Now that that's out of the way:

I find it's better to state your goals, ideally aloud. For some reason, the more often you state your goals to other people (at least, until they kick you in the ass to stop), the more likely you are to realize your goals. Keep it to yourself, those things just somehow don't always happen.

And so, although I currently have a blog over at blogger.com, it has begun to bother me. Vox appears to offer a solution that lets you filter out viewers on certain posts, although the limitation that the only people who can get added to friends and family posts must be on Vox already chaps my hide. In any case, I'm going to recommit to Vox. (As for why I'm not doing this at Livejournal, the free Livejournal is about as ugly as a hangover and I just don't have the time for unaesthetic Web visuals. When you're one step up from a MySpace page, you're not saying a hell of a lot.

Yet I have still not stated a goal. The goal is this: To write every day. About something. I am very much enjoying Dooce again, having recently read a blog whose owner got sacked because of the blog (hence the web-coined adjective "dooced"), and she appears to write every day. Not that I plan to, but she's also managed to make a living from the ads on her site. Which is organized and pretty. If only. So: I plan on writing something on Vox every day. Which may eternally bore my nonexistent audience, but since they're not there they can't see me waving the middle finger.

I recently spent most of this year in a relationship. That's good. The relationship itself had its downsides, which is why it is now over. But one of the biggest downsides was a complete lack of time for self. I've done too much on my own for too long to ever be the kind of insufferable "we are each other" kind of person, and if I don't get enough empty time I also have a hard time turning to creative writing, which when you come down to it is the juice that keeps me alive. So I feel fairly sapped, and tired, and a little sad. I need to relocate that juice. Writing here at least once a day will remind me to get my ass in gear and listen to the muse again.

Of course, having connected with a really terrific new-ish person is going to interfere with that. With luck, there will be more to discuss there.

So: I will write. At least once a day. Probably not more. But at least. Having a goofy dog will help. And freeing myself to write about any old kind of shit will also assist.

So, let the games begin. Again.