Welcome back to Racket, friends. We missed you. (Yes, even you, USERNAME REDACTED.) Hope your holidays were happy and rejuvenating.
As you may have heard, there's a new year, and many are calling it 2025. As is traditional, some folks are resolving to better themselves and the world around them. I am a huge supporter of this practice, even if your firm resolve comes crashing down long before February.
Plenty of publications will encourage you to make reasonable resolutions that you can keep, but not Racket! Keeping your expectations in check is maybe wise, like not overeating on Thanksgiving, but holidays aren't about wisdom—they're about celebration. New Year's isn't about improving your life but about overindulging in the unreasonable belief that you can start all over.
That said, I (a man who has in the past filled a full notebook page with an itemized list of ways to micromanage my self-improvement) am keeping it simple this year. This is the second day in a row I've been sitting at my desk rather than lounging on my glider. I plan to use mass transit more often in the year ahead and I will also "get more involved in my community," he says vaguely.
And Racket? We had a big 2025 Planning Meeting at the Tea House earlier this week. (Highly recommend the Chung King Spicy Chicken, along with—well, just about everything else.) We mostly discussed ways to streamline how we operate as a team (nothing you need to worry about), but we also have some bigger plans for the year ahead that you will just have to wait for.
But enough about us. What are your New Year's resolutions? How do you plan to live your life in 2025? Do you avoid that nonsense altogether?
As always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want. This is your Open Thread, after all. (New year, same old kicker!)