I resolve to be resolute

So, Technorati are collecting New Year's Resolutions. I think that I will write a few more resolutions that the world will be able to see and therefore I must actually stick to them. Maybe.

So far I have made resolutions for my blog, mostly. To save people looking for them I could just post a link, but I'll post them again because then I'll feel I've written something worthwhile (again, maybe):

1. I will remember to write in my blog every so often.
   
2. I will (maybe) even get round to tidying up the sidebar, sorting out the links, making the template pretty...
   
3. I will (probably fail to) write interesting and informative posts, leaving a worthwhile factual yet entertaining record for posterity.
   
4. Failing that, I will write my novel and post it in my blog.
   
5. Assuming that I don't receive a lucrative publishing deal after writing my first novel, I will find myself a job. Again. Grr.
   
6. Oh, and obviously I will be positive and optimistic etc. Filling in application forms for jobs which I then do not get is all part of a life-affirming experience thing. Or something.
   

So far so good. I've actually been posting and I've been thinking about sorting out the template and things. I still don't have a job, but hey I've only been unemployed for 5 days (and I'm still due some of my wages tomorrow [woohoo!]), so that's not a huge problem.

I think I'll add a few more resolutions to the list though:

1. Let's start off with the obvious: giving up nasty bad habits. As, of course, I am practically perfect in every way à la Mary Poppins, I resolve to find some nasty bad habits and then give them up. Yeah, right - the list of bad habits is probably just too long to give here.
   
2. I resolve to be more healthy and fit (so another obvious resolution, then - but a good one). I won't bother with an expensive gym membership or anything that I won't use, but I will do more exercise and eat healthily. I have been working on that at least: doing my own cooking and eating proper food rather than ready meals. I should resolve to eat organic as well so I don't eat nasty chemicals.
   
3. I resolve to learn to drive. Not particularly profound, but something which I really need to do this year - I just need to find the money to pay for the lessons, exams, insurance, tax, petrol....
   
4. I resolve to get out of debt. Eventually. I do have to pay for this computer and pay off my student debts from the last degree before I start the new one, and pay off my overdraft and the credit cards..... So, yes, starting the job hunt again. At least I did succeed last year in getting retail experience and till training. My mini-ambition for retail work this year is getting experience in a Customer Service department. It all looks good on the CV.
   
5. I resolve to make some sort of plan for my life. Big ambitions are great to work towards, but mini-ambitions which are actually achievable are much better than impossible to realise dreams. Each step forward is a positive one. (Hmm, now I'm turning into some sort of self-help manual, but it's true.)
   
6. I resolve to be better informed. Watching the news at ten is great, but it doesn't tell you everything. Everyone has an agenda whether or not they admit it - the news is not impartial. I want to attempt to find out what is actually happening in the world and - even more importantly - to find out what happens after the news drops a story because they don't have any exciting new exclusive footage. As important as they might be, war in Iraq or tsunamis in Asia do not stop things happening in the rest of the world - what are we missing when such stories dominate the headlines to the exclusion of everything else?
   
7. Further to this, I resolve to do what I can to help others. People in Asia, in Sri Lanka especially, need our help to recover from the recent tsunami. The waves caused damage as far away as the east coast of Africa. The world is rushing to donate money (see DEC - The Disasters Emergency Committee), which is good, but it's not a race to see who is 'best' because they donate the largest amount in the fastest time (USA?); and it's not just financial aid that is needed. Will this even reach the poorest people who need it the most? Meanwhile, again, this does not mean that nothing else in the world deserves our attention: civil wars and famines continue even when they are no longer deemed newsworthy. And what of the planet itself? How can we save it? Through Kyoto? And do we actually need to? (Controversial I know, but I want to examine the data available - raw data, not the crap they spoonfeed us digested on the television: the 'War on Terra' environmental season begins on Channel 4 this week, for example. What is the actual evidence for global warming - which is still a theory, not a fact as many would have us believe. N.B. I do think that we should protect the environment and am not being paid by petrol companies and car manufacturers to say this - I just want us to think more).
   

Wow, well, that was a little more intense than I intended. So my aims for this year are save the world, feed the world, stop all wars and put an end to poverty. Well, that should be easy to manage by, say, September...

Let's just say that I hope everyone has a happy new year, and that this happiness extends beyond January.