“I hate new year’s day,” Antonio Gramsci wrote in 1916.
“Every morning, when I wake again under the pall of the sky, I feel that for me it is New Year’s day.
That’s why I hate these New Year’s that fall like fixed maturities, which turn life and human spirit into a commercial concern with its neat final balance, its outstanding amounts, its budget for the new management. They make us lose the continuity of life and spirit. You end up seriously thinking that between one year and the next there is a break, that a new history is beginning; you make resolutions, and you regret your irresolution, and so on, and so forth. This is generally what’s wrong with dates.”
Yet here are my resolutions for 2015. Not the modest and realistic ones, but the ones I have to aim for, knowing that I’ll probably fall short of them in some way. (For an explanation of why I need resolutions, and in fact, I need two sets of them, read this post. “Utopia, para caminar,” as Galeano said – perhaps Gramsci might agree.)
The sunrise in Spanish Harlem – January 1st, 2015
=====================MY 2015 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS=====================
1. Quit smoking. Start respecting my body. Stop doing extreme things to it!
2. Begin sleeping & eating on a regular schedule, and maintain it. Keep a log.
3. Clean my room in a Zen fashion, and maintain it. (Zen mind of tidying ritual, with no dualism between living/non-living objects.) Buy no new clothes, useless toys, or junk food. Spend no money except when necessary. Commit to financial responsibility, saving, and staying out of debt. Keep a clean desktop filing system. Organize everything in a sensible way. Commit to a zen practice in mind/spirit.
4. Eat vegan as much as possible. Learn to cook new recipes. Enjoy cooking farmers’ markets food and eat happily!
5. Commit to kungfu practice for self-discipline, concentration, and warrior spirit. Commit to Bushido code of honor.
6. Focus on building character: honesty, responsibility, being accountable to my friends and family, humility, hard work, committing to caring for people in my life more than ever this year. Meditate and journal on this daily.
7. Commit to learning as much as possible about computer programming, IT, networks, and cybersecurity as possible this year. Hang out at NYC Resistors. Complete schooling in telecommunications and IT (CompTIA certifications A+, Network+, Security+), and HackerSchool. Have a new career as a VDV electrician or IT person or software tester by 2016, and begin helping with testing or documenting Free/Libre Open Source Software. Hang out at NYC Resistors and make cool electronic toys. Make crafts, especially with dykes. Complete the ITP Physical Computing curriculum on your own, as well as: NYIP, MNN, FlatIron School PreWork, Coursera Cybersecurity, and CyberAces.
8. Break dance with the Healing Movement. Dance more in general! Salsa dance! Teach dance to kids! Enjoy music in NYC and go to more EDM events. Make electronic music and play the synth/keytar. Sing with Reverend Billy! Do the fun crazy stuff, just because. Art is activism too. Maybe play 9-man volleyball with NYStrangers. Sports are cultural identity activism too. Do more happy stuff you love because life is short! Enjoy book culture and arts/intellectual scene in NYC. Make feminist theater & burlesque. Find the people doing cool stuff this year and talk to them. Write about them. Interview them for MNN. Take lots of photos. Make lots of videos, including erotic film. Make queer feministy porn!
9. I identify strongly with the role of an archivist or librarian. I want to learn how to do this better. This year, I am helping to edit Wikipedia, and volunteering with the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Barnard Zine Library, Bluestockings Feminist Cooperative Bookstore, Anarchist Bookfair, and the Feminist Zinefest. I also hope to contribute in to Librivox, Libcom, the BaseBK, and I really hope to be part of the TransHack Feminist project with Alex <3. Begining to put together my own digital library on Calibri. Writing book reviews. Cultivating a quality media diet. Making zines and comix on topics I care about. Participating in the editing of publications like As I Am and T&S. Checking out the people doing Pirate Radio. Getting involved with a feminist distro. Going to more queer/lesbian parties and have fun with people I love!
10. Commit to transformative justice and healing in my personal relationships, within my communities, and within myself. Be extra-thoughtful of others’ feelings and be accountable to people. Communicate responsibly and promptly. Promise nothing that you can’t deliver. Allow myself to heal from my own traumas, not by forgetting them, but by reflecting and getting through them. Forgive and build anew.
========== #I COMMIT ==========
To completing training in telecommunications, as a low-voltage electrician, and as an IT networks technician.
To learning software development, hacking, and software testing.
To completing training in professional photography and video production.
To kungfu, the bushido code, and a clean room.
To vegan cooking, joyfully & creatively.
To the following organizations:
1. Lesbian Herstory Archive / Bluestockings (For the Birds Distro / Books Through Bars ?)
2. The Healing Movement (Dance to Unite / Audre Lorde Project 3rd Space)
3. NYC Resistors
Privately:
4. Wikipedia / Quora / SW Research / T&S / AAWW
5. Manhattan Neighborhood Network (public access television) & indymedia publications, Erotic Film School
Interest in effective & accessible communication strategies with multimedia: infographics, web interactivity, instruction manuals, visual language, comics principles, humor, plot & narrative pacing, emotional attachment to characters, information architecture for archiving & retrieval.
What I want to be: hacker / b-girl / zinester
By the end of the year, I will create my collective: http://JustComm.IT for providing supportive IT & communications services for grassroots community-based activist spaces, cybersecurity & privacy trainings, and arts-based healing & transformative justice.
—-While much can happen in a year, the best-laid plans of mice and men…are often disappointing…Ending on a humble note—-
