Happy New Year!
In the spirit of the Big Fun Scary Adventure Challenge created by the people over at NaNoWriMo HQ, I'm going to drop the failure-laden word "resolution" and just make a simple list, each item of which must be empirically measureable in some way.
- No soft drinks in 2008.
- Respond to all e-mails, LJ comments, Facebook messages, phone calls, and other forms of communication as soon as I receive them. I have an awful "I'll do it tomorrow" habit that has lost me many acquaintances and some friends over the years, which is not acceptable anymore. If I'm destined to be a hermit, I'll do it when I'm older.
- Read for pleasure every day, even if it is only one sentence.
- Write for myself every day, even if it is only one sentence.
- Finish a story. Any story. It could be one page, it doesn't matter.
- Read at least two new books for every time I re-read something I've read before. Read at least three books I already own for every new book I buy. Read any book I have received as a gift within a year from the day I received it. (No more stacks of books from one Christmas left unread at the next Christmas, damn it!) Read books that are lent to me in a timely manner and return them. (All of these are rules I try to stick by anyway, but sometimes I need reminding. *staring soberly at the stack of books from last birthday & Christmas and the stack of books lent to me by friends*)
And, of course, the ever-present tasks of getting a job, learning to drive, etc. (Although I make the distinction between learning to drive and owning a car. I want a driver's license for emergencies. I don't want a car.)
My wishful-thinking goals for the year are to go on a road trip with friends to anywhere at all, just have an adventure; to go to DragonCon with friends, but entirely self-sufficiently, no parental financing necessary; and to start working out some possibility of studying abroad for a whole semester, maybe in London, or perhaps even looking at a foreign university for a graduate program. But those are the far-fetched, long-term, idealistic goals.
There's my New Year. I hope everyone else has a good one, and even of you aren't, remember that the wheel turns. My best wishes to all of you.
-rave
- No soft drinks in 2008.
- Respond to all e-mails, LJ comments, Facebook messages, phone calls, and other forms of communication as soon as I receive them. I have an awful "I'll do it tomorrow" habit that has lost me many acquaintances and some friends over the years, which is not acceptable anymore. If I'm destined to be a hermit, I'll do it when I'm older.
- Read for pleasure every day, even if it is only one sentence.
- Write for myself every day, even if it is only one sentence.
- Finish a story. Any story. It could be one page, it doesn't matter.
- Read at least two new books for every time I re-read something I've read before. Read at least three books I already own for every new book I buy. Read any book I have received as a gift within a year from the day I received it. (No more stacks of books from one Christmas left unread at the next Christmas, damn it!) Read books that are lent to me in a timely manner and return them. (All of these are rules I try to stick by anyway, but sometimes I need reminding. *staring soberly at the stack of books from last birthday & Christmas and the stack of books lent to me by friends*)
And, of course, the ever-present tasks of getting a job, learning to drive, etc. (Although I make the distinction between learning to drive and owning a car. I want a driver's license for emergencies. I don't want a car.)
My wishful-thinking goals for the year are to go on a road trip with friends to anywhere at all, just have an adventure; to go to DragonCon with friends, but entirely self-sufficiently, no parental financing necessary; and to start working out some possibility of studying abroad for a whole semester, maybe in London, or perhaps even looking at a foreign university for a graduate program. But those are the far-fetched, long-term, idealistic goals.
There's my New Year. I hope everyone else has a good one, and even of you aren't, remember that the wheel turns. My best wishes to all of you.
-rave