2013 Resolutions

Without too much introduction, let me simply state some proposed resolutions for 2013. Please note that this post isn't quite meant for public consumption.

1. Proper job - find one. This means a job which I both like going to and can make enough money to keep the wolf from the door.
2. Quit smoking - Hard. My idea is to not buy packs of cigarettes. This is ever more important now considering May has already quit and bébé numero deux is on the way.
3. Work term with H&R Block - much less ambitious this year with the hours. I'm only putting down my availability for Tues & Thurs nights plus Saturday. The past semester had exhausted me already, and this coming one is already shaping up to be busy.
4. Study French - I plan to continue with the classes I started last year, but I'd like to devote more homework time as well. It's difficult, however, and, well, the reason being, even while I try to type up this blog entry, my son keeps pulling me away to play with him, which I do, only leaving when he starts wrecking things. Studying at home was difficult at the best of times, but I hope to create a home environment conducive to self-study and completing homework, etc.
5. Continue reading to Adam - this is scaled back as well. We had a hiatus for the Christmas break and usually when I'm doing the work term with H&R, I find myself too exhausted to make the time. That being said, however, we're currently reading Winston Churchhill's History of the English Speaking Peoples which is a lot lighter than Will Durant's Story of Civilization.
6. Books - yeah, continue with this.
7. Try to get to church at least once a month. - You can probably tell that this resolution is a scaled back version as well. Sometimes one just needs the solace of one's faith, however weak it is.
8. Prepare mentally for August. ... Much easier said then done. I imagine things will just happen.
9. Write more. Yes, this is a problem, because I have really nothing I want to say. On one hand, I have a tendency towards the morose and on the other hand, I don't want people getting all pissy by some of the stuff that tends to be created in the recesses of my mind. My lens on the world is a bit clouded, so my perspective isn't always the most positive and how ever hard I try to disguise it, these attitudes tend to crop up in my language. That and a real urgent sense of hesitation in every sentence I utter. My writing skills have languished due to disuse and I'd really like to counteract that.
10. See what can be done about other languages. After a miserable failure in 2012 with a Japanese translation exam, I feel compelled to improve myself in this domain. While translation is probably not my destiny, I would still like to keep what I had learned in the past up to some useful standard. The summer of 2012 because I was in an environment, for a short while, where I had to make use of five different languages - English, as usual, French, for classes I was attending, Mandarin Chinese and Shanghainese, since my inlaws were around and for a short time Charles Nearing visited with his Japanese wife. It was epic and I felt a strange sense of happiness to feel I had some sort of value, especially during a period of unemployment. Therefore, yeah, not a hard-edged resolution here, but I'd like to see what can be done.
11. Write some goddamned cover letters - as previously stated, I despise cover letters. When I write, I like to try to produce something of quality (nevermind my rambling blogs) so writing cover letters, 99% of which are already ear-marked for the abyss, really grinds my gears in a bad way.
12. Hmmm. This last one I'd prefer to keep confidential, but it has something to do with joy.

And why not a lucky number 13 for the year, perhaps the big one. Try to change my attitude to one of activity and action, assertiveness and perhaps even aggressiveness, instead of the resigned passivity that has grown on me. Re-develop my patience (which I, all seriousness here, completely ran out of while living in China) and regain control of my emotions (this is important for an ex-smoker). In some ways, I must resign myself to my present circumstances while retaining hope that things will improve, but it may be possible I can be more of an agent of change in my own life. It'll take time, but perhaps on my 2014 review of these resolutions, I can look back through a clearer lens.

Here's to the best 2013 you'll ever have!

Resolutions Review

Here we go again. I miscounted on my last entry with six entries. This is, in fact, the sixth entry. I blame it on age.

 

Last year's resolutions and the results are as follows:

1. Find a suitable* job. - Not quite, but being employed sure beats the pogey.
2. Work term w/ H&R Block  - Complete success here
3. Study French - Although I didn't pay attention to some of the 'sub goals' attached, I finally started taking formal classes in French for the first time in more than 15 years and my French has vastly improved. I actually had written some of the government tests without any formal study and somehow managed to come within 3 points of passing the written expression exam, while passing the reading comprehension. If I ever take those tests again, I feel much more confident about passing, since, well, taking classes and actually studying.
4. Continue reading to Adam - We finished Will & Ariel Durant's Story of Civilization. It only took two and a half years for the volumes (V-XI) we had worked on. Now, we've moved on to Winston Churchhill's History of the English Speaking Peoples, although we're only on the first book so far.
5. Write more - Yeah, didn't quite work out as I had hoped.
   1. income tax proposal - did this, but barely shared it. All the rest of the sub-goals, which I've deleted, were all incomplete.
6. Books - Signed up for Goodreads through Facebook to track this stuff. I forgot about some of the formalities and no book reviews, but... who really cares about the books I read?
7. Attend church more. - Sigh; at least I went at Christmas. Repeat.
8. Continue swimming lessons with Adam. - We continued these throughout the year, so, yeah, chalk up another success. We were pretty ill during the closing months of 2012, however, so we only got to one class out of six or seven, but the swimming lessons were awesome throughout the summer.
9. I’d like to become more involved with the civic community. - Failure here. Ottawa? Just too busy.
10. Quit smoking! - Hmmm. Yeah, this never happened. Strangely enough, it's on top of my resolutions for this year. In fact, today is the first day I hadn't smoked at least one cigarette in more than over a year and a half.
11. Keep finances in order - Wow. Finances were drained in 2012, but we managed to squeak by without going into major debt. May took out a student loan and I finally paid mine off, which, well, at least will save us the monthly expense of paying off the loan for a while ;)