MAGNIFICENT. I would treasure it too.

MOST METAL PERSON IN THIS ENTRY, FOLKS: MISSROSEOSE.

[missroserose]

I think this is the first time in my life I've ever been accused of being metal. *laughing* It's funny, because you don't think about it in terms of unusualness when you're experiencing it (or hiding in your very-insulated home from it, heh) - it's just another incredibly-cold day. It's not until spring, when you go outside and think how lovely and warm it is, and then realize it's still five below zero, that you start to realize that maybe this experience is pretty far off the bell curve...

Brian joked when he was visiting that there were places on Mars that were warmer. I don't think he's wrong.

[asakiyume]

He's absolutely right re: Mars.

[ivy]

I know several people who, when reading "The Martian", charted whether the temps on Mars were better or worse than the temps where they lived.

[amaebi]

I picture you as a winter skin-changer.

[amaebi]

I too love the photographs.

[asakiyume]

Thank you! I loved the flowers (and the ice is slippy smooth)

[shewhomust]

Pretty flowers!

And from where I am, your winter looks quite hardcore enough.

[asakiyume]

It's feeling plenty hardcore, but I think we all need to bow before -85 F (-65 C) and wind chills of -120 (-84.4). I honestly did not think our planet was capable of producing that O_o

[khiemtran]

Those ice flowers look amazing! No goals for me yet, but there are potentially some big changes happening at work for me next week, so I've been holding off planning until things are clearer.

[asakiyume]

Wow, how exciting (if a little nervous making)! I hope the changes are good ones!