1st Annual Official Year of Improvement Day

Also known as, New Year's Resolutions. Which I haven't made any of in a number of years, because, what is the point of making a resolution knowing that you couldn't possibly carry it through for more than 2 hours?

This year, however, I feel much more ready for the challenge, and much more able to set measurable goals. And what better way to ensure resolution completion than by opening myself up to nagging from the blogosphere? Gentle, loving, constructive nagging preferred, thanks. Then, it will be your turn. What are your resolutions? I'd love to be inspired to borrow from your list, too!

But first, here are my official New Year's Resolutions:

1) Complete and blog about the 2007 TBR Challenge: Things are always better packaged as challenges; I'm competitive that way. Here, I will get to read 12 of those books that have been on my list of things to read for, on average, too long. My list is as follows:

1) Ulysses, by James Joyce
2) Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
3) Philosophical Investigations, by Ludwig Wittgenstein
4) Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Duty of Genius, by Ray Monk
5) A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
6) A Natural History of Love, by Diane Ackerman
7) The Beatrice Letters, by Lemony Snicket
8) Death without Weeping, by Nancy Scheper-Hughes
9) Discipline and Punish, by Michel Foucault
10) Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng’en
11) Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
12) Collected Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges

I realize it's a bit heavy, but, well, that's the stuff that's on my list. Anyone wanting to read along and chat about any of these, let me know. I can't imagine I'll follow the challenge totally to the letter, which is to say, that I'll start and finish each of these books in a month. Some, like Philosophical Investigations, for example, will probably take more than a month, and several others will take much less...for example, Beatrice Letters shouldn't take more than part of a lazy afternoon. My goal then is to finish one of these each month. I also pledge to write at least one post inspired by each of the books on the list. I'll read them in whatever order strikes my fancy, and am starting January with #5, A Natural History of the Senses. Nothing too heavy this month so that I will still have time to focus on...

2) MyTheWriMo: First there was NaNoWriMo, or 'National Novel Writing Month', where crazy people write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November (I plan to be one of those crazy people this year, too.) Then, my brother decided to do a practice run, or MyNoWriMo (well, HisNoWriMo to you and me), in January. That got me thinking about my writing behemoths, and I thought, forced marathon writing...thesis...MyTheWriMo! Yep, a rough draft of my thesis in the month of January. 25,000 words or more (the maximum for the assignment is 28,000). I still haven't totally worked out my problem statement, but have some ideas that are really drawing me in. This is the resolution I most want to keep. I'll try not to post too much thesis angst in this space, but some will be unavoidable. (Gentle, loving, constructive) nagging is especially welcome here.

3) 10 kilos begone: is there a single person who makes resolutions who doesn't have at least one about body shape? Some of this is from my holidays, and will go pretty fast. The rest will involve lots more attention to diet and lots more exercise. I don't plan to blog about this one at all.

4) Fun, fun, fun: I need to have more fun. I have forgotten how to have pure, unmitigated, fun. I vow to go out more, laugh more, but I refuse to post photos.

5) Work, work, work: This is the one I'm most unsure of how to go about completing, but I'm determined to get a job which reflects my interests. Which first means getting accepted into a PhD program and getting funding. Anyone have any idea about this? Not so much the getting in (though that too), but the funding. I hope to blog about all my successes and chosing between lots of cool programs. My virtual fingers are crossed for the foreseeable future.

I'd say that's enough. And now, let the games begin.