Coming Up with Resolutions

As the New Year approaches, I'm attempting to come up with resolutions that aren't obvious--for me, those would be "spend less money" and "exercise more"--while those things will also be on my list, I want to add others that will help with self-enrichment, like learning to play another instrument or to speak another language.

I tried learning Czech for a while back in the summer of '08 but then got distracted by other things, so I may have another go at that. Right now I'm obsessed the release of all the hockey Olympic rosters, so I'm going to repost the provisional Team Czech lineup here as a sort of representative of some of my interests (and to show you what Czech names look like):

Goaltenders (Brankáři): Ondřej Pavelec (Atlanta Thrashers/NHL), Jakub Štěpánek (HC Vítkovice Steel), Tomáš Vokoun (Florida Panthers/NHL).

Defensemen (Obránci): Miroslav Blaťák (Salavat Julajev Ufa/KHL), Jan Hejda (Columbus Blue Jackets/NHL), Tomáš Kaberle (Toronto Maple Leafs/NHL), Filip Kuba (Ottawa Senators/NHL), Pavel Kubina (Atlanta Thrashers/NHL), Zbyněk Michálek (Phoenix Coyotes/NHL), Roman Polák (St. Louis Blues/NHL), Marek Židlický (Minnesota Wild/NHL).

Forwards (Útočníci): Petr Čajánek (SKA Petrohrad), Roman Červenka (HC Slavia Praha), Patrik Eliáš (New Jersey Devils/NHL), Martin Erat (Nashville Predators/NHL), Tomáš Fleischmann (Washington Capitals/NHL), Martin Havlát (Minnesota Wild/NHL), Jaromír Jágr (Avangard Omsk/KHL), David Krejčí (Boston Bruins/NHL), Milan Michálek (Ottawa Senators/NHL), Tomáš Plekanec (Montreal Canadiens/NHL), Tomáš Rolinek (Metallurg Magnitogorsk/KHL), Josef Vašíček (Lokomotiv Jaroslavl/KHL).

(from Hokej.cz)

It makes me happy that Milan Michálek (a former Shark) and his brother Zbyněk both made the team, but I digress. The various marks, as you can probably guess, indicate pronunciation changes. For example, "Z" sounds like the English Z, "S" sounds like S and "C" sounds like "ts", but Ž becomes "zh", Č is "ch" and Š is "sh". Pronouncing the words is fun to me, but I started getting confused when I was introduced to different endings of nouns, which I unfortunately can't explain right now as I haven't quite been able to understand it.

I considered posting more rosters and attempting to write stuff about them (i.e. "Slovakia: The Occasional Reminder that Anze Kopitar is Slovenian, That's Why He's Not on This Team"), but while I love watching hockey, my knowledge is limited. Another thing to work on next year, perhaps.

Whatever your resolutions or plans are, I wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best in 2010.