It’s time for us all to make resolutions for the new year.  Why?  I don’t know, it just is.  Society demands it.  Since I want to fit in with the rest of the crowd, I’ve got my annual installment of Angel blogger resolutions ready to go!  If I can actually stick to these this year, maybe this blog will become a better place. 

Or not.  I’m pretty sure society also demands that bloggers be irresposible, unaccountable and lazy, so I don’t see how making resolutions to better myself really fits in.

Calvin new years resolutions

Because we are headed to 2012, I’ve got 12 resolutions.  I suspect I will actually adhere to maybe two.

  1. Buy the MLB TV Premium this year.  Not only do I think that the Rojas-Gubicza announcing tandem is underrated, but I have come to realize that most of the other announcing teams in the majors are absolute garbage, especially the team here in Seattle.  Got to have that option to pick between the home or away broadcast.
  2. I’m instituting a self-imposed Tony Reagins joke moratorium.  He hasn’t been gone long, but I think we’ve all sufficiently beaten that dead horse already.
  3. To be more tolerant when reporters and fans of other teams propose ridiculous trades for Peter Bourjos for they know not of their own idiocy.
  4. For me to lose 20 pounds so that I don’t feel like such a hypocrite for making jokes about Prince Fielder being fat, 30 pounds if he signs with the Rangers, just to be safe.
  5. Re-commit myself to my fantasy baseball leagues.  For long-time readers, you’ll know that I used to cover fantasy baseball and basketball elsewhere on the internet and was quite the fantasy player in my heyday.  The last two or three years though have been rather embarrassing.  I was in five leagues last year (that’s not the embarrassing part) and the best finish I had was third place.  This resolution has nothing to do with the Angels, but dammit, I need to re-establish myself as an elite general manager of pretend baseball teams.
  6. I also resolve to never talk about my fantasy baseball exploits on this blog ever again.  There is literally nothing less interesting than reading about some other guy bitching about his fantasy teams.
  7. Train myself to stop reflexively typing Aybar as “A-Y-B-E-R”.  I have no idea why I do that, but one out of every three times I type Aybar, it comes out wrong.  It is some sort of weird mental block of unknown origins.  This is secretly the reason I am hoping the Angels let him walk after this season.
  8. This year, I swear, there will be a Monkey With a Podcast.  I know I have threatened this before, but this time I really mean it.  There will be a MWaH podcast by Opening Day.  Mark my words.
  9. There will be a kinder, gentler Monkey this season.  As such, I will do my best to refrain from criticizing Vernon Wells.  As far as I am concerned, he has until the end of May to prove he can bounce back.  If he hasn’t by then though, all bets are off.
  10. I miss doing my weekly Angels on Twitter post.  It never did well traffic-wise, but I enjoyed it, so it is going to make a comeback.  Besides, with prolific Twitterer C.J. Wilson in the fold, I think there should be a lot more content.  If not, I always have the inane drivel of Chevy Clarke to fallback on.
  11. Not to be boring and predictable, but my personal goal will be to double the daily traffic to this blog by this time next year.
  12. This is the year that I officially indoctrinate my daughter into Angel fandom.  She’s only two and a half, but she is starting to understand things now and even shows an interest in watching sports (in fact, she thinks all sports are baseball).  This seems like the right time to make sure she grows up loving the Angels.  Now that we live in Seattle, I can’t take the chance that she somehow ends up rooting for the Mariners.