Monday, December 28, 2015

New Year's Resolutions: 2016

It's time for everybody's favorite annual Debate Link feature: New Year's Resolutions! We begin, as we always do, by assessing our performance over the previous year.

Met: 1 (two articles? Try four articles!), 2,  4 (retitled), 7, 8, 9 (by the barest of technicalities), 12, 13, 14.

Missed: 5 (peaked at 11).

Pick 'em: 3, 6, 10, 11 (neither Jill nor I can remember if I bought any new pants).

That's a strong year! Can 2016 top it? That probably depends on how carefully I phrase the resolutions below:

(1) Win a bet on a boxing match (Met -- 95% sure, anyway).

(2) Successfully teach a course in Energy Law (Met).

(3) Take, or be scheduled to take, at least one subfield examination (Met, and solidly so).

(4) Have a dissertation committee (or have a clear idea of who will be on said committee) (Met).

(5) Submit an article to a peer-reviewed journal (Met).

(6) Read a considerable work on Mizrahi Jewish political thought (Pick 'em -- What is "major"? "What is "political thought"?).

(7) Regularly attend law school events and workshops (Pick 'em -- What is "regularly"?).

(8) Have Dismissal accepted for publication (Missed -- took me until 2019!).

(9) Attend a Sharks game with Bay Area friends (Met).

(10) Work on not assuming that, if I am unfamiliar with a person's or group's argument, they must not have one (Met -- subjective, but I really think I improved here).

(11) Work on listening to and considering arguments that I'd normally not listen to or consider (Met -- see #10).

(12) Hang or otherwise display my sports memorabilia (Missed -- a few, but not enough).

(13) Beat Witcher 3 (Met).

(14) Attend a party (Met).

(15) Do some form of stretching, yoga, or physical therapy designed to address my ludicrously tight muscles (Met -- but this will be a continuing priority).

Seems like a good set to me. Happy New Year to all, and here's to 2016!

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