Wide difference among locals' 2001 resolutions

"As you get older you sometimes become cantankerous. I felt like I reached that limit," he said.

"I don't need them," said Pierre, a Frenchman who is working in San Mateo for a year before returning home. "Why should I change when everything is good? If it's not broke, don't fix it." He did concede, however, that if he were to change anything about his life it would be to "make more money and spend it."

Some have thought about making modest changes in their lives that could have great impacts. Mary Davies, a Belmont resident originally from Australia who was standing in line at the Post Office on North Ellsworth, said she needs to adapt more to American culture. "I'm usually taken to be abrupt -- it's the inflection in the accent," Davies said.

After 33 years in the U.S. being misunderstood by Americans, this year she said she wants to make a change away from sounding too forceful and forward, to using a softer tone and talking more slowly. "Just be more kind and considerate," she said.

Others have been focused on the same resolution for years, and doing so still doesn't seem to change things.

"I quit smoking for two months last year and then I started again," said June Finglas about her year 2000 resolution. "But I'm still going to try again."

But she didn't last one day without a cigarette. The best way to get herself back on track will be to stay away from other people who smoke, she added.

The breaking of New Year's resolutions is as well-known as the making of them, and that's precisely why some say they just avoid setting themselves up for failure.

"People don't stick to them," said Catherine, a resident in the area who was walking around downtown yesterday afternoon with friends. Instead of abiding by the New Year's tradition, she said that people should make a resolution only when it is necessary.

"When it becomes important then you make a resolution," she said.