11. Get plenty of sleep.

lose all that “2008 Stress Weight”

How about the rest of you? Got any more good intentions?

11.get bailout money.

12. buy a house.

11. Remain vigilant about where to put one’s money.

Old folks concerned about where to put the fruits of their earthly labor after they pass, (to control from the grave so to speak), are still at risk of a Madoff type of Ponzi Scheme, Hedge Fund, and yes–Derivative that may be invested by the charity to which they contribute.

As much as things change, the basics stay the same.

The money game sure is “SCARY” in today’s world of the growing and complex conduit of currency flow and stabilization.

11. Become the junior senator from Illinois.

My intentions are not so lofty.

1. Quit smoking at least 4 or 5 times this year.

2. Find that special woman, have my way with her and dump her before her lawyer gets to me.

3. Buy an American product so I can brag that I helped with the recovery.

4. Fix the fence and trim the trees.

5. Spend more time fishing and less time watching the stockmarket.

6.Travel up to the Yukon for a couple of weeks and enjoy nature.

7,8 & 9 Left these spots open for
future promises and lies I’m gonna tell myself.

10 enjoy life if I can, if I can’t then I will screw up everyone elses.

Bing,

To thank God for all opportunities, however they might present themselves.

Stop poking fun at Sarah “Caribou Barbie” Palin.
Stop saying awful things about George W. Bush.
Stop worrying about Dick Cheney.
Stop dreaming that there will ever be peace between Israel and Palestine.
Celebrate the fact that we finally have an honest-to-goodness thinking person in the White House.
Hope for happiness for everyone in 2009.

11. Tune out anyone who uses the phrase “worst [ ] since [ ]” to describe anything that isn’t a movie, album, or “reality” show.

12. Keep growing our little business, without taking on oppressive debt.

13. Bailout, baby! Yes we can! Yes, we can!

12. Regard as ignorant, specious or an intentional goad ALL predictions, prognostications or warnings by financial analysts (unless, of course, they tell me something that I already figured out or want to hear).

11. Get curious before I get furious.

12. Repeat five times daily to myself, “It’s just stuff!”

13. Stay away from lists that have 13 elements.

God! That’s a hard one to answer. I certainly have “intentions”, I’m not so sure if they’re good.

11- Eliminate credit card debt.
12- Time, not money, to charity.
13- No more Starbucks, McCoffe is just as fine.
14- Trade my Lexus for a Toyota Corolla, used condition. (transaction about to be completed!!)
15- Girlfriend out!, expensive, return to investment ratio not that good under present economic environment.

Hey Jack Hammond…Fishing on the Yukon River sounds fun, uh??!! You can move down stream from my uncle when your done with “her”; if you decide to hook up with someone to throw off the lawyer’s trail.

My uncle changed his named, moved up to the Yukon, and became a recluse. I won’t say the name he picked (not that anyone would believe me as it’s not as normal as say Stanley Bing). He wanted to get away from the ex-wife and I think society in general. Between the name change and the fact that his tent/cabin doesn’t have a mailbox, I don’t think anyone will find him.

forgot one……

13. Slap people who say, “Celebrate the fact that we finally have an honest-to-goodness thinking person in the White House.”

I’d like to agree, except that I’m still busy celebrating the fact that we have an honest-to-goodness thinking person in the White House.

We “almost” have a thinking person, etc. — 14 days.

12. Avoid cliches like the plague.

My 2009 resolution involves something I haven’t done for many years….I’m going to spend a great deal of time on the handgun range ressurecting my now decrepit shooting skills. I’d forgotten how soothing shooting a large bore weapon really is. I put all of that out of my life when I got out of the Marine Corps….and I realize it was like giving up part of myself. Simple pleasures are wonderful.

Bing, I think I know a Doc in Beverly Hills that can set your face to cheerful with a little botox. I wish I could help you with the rest but I fail each..although I have started using flash and “the google” for my presentations…

My Intentions are simple…I am not going to talk bad about my executives. I have to start trusting them and believing that they do what they do for the greater good.

I also plan to sell all my “stuff” on ebay.

11. Be a little bit more Humane.

Hey Bing, finally decided to leave a post on your blog. I really enjoy reading the views of both you and some of the posters (Mike, Josh & Jack). I know it is a little late but Happy New Year from presumably your only reader in Tortola, The British Virgin Islands.

YES! Zingaaaaaa

few ??’s:

can anyone define the term:
‘Honest-to-Goodness’?

since when are politicians in Washington honest or good?

How about we just start the Obamism religion now insterad of waiting a couple thousand years?….

I think what you really meant to say was you’re celebrating the departure of the village idiot.

welcome! How’s the weather?

It’s Great. Lot’s of sunshine, even when it’s raining!

456. Quit Grey Goose.

11. continue to stop smoking.
12. take life one day at a time.

Re: “we have an honest-to-goodness thinking person in the White House” — I presume that we must be talking about Laura Bush (although what she was thinking when she married the shrub is anyone’s guess).

11. Keep brown bagging it several times a week

12. Pay off my car in a few months
12.a. Put the car payment $ into my 401k

13. Take the stairs in my building going up, not just down

14. Stay out of trouble and seem more positive at work

So true. Stoly instead?

Resolution?
I am going to make my life better. One baby step at a time.

11. Be a better father to my infant son, not just a better breadwinner.

12. Be a better husband.

13. Make sure my parents and in-laws (all in various states of age-induced disrepair) get all the opportunities they want to see said infant son.

14. Bring in some more bread, too.

Well, I’ve been working on my soup recipes. Got my creamy winter squash soup, my mushroom-potato soup, minestrone, and vegetable soup. My 2009 intention is to perfect one made from old shoes so I can make it through the rest of the winter.

Bing, I thought you quit the Goose?

11-Oysters and crab instead of caviar.
12-Richard Hennessy instead of Louis XIII.
12-Trade my Bentley for a Lexus
13-Mingle more with snob people (already started, that’s why I’m writing this comment on this blog!!)

I did. Then I didn’t. Soon I will again. Then I won’t. Feel much better, though.

You know what Bing…Let’s forget about New Year’s Intention 456. Cheers!

Well I’m gonna stick with the brown spirits and beer, but that totally blows my intention to be less fat…

I also intend to quit using words that make people go to Dictionary.com so they know what the frig I am talking about…

And I will continue to try to be couragous, stand upright and be strong…

May you all stay forever young…

Love
Robbie

I’m not changing a thing.

Just because it’s a new year doesn’t mean that I should be any different. In fact, trying to be different would be a lie. People make the same resolutions every new year and go back to being the same old losers by April at the latest.

Life is about failing and losing. Trying to put a positive spin on misery and depression is a lie. People just need to accept themselves for the wretches they are and continue down the path of least resistance.

Bing,

I’d like to help you out with #9. They’re not as formal as necessary for an office, but I’ll recommend Birkenstock sandals or clogs, depending on the weather. Great stuff.

I too would like to be on board with #5, but in the engineering world, I’d be punching people all day.

I’d like to change my drinking habits too, but that could get in the way of achieving #1.

Happy New Year everybody. Oh, let’s add another.

#who knows. Will the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 10,000.

Well, you know what they say…the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So, I think I’ll just continue to take everything in moderation (food, booze, chocolate, etc.) and not take anything too seriously.

Thank you Robbie and I didn’t use dictionary.com I think I can still use my heart for this.

Thanks, Yadgyu. You always make me laugh.

Tony Robbins eat you heart out! Yadgyu thanx for cheering me up one more time.

Hey JC, thank you, from the heart…

I must comment on the Powerpoint slide “Presentation Magic”…it is great in its cheesiness…I’m in awe…in fact if I hold my Blackberry under my nose, I can swear I smell the limberger aroma…very nice…

Being that we are in for a very depressing period of time and God only knows how worst will it get, I’m planning this year to:
-Take those long vacations I have been postponing.
-Organize a really big, “Animal House” style party.
-Buy a condo on a border town in Mexico, it is cheap, I can work for peanuts in the US and cross the border and live in Mexico, Hey, if they can live for $10.00 an hour, I can easily do the same for minimum wage in the US working in McDonalds.

Correction on my last comment: people in Mexico can live with a wage of $10.00 A DAY, I can do the same for minimum wage working at McDonalds, or something similar, but living in Mexico, even if I rent in Mexico I will be better off than working and living in the USA!!!!!!!

The recent spate of financially induced suicides by the ultra rich completely amazes me. It’s not like they were going to end up living on the street. These guys were ‘the Champions’….’the Titans of Industry’… are these human scarecrows the same giants the business world aspired to emulate? (Yes Bing, I know it’s slightly off topic, but since it doesn’t involve very much in the way of pseudo-swearing or personal attacks, perhaps you’ll indulge me).

Maybe my New Year’s resolution should also involve continued thankfulness for my hardscrabble blue collar origin. The thought of ‘offing’ myself because my net worth fell from billions to a few measily millions (should I be so lucky) would simply never occur to me. I would merely readjust my tastes; Pabst Blue Ribbon is as capable of getting you sh*t faced as Maker’s Mark.

Maybe my life has been a suitable training ground for luxury, squalor, or whatever comes between, but I’m not ever willingly checking out because my wallet gets a bit thin.

People’s sense of self-worth and their reason for being in the world, in this society, is often tied up with their status. Their idea of who they are is defined by what they possess. When they lose all they possess, they also lose their identities and see themselves, perhaps for the first time, as we all really are, stripped of ambition, hope and wide-screen television sets. The pain of the discrepancy between what they thought they were and what they are, what we all really are at bottom, is too painful to bear. There is also the shame of those who have always been right suddenly being wrong. For egotistical narcissists, the only way to take control of all this is to perform the ultimate act of selfishness and anger — and jump.

11. Finally get around to looking at stanleybing.com after reading his Fortune column for so long (Done, 1/1)

12. Continue to give up smoking (40 years so far, Done, 2/2)

13. Stop pretending there’s anything I want to do that I can stick at for more than 30 minutes at a time. 45 years in school and business tried to teach me I could do something effectively for 8 hours a day 5 days a week and they were WRONG.

(so far so good, 20 days and counting, 3/3)

14. Spend 29 minutes at a time on my short game, get down from 5 handicap – or at least stay there.

(pending until Spring)

15. Never envy the guys who kept working past 50 and have to manage the investments I don’t have – how many golf balls can one man hit/beaches can one man lie on at one time?

Time’s up, half-an-hour.

(too easy – 4/4)