Chester Himes

Reading If He Hollers Let Him Go and wondering why they didn't add this to the books I read in high school.

I've probably said it before but I love Chester Himes' writing, especially in his Harlem detective novels (though I've only managed to read three). I can't stand scenes that are overdone; details ought to count. Himes usually nails it.

The broken concrete paving was strewn with broken glass bottles, rags and diverse objects thrown from the back windows: a rusty bed spring, a cotton mattress with a big hole burnt in the middle, several worn-out automobile tires, the half-dried carcass of a black cat with its left foot missing and its eyes eaten out by rats.
- The Real Cool Killers

Resolved

I know they're corny, but I'm all for new year's resolutions. There's a ton of shit I want to change in my life, things that aren't happening for me the way I want them to. There's a lot of self-hatred, a lot of missed opportunities. Way too much frustration and anger, more than I ever show to friends. A lot of sadness and fear that I'm not going to live to be an old man. At least not the way I've been living.

There's been times over the past several months where I thought I needed to talk to someone. A "professional." But deep down, I know it's about making smarter decisions, mostly about everything. I'm just not making enough of them.

I spent the morning on New Year's Day seeing an old friend I hadn't seen in about 12 years, even though he lives right across the bay. (Thanks, Mark Zuckerberg.) It was good to see my friend hadn't changed all that much, really at all. He's the same caring, thoughtful, honest dude he always was. I think beyond all the crazy resolutions I'm going after in 2011, I need to hang on to the good, thoughtful, honest people in my life, and try to be one myself.