The way I used to tie my shoelaces, they would come undone every few minutes. So much that I just wore them untied a lot of times. As usual, the internet comes to the rescue and I found Ian's secure knot. I've been tying my shoelaces like that for a couple of weeks now, and they haven't come undone so far!

Ian has plenty more stuff about shoelaces at Ian's shoelace site. He may have just saved me from an inglorious death of tripping over my own shoelaces.

I had just blogged about rereading The Catcher in the Rye, and now I find out that J.D. Salinger died.

Had a fun time in Amarillo, Texas, visiting my cousin Matt. The sky is so wide open in Texas, almost as if you can see all the way to heaven.

We also drove to Lubbock to see Bibins, who I learned is now engaged. Congratulations! Matt got a speeding ticket on the way back to Amarillo. I didn't even realize we were going so fast--the roads were so straight and even. It was really good to have a change of scenery; the sun and the sky comes out so rarely in the winter here that I almost forgot what they looked like.

Last year's resolution was "keep a tidier apartment." I don't think I can say I kept that one. So this year's resolutions are hopefully easier to achieve--do more of things that feel good:

• Read more, fill up that book collection
• Travel more, even if it just means taking the ferry to Vashon island
• Explore more restaurants
• Pay off my car

And ultimately, have more fun.

Reading The Catcher in the Rye when you're in your 30s is a different experience as opposed to reading it in your teens. All I remember from reading it in high school was how I agreed with the rants about phonies. I don't remember any of the other details until I read it again.

What seemed like a simple character back then now seems incredibly young and terribly complex. I don't think I realized even back then that Holden was actually well-to-do; that he was narrating it from some sort of hospital; or even that it was set in New York city. The setting seems much more present now that I've been to NYC several times. I know where the museum with the Indians is.

These days, instead of simply agreeing with the boy's point of view, I can't help but worry if I've turned into one of those phonies that Holden Caulfield detested.

This post brought to you by the free wifi at SEATAC airport.

So yesterday, I went on a book buying binge. I got:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Animal Farm
• The Catcher in the Rye
• The Dip
• Gravity's Rainbow
• The Joy Luck Club
• To Kill a Mockingbird

I imagine all but one of them are part of a high school reading list. All but two of them I bought from a a used books store. I've read all of them, except for Gravity's Rainbow, which I plan to read on the plane to Texas next week.

One of my new year's resolutions is to start a personal library. It's not gonna be like this guy's library, but a modest one where I have copies of all the good books that I've read and enjoyed.

The plan is to mostly acquire them cheaply, from second hand stores. I got a ways to go, I think. Off the top of my head, I'm looking for copies of Flowers for Algernon, A Brave New World, and the Robert Fitzgerald translation of the Aeneid. Oh and a bunch of Shakespeare.