Sunday, January 01, 2006

[Blog Entry] New Year, New Year's Resolutions, Retrospect

New Year


If there's one thing I don't like about the New Year, it's the fireworks. Mainly because our house isn't air tight, so the smoke comes in. And with my fragile health condition, breathing becomes a real problem.

So I locked myself in the guest room, which is the only place where the windows don't have holes in it. While it did keep the smoke away from the room, the one thing it won't protect you from is the noise.

New Year's Resolutions

A big advantage of having a blog is you can look up your old posts. It's a good thing I posted my New Year's resolutions on my blog last year, because I've forgotten half of them. Anyway, here's last year's resolutions, and how I fared in them.

1) Make a new friend every month (or 12 new friends by the end of the year).

I totally forgot about this one. And in retrospect, kind of hard to judge. I mean because of my line of work, I do get to meet a lot of people. But of course, acquaintances does not equal friends. One of the real friends from 2005 that comes to mind is Banzai Cat, which while you know, I'm not really that familiar with him or really close, goes to show what I mean by "friend", and how that kind of friendship can blossom over the Internet.

2) Exercise for 150 minutes a week (or 30 minutes worth of exercise for five days a week).

Since the one thing constant about work is that I walk home and it takes around 15-20 minutes to do so... I'll probably have to be more specific for this year's resolution on what I mean by "exercise".

3) Read five books a month (or 60 books a year).

Missed my mark by around 6 books. I totally never picked up a book during the months of October and November.

4) Put P4,000 ($72.00) into my savings account every month (or P48,000 a year).

Barely made it, but it's all in the bank...

5) Learn a new "skill".

Nothing automatically springs to mind, unless you count playing Warcraft DotA a skill. Closest thing is probably my skills as an editorial assistant and arranging photo shoots, as well as, uh, tracking down people.

Having said all that, here's my resolutions for this year:

1) Deposit P6,000 into my savings account every month, or P72,000 a year. We have to up the ante.

2) Five books a month! Get it right this year.

3) I will jog three times a week. Never got to do that this year. I have to sweat!

4) Again, learn a new skill. Hopefully something more concrete, like a new hobby or language.

5) Get out of my comfort zone. Probably the most ambiguous resolution, but let's see where that takes us at the end of the year.

Retrospect

So what has 2005 been like for me? To be honest, I've taken some steps forward... and some steps back. There's been lots of new experiences and hardships on my part, especially with me having a six-day, 9-6 job. Lots of growth there. But towards the end of the year, I've also become complacent, and back to my procrastinating self.

As for the year itself, some friends complain it was bad for them. For me it was average: there were ups and downs, progress and regresses. I'm changing, that's for sure, although whether it's for the better, only time will tell.

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