The New Year inevitably brings with it the desire to change something for the better. We’re socially conditioned from birth to believe that the New Year is an opportunity for improvement and for making resolutions based on the knowledge gained in the previous year.

By the process of logical deduction, one comes to the conclusion that resolving to improve upon oneself means that the reward for the resolve should be greater than the sacrifice. And here is where I take issue.

When do I get to claim my reward? Where’s my resolution remuneration?

I cannot speak for anyone else, but I know that every resolution I’ve ever made has met its end at some point. That weight I resolved to lose, it was lost and then gradually it came back (it’s like that crazy ex-boyfriend that never quite stops stalking you). My resolutions around money usually never come to fruition. There’s always some bill, some trip, or some unforeseeable catastrophe that requires me to pull out my wallet and fork over whatever money I had previously saved. And then of course the breaking or collapsing of the resolve leads to inevitable let down.

I’ve decided to claim my resolution reward upfront in 2008. I resolve to reward myself as much as possible; any demonstration of resolve will be rewarded with a little self-love. Every time I pass the cookie jar, one ‘good for me’ thought is redeemed. Every time I pass up a shoe sale, one ‘way to go girl’ is awaiting my ego. Maybe these small incentives aren’t enough to make a big enough difference in my life, but there’s absolutely no way this approach can be less successful than my previous attempts at life-altering resolutions.

Vegas 2007 No. 2 067

Originally uploaded by italianluck

My life has become incredibly serious since returning from Vegas. Things have happened that I never expected and all of sudden I find myself crashing my beat up jeep into a new beamer, minus insurance of course (this is just a metaphor, no real car accidents here). I’m paying the bills and my dues and find that the brilliance and meaning that I’ve found through blogging has been temporarily stripped away from me. I know things happen for a reason, but I think it will be about 3 – 6 months before I know what that meaning is.

So here’s to a simpler time. A time when posing on a bench at the monorail station in Vegas was the happiest moment in time. Here’s to reason-free sanity and joy (like I talk about in this post). I’ll get back to me soon enough, but thank god for flickr and the memories I have to lift me up in times of desperation.

As a reader of this blog, you agree to the following Terms and Conditions of Use:

1. The Almighty creator of this blog, Jennifer, heretofore referred to as ‘the Almighty’, wishes you a joyous reading experience and grants you the ability to view content at your discretion, as referred to in policy #6.
2. The Almighty will, in every manner possible, represent the situations she describes in the truest and yet most colorful light possible.
3. You, the reader, recognize that all ideas, notions, and concepts expressed in this blog are the machinations of my own personal and sometimes retarded mind and do not represent the views or interests of the company that I work for or the platform that I blog on.
4. You, the reader, agree to accept everything the Almighty writes to be true unless you believe it to be untrue. If you disagree with the Almighty, you are required under these Terms and Conditions to express your malcontent in the comments portion of this blog or send the Almighty a direct email.
5. You, the reader, acknowledge that the Almighty is a frivolous and sometimes goofy blogger and that she will share photos, videos, and things from her personal life as a means of self-expression. You, the reader, understand that this asset sharing is done so gratuitously with the hopes that you share in the personal joy that she experienced in the asset creation process and point her in the direction of the reader’s asset collection, free of charge.
6. You, the reader, upon arrival to contentdynasty.com, recognize that the Almighty’s openness and freedom of expression is expressly granted under these Terms and Conditions and that they should in no way be taken out of context, misrepresented, or taken personally. If her freedom of expression offends the reader, the Almighty grants the Reader the ability to leave the site at any time at the reader’s sole discretion.
7. You, the reader, assert that you are of an appropriate age to view this content.
8. You, the reader, may encounter blog entries that are password protected and can and should email the Almighty for the password at jvangrove at gmail dot com.

Phew. That’s it. But this is a work in progress. If you feel that I have left anything out please bring these matters to my attention immediately.

My little message came in the form of a vegetable; an item so simple to consume all that is required is that I wash it before I eat it. This vegetable also happens to be extremely nourishing and if I’m not mistaken good for eyesight. And while enjoying this almost decadent variety of vegetable something extraordinarily simple occurred to me; why do I seek to complicate my diet regimen by introducing chemically enhanced treats that weigh me down? Obvious answer: they taste good, but truth be told I don’t need those things to function let alone be happy.

In taking my vegetable vision and applying that to the realm of communities, I surmised the following:

1. Real communities exist because they are organic in nature. They come from something real, an intangible and innate quality within all of us defined by our desire to connect with something more than just ourselves.

2. Man has made tools to facilitate the connection of individuals within communities, but the simple fact remains that the most engaging online communities are extensions of off-line communities. Even Facebook began as an online extension of an off-line collegiate milieu. (I’m certainly not the first to iterate this, I like this older post from ‘05 that speaks to the socialization of the web)

3. Holism, the theory that the parts of any whole cannot exist and cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole; “holism holds that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts;” it’s almost a creed for community. I’m not a theologist or philosopher by any means, but I’m struck by the simple and direct correlation here. A community as a whole is far greater than the sum of its individual participants.

4. Add your own observations.

On that note, let’s all just KISS (keep it simple stupid).