Das resolutions

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Resolutions

So, the year is over. The last three months have fairly flown by; something about this autumn term of the 2012/2013 academic year has made it whizz by with barely a backwards glance.

So, as with the rest of the world, I’m looking forward to the new year with… hope? Yeah, let’s go with hope.

As is traditional, I have some resolutions. These are pretty broad, which is good, meaning that the parameters for success are so big that it’ll be hard to underachieve.

  • Write more
  • Blog more
  • Exercise more (read: exercise) and eat better
  • Do more things that scare me

The first three are obvious. Although I enjoyed two months of relatively high productivity as I tried to prepare some pitches, my output was still nowhere close to what I would be happy with. Similarly, I haven’t used this blog anywhere near as much as I’ve wanted to, so that is there on this list.

Exercising and eating more healthily are also very high priorities. This Christmas (read: whole of the year) I’ve let myself go, indulging in all that is delicious and fattening. That will be stopping come January 14th (my first day back at work in 2013, and what I’m taking as the start of the new year – I’m up here in Scotland and then down in Plymouth with family until then, so it’s hardly the best time to start a new health regimen).

I bought a Men’s Fitness magazine a week ago that gave two excellent and easy-to-follow pieces of advice regarding diet: 1) eat only that which a caveman would have had access to (presumably, they are talking about unprocessed meat and lots of vegetables, rather than raw sabre tooth tiger steaks); and 2) eat only that which grows in the ground or has a face.

I’ll leave the discussion of health with that wee nugget of genius.

Doing more things that scare me. This is something I’ve been considering for a while, and stems from the feeling that I am, in most things, a bit too meek for my own good. I’m less assertive at work when it counts, I rarely step out of my comfort zone (physically and intellectually), and I think now is the time for that to stop. What that means in practice is that I’m probably just going to be even more insufferable than I am now, but we shall see.

I could do a round-up of the year, and maybe I shall at some point. When I have a proper keyboard in front of me (this blog is sent from my Apple iPad ™), I want to do a proper post on violence in literature and society. The horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School really affected me, for reasons that I am not entirely sure of, and the subsequent discussions of gun control laws (my opinion in short – anyone who clings to their right to bear weapons designed for war, or suggests that the casualty rates of such horrible events would be lessened by giving everyone a gun, is nothing short of moronic, callous, and selfish beyond all reckoning) and violence in our (Western) culture got me thinking more deeply than usual. So keep an eye out for what is sure to be a fun-filled entry.

Peace out y’all. I hope you all do at least one thing to make the world a better place for someone else in the year to come.

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