Hello 2007 A Year of.....

Well, welcome to the New Year one and all. 2007 is but a few days old, and so far, I see no drastic change yet from the previous year. Perhaps I should give the year a bit more time to shake itself out before passing judgment. Yes, let’s indeed do that. Perhaps we will go with how they judge presidents, see how the first 100 days goes by, and then see what we have and give a review. Or maybe it will take all 365 days for things to really shake out and see how the year will turn out. As of right now, it is anyone’s guess.

But what will this year bring? Last year, it seemed at least for me to be a year of firsts. I did and saw many things that were new to me. This year, well, who knows? So far, it may be the year of Star Wars, since by the end of the week I will have seen two major forces in the Star Wars Universe and saw a battalion of Stormtroopers march down a city street. And later this year, I know of several major Star Wars related things that will happen. Ok, so maybe it will be the year of the nerd. Since I already know of these happenings and am planning on attending them that could very well shake out as true.

But that is part of the fun as the calendars hit January. With the dawning of each New Year comes a blank slate full of promise and potential. Full of hopes and dreams and a sense of renewal, a new year brings with it a chance to wash away all the badness and disappointment from the previous year, and an opportunity for something better and brighter. We look upon this time as an opportunity for us to better ourselves, set new goals and become something more. The common tradition of making New Year’s resolutions happens at this time, where we look at ourselves and how we feel our lives are deficient and make pacts with ourselves to right these perceived wrongs. It is a good thing to look at ourselves and take inventory, to see what we would like to become and set goals to accomplish them. I myself have made several for 2007, and in an effort to make myself accountable for them, will now tell them to the world. This way, when I get really lazy about them, I can look at this and at least feel guilty instead of just ignoring them. Pay no attention to the ranking, the ranking means very little overall. All of these are important to me.

1) Pimp my website – I keep telling myself I will work on it, and then completely ignore it. This year, I have set up times to do at least a bit of work each week. Hopefully, I will have something half decent by the end of the year.

2) Play better guitar – I have always maintained I only play for me, and I do. I enjoy strumming along from time to time. But, I have always wanted to be better, and now I have all the tools I need right at my disposal. This year, I will get good, or at least serviceable.

3) Get fit – It has been, oh, since high school since I was really fit. Then I could run and carry on till the cows came home. Now, well, at almost 33 I am not as fit as I used to be, and far from where I should be. This year, I want to get fit. Walking, exercising, and if I can find a place, regular swimming. I have a goal for October, and I want to meet it.

4) Banish smoking once and for all – I set out on a goal last year, and have not fulfilled it yet. I have let too many outside factors creep into my thinking, certain functions, parties, stress, that have allowed me to derail off of my path to non smoking. But no more. The New Year is here, and I know I can do this. Plus, with working on getting fit, at least that will give me something to do when I hit a Jones.

5) Be a better person – Sure, that is extremely vague, and most of us try that anyway. But this year, I really want to work hard on being a good person. We all have our failures and faults, too bossy, too immature, too selfish etc. This year, I want to work on exorcising mine. I would like to better myself, be something more than I have been. I have not been bad, but I know I can do better. Perhaps with changing these things, I can be more than I ever dreamed. Or at the very least I can more easily throw stones since I’ll have moved out of that glass house. See, failing already.

6) Become a working writer – This one is very important to me. Not more than some of the others, but definitely competing for first place. If I really am into this, if I really want this, this year I want to make a move. I discovered that since I began writing last April that I really enjoy it. I find it relaxing, stimulating and fun. I could easily see myself doing this for a living. I work hard doing it as often as I can. The thought that I could make a living doing it is just like a really delicious icing on ice cream cake. Decadent, scrumptious and exactly what would hit the spot. Plus, if all I had to do was write each day, I’d finally get some of the dozen or so half started/half finished posts I have been working on done and posted. I thought I did pretty well for 2006, considering I did not really start until May, but I would like to do much better in 2007. And for me that means being more prolific and earning a living.


Well, there it is, all laid out in black and white. This is what I hope to make of myself in 2007. Will I succeed? I suppose that is up to me. Real life will always intrude on everything we do. It has a nasty habit of doing that, especially when we least expect it. But if I am determined and really want these things, by the end of the year, I will be a fit, non smoking writer with a cool website who wails on the guitar and people think is cool. Or, I’ll be the same old dorky me, just a bit better at things important to me. Yeah, it will be the second one, but I will be happy with that.