Happy New Year 2012! Some '11 reflections and '12 resolutions

Happy New Year!

I hope your 2012, the year of the dragon, will be healthy, lively and full of passion.

My goals and resolutions for 2012 are basically the same as last year. I want to live the year like it will be my last, spending time with people I love, doing what I love, and doing what I can to be helpful to others.

Specifically...I want to have many dates with my wife Megumi, take my kids to places that will they will remember for the rest of their lives (still planning), read more with my kids, Skype with my family and friends more often, fearlessly keep trying new things in my teaching and blog about/publish research papers on them, travel to a country I've never been to (Spain is in the planning), run my 6th marathon (and enjoy it--need to lose a bit of weight to achieve the "enjoy" part), and find a new volunteer activity (still searching).

Looking back, 2011 was an unsettling year with the Tohoku earthquake and Fukushima reactor crisis, and I hope 2012 will be safer and more peaceful. Aside from that crisis, 2011 was a very good year and I have many "best of 2011" things to be thankful for. First and foremost, Megumi, Michael, Mei and I stayed healthy and without any major hospital emergencies. I was able to do my usual Tokyo Marathon (4th in a row, 5th one coming in 2012) and a half-marathon as well. We were also able to travel to Seattle in July to visit family and friends. Professionally, I was blessed with another year of stimulating teaching and learning at ICU and TAT with excellent students and colleagues. I was able to present research at the JACET conference in Fukuoka and JALT in Tokyo as well as publish a paper on using 20x20 for presentation training.

There were many other things I wanted to get done, or to do more, of course, but those will carry over into 2012.

I'm looking forward to communicating with all of you in 2012!
今年もよろしくお願いします。

Mark