Promises, Promises

Everybody says they're going to eat healthier. Gyms are being joined by people who will almost certainly never go back. People are sneaking cigarettes they swear will be their last. It's resolution season.

Entertainment Weekly and the AV Club have written about their pop cultural resolutions for 2011. I have a few of my own.

1. Catch up on shows I know I would like but have been putting off, like Fringe and Community.
2. Similarly, catch up on shows I know I would like but have been putting off because they’re no longer on the air and all I’ve got is time, like The Wire and Battlestar Galactica.
3. Finish the disc of The West Wing I’ve had out from Netflix since October. In the same vein, maybe stop keeping Netflix DVDs out for months at a time? No? Too lofty of a resolution?
4. Read a couple of books? I don’t know. I used to be literate, I swear, and one day I can be again. I just need to narrow down the several-feet-high stack of books I'd like to read to a more manageable set and get to it.
5. You hear a lot about pop cultural blind spots, and I have many. I’m not at all well-versed in video games, graphic novels, current literature, many different genres of music, etc etc etc. I'm sure I could make more amusing observations and offer more incisive, witty commentary if I had more of a passing familiarity with some of these things.
6. Judge not those who watch reality TV outside of Top Chef, because I have my fair share of bad taste myself. Or if I must judge (which, let’s face it, I must), at least judge quietly.
7. Actually commit to the Dawson’s Creek blog I’m intermittently so excited about and so annoyed by. My snarky skills need sharpening, anyway.

So there. I'm not making promises to myself I can't keep. Well, okay, next January I may still be vowing to someday watch the entire run of The Wire. It's been this long, after all. I can only hope I'll have returned that West Wing disc, though. I mean, dude. It's been three months. It's getting kind of ridiculous.