When 2005 began, I didn’t make any resolutions for the year. To be honest, I was simply too ill and too busy to get on it. The holiday season is just so loaded with things I need to do, that I simply never got around to it. Well, since today is the Lunar New Year, and a day when almost everyone I know is busy, I had the day to myself.

I decided I would do up a list of resolutions for the Lunar New Year and see how far I get with them. I don’t tend to make resolutions a lot, so this is a bit of an experiment for me. But I’ll give it a shot. Since this won’t interest most people, I’m including the resolutions in the extended entry, which you can see by clicking the link below.

This year, I will:

• Get on top of this writing thing. This includes sending out work to magazines, finishing all three of my current writing projects by the end of the 2005, and spending time everyday working on it, instead of just short weeks-long bursts of dedication followed by nothing for a month or two.
• I’m going to swim often. Probably not everyday, but I will do it as often as I can comfortably schedule it into my life. Combined with the cycling I plan to do when it gets a little warmer, I should be getting back on the track I was on when I got sick last summer and stayed sick till, oh, last month.
• I’m going to be online less. This means cutting back on my dedication to my Bloglines subscriptions, I suppose, and not blogging so much. It will give me time for other things in life which I enjoy and don’t get to do very often.
• I’m going to get everything dealt with. As far back as I can remember there have been a few loose ends I’ve left undealt-with, and now’s the time to really get on track in terms of starting to get them dealt with.
• I’m going to read books more. I simply don’t read enough books anymore… partly because I spend too much of my time online. So I’m going to make more time in my life for reading books, and that will be that.
• I’m going to learn to cook more kinds of dishes. I have plateaued into a kind of pattern of cooking, and haven’t learned how to make anything new in a while. I resolve to learn a couple of new recipes per month this year.
• Studying Korean will be more of a priority for me, too. I have everything I need, so it’s a case of making myself spend a little time studying everyday, practicing when I can, maybe finding a teacher to give me lessons, and then studying some more.
• This might seem less significant, but it isn’t: I’m going to play more music around the house. When I am cooking, washing dishes, reading, or surfing the web, I often don’t put music on, but I don’t know why. I love listening to music. So I’m going to do that more.
• I’m going to find some field which I can and want to study by correspondence. It’s not about putting another feather in my hat, or hiding another trick up my sleeve; it’s about being concerned that there are things that need to be done now, and which not enough people are working on. I want to be a part of the solution, so I need to get some training and certification so I can take part in something that’s not about making money, but about keeping this planet from falling apart.

There it is. Now I need to go make it happen. First: to get the last extra scene added to my novel draft!