Comments on: Reviewing My 2011 Resolutions

By: Monique Rio

Monique Rio — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:18:49 +0000

Reading 100 books takes time away from you kids too and is even less of a participatory activity than music.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:06:14 +0000

Trent, if you really want to play the piano, find a way to do it. A lot of music schools sell pianos periodically at reduced rates. Even if you set aside 1/2 an hour a day to practice you’ll make progress. Keyboards can also be bought on Craigs list. If you really want to do it don’t let anything stop you. Making music is important, not just for you, but for your children.(And children who play the piano usually do better at math)Besides, it’s good for them to see you work hard to master something you have a passion for-it gives them a good example to follow.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:05:52 +0000

I read the “What can I improve On? Flexibility.” as Trent should work on being more flexible to prevent injury to his body. Then I reread. I think that you should work on it literally as well as figuratively, Trent! Good luck.

By: Evita

Evita — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:32:58 +0000

Few people realize that learning a musical instrument is a DAILY endeavour, the same as high level athletics. If you don’t practice evey day, your body quickly unlearns. Then you wonder why you are not making progress and quit.
If you cannot commit to daily practice because of other responsibilities, it is better to know begin at all. This is of course the case for most adults.
Just my opinion (I am a musician myself).

By: Georgia

Georgia — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:20:14 +0000

#13 Jennifer – Amazon has over 14,000 free items for Kindle.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:53:29 +0000

@Jonathan: To me, taking responsibility would mean acknowledging that Sarah was right, or at least that she had a point, when she argued against buying a piano. There is a world of difference between “My wife helped me understand that our other financial goals mean that we can’t afford a piano right now” and “I failed at my music goal because my wife wouldn’t let me buy a piano.” Maybe he took responsibility in private, but here, in public, he’s definitely casting blame.

Reading between the lines, I suspect that Sarah (who, from what we know about her, is no dummy) perceived that Trent wasn’t taking his piano playing seriously enough to justify spending the money on a piano. I doubt that her “feeling that this was a frivolous endeavor” came wholly out of nowhere.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:13:55 +0000

The way Trent’s description of his failure of his piano playing goal is being perceived by some is interesting to me. Trent seems, to me, to be taking responsibility for choosing a goal that is not a good fit for his current situation. I didn’t think he was blaming his wife for his failure, rather he was taking responsibility for choosing a goal that required an investment that he and his wife had different views on.

Seeing the way different people view these types of situations helps me to better understand the differences between how I view taking responsibility and others view casting blame.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:58:08 +0000

For the grammar sticklers: If any of you have the motivational spark to improve your situation to that of advanced grammar sticklerism, may I suggest learning about misplaced modifiers (including but not limited to dangling participles) and ambiguous antecedents? Unlike sentences ending with prepositions, MMs and AAs really do obscure writing’s meaning. It takes more work to pick them out, though.

By: AnnJo

AnnJo — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:10:01 +0000

Of all Trent’s bad grammar habits, ending a sentence like “What can I improve on?” with a preposition is the least annoying. Swingcheese’s explanation for it makes sense, but following the rule too closely leads to formulations that are awkward to our ears. As Winston Churchill sarcastically said (from memory), “That is the kind of language up with which I will not put.”

By: Pamela

Pamela — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:59:12 +0000

Under your goal regarding the piano, you wrote the following:
“I shouldn’t choose a goal that’s significantly incompatible with my home environment or requires a significant purchase to make possible.”

I don’t necessarily agree. Some goals may require a significant purchase. If it is a goal that is very important to you and you will get a good amount of use and/or enjoyment out of it (and you have the money) the purchase may be worthwhile. Same goes for the home environment comment – changing the environment a bit, where possible, may be worth it. With kids, you can’t really change that they are around (nor am I suggesting anyone should change that) but there are times when the home environment can be changed to accommodate the want/need.

@Jennifer, #13 – Amazon has many free books for the Kindle. You can also “check out” Kindle books from a library. There are multiple websites with free books to download for your Kindle.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:01:55 +0000

#13 Jennifer: If you don’t want to be buying from Amazon, look at the Sony ereader instead, as it supports many different formats.

To answer your specific question, Amazon has a lot of free books available, mostly those out of copyright (think classic literature) but the occasional teaser offer on the first book in a series and freebies offered by independent/new writers. You can look at the free available Kindle books in that section on their site – there’s usually a listing on the right hand side of the Kindle page plus you can search the site, and they provide links to other sites with compatible books. You can also get a program called Calibre that will convert books to Kindle format, and Kindles will support PDFs. Libraries are just now beginning to add Kindle ebooks to their collections as well.

By: SwingCheese

SwingCheese — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:43:25 +0000

Also, I say that not as a troll, per se, but as a former Latin teacher and lover of the Latin language. Trent’s meaning in the “What can I improve on?” question was perfectly clear to me. I just wanted to explain the reason behind that particular rule. :)

By: SwingCheese

SwingCheese — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:41:03 +0000

@12, Elizabeth: Your editor is correct in that this structure is meant to mimic Latin, but there is a reason for this particular rule. The problem with ending an English sentence in a preposition is that it either leaves the object of the preposition isolated before the sentence (as is the case with “What can I improve on?”, or implied (as is the case with “I’m going to the store, want to come with?”). Either one of these sentences is usually understood in colloquial English, but for the purposes of clarification in professional writing, the rule of not ending a sentence in a preposition still ought to be observed. Latin, as a language, has a structure that is far more precise than English, which is rather dependent upon word order and punctuation to discern meaning, and colloquial English depends quite a bit on its listener/reader having a generalized understanding of the context to discern meaning. The grammar rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition is an example of this.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:40:08 +0000

Could you elaborate on how to get free content for a Kindle? I’m thinking about buying one but not if it locks me into always having to buy from Amazon. Love your blog!!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:26:14 +0000

Trent, thanks for sharing your goals and success with them. It’s helpful for someone relatively new to the idea of setting realistic annual goals to see a real-life example of how someone goes about re-assessing them.

PS – I was taught by an editor that the grammatical rule about ending sentences with a preoposition was imposed on English by 18th century academicians trying to mimic Latin. She said it’s about relevent to modern English as the correct usage of ‘you’ vs ‘thee.’ Please, don’t let the ill-informed, ill-mannered trolls get you down.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:03:33 +0000

I’m glad you tried to learn with a teacher this time. I’m surprised you didn’t obtain a free or cheap piano in the area.

By: kc

kc — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:20:25 +0000

“The best thing you can do with any goal is to give it some careful thought in advance. Think about your plan carefully and look for potential problems – and solutions to those problems. The more care you put in up front, the more likely you are to see success as things unfold.”

Pablum.

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:38:22 +0000

“What can I improve on?” How about a goal of using correct grammar and not ending at least two sentences in the above article with prepositions for 2012? That’s a useful goal for a professional writer. Think of the negative, bitter, judgmental comments which could be avoided in the comments section with use of proper grammar and spell check in the article!

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:40:39 +0000

Wow – 103 books in a year is no small feat! I commend you for that and think I will add something similar to my 2012 goals (though not as ambitious!)

By: Valleycat1

Valleycat1 — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:34:46 +0000

I’ve found that I’m more likely to stick with more specific, thought-out goals. So instead of getting fit, I might start with following a plan to be able to finish a 5k walk within x months. Instead of learning to play the piano , which can take years, I might consult a teacher to select one piece I can work toward playing well, knowing that includes basic piano exercises and more basic pieces before I tackle it. And I set interim checkpoints where I regroup or modify when realistic, so I am less likely to get into the all or nothing mindset.