Another year, another decade has passed us by.  Goodbye 2009; welcome, 2010.  Of course, this means that nearly a year has passed since I began this site and blog.  And of course yet again, the intention and effort was there but I dropped the ball around the end of July and haven’t updated since.  So once more unto the breech, say I!  Let’s see how long I can hold out this time.  In so saying, I suppose I’ll do the cliche thing and go over my goals for this year; not so much are they New Year’s Resolutions as they are a roadmap for me.

1. Blog at least once a week, every week.  If my plans are any indication, this is going to be the busiest year for me yet.  But I want to increase my online persona and presence instead of constantly diminishing.  And instead of only blogging about random thoughts and musings, I’ll also seek to expand my topics of discussion as suits my current projects and state of mind.

2. Start university again; maintain all courses above a 90. I don’t just want an above-90 average, I want all courses above 90.  I received approval last year through the Army to attend Queen’s University here in Kingston, Ontario (through distance/correspondence courses, of course) and I’ve been emailing back and forth with them to try and figure out how I want to start.  But in the end, it doesn’t matter; I want to start as soon as I can (summer semester) and kick ass fully and completely.

The last time I was in university, it was York University and I ended up dropping out, back in 2005-2006.  I finished zero courses and lived the unhealthiest life possible.  I finished high school with a 95 average, but that was without putting forth effort and dedication – meaning I had mixed marks ranging from 75 to 99.  That’s not what I want this time around.

3. Whip my sorry ass back into shape. I’ve had a billion and one excuses for not continually exercising and maintaining myself this year, and that’s crap.  I’ve gained some strength but lost my agility, coordination, and flexibility – not to mention that my cardio is completely in the shits.  This year, I will exercise regularly – regardless of whether I’m on leave, been working retarded hours, or stressed out to hell and back.  For me, this means at least five hours a week  of exercise.  An aside of this is getting back seriously into martial arts – re-training everything that I’ve lost or forgotten in the last five years and continuing to expand.  I’ll hopefully be tracking this on the blog so that I can’t just make excuses.

4. Whip my sorry brain back into shape. I’ve been lax and neglecting my mind.  I haven’t read, questioned, and examined the way I like to do; I can feel that my critical reasoning, quick thinking, and memory are far worse than they used to be.  The mind has to constantly exercised in the same way the body must be.  So.  I want to read at least two new books per month and be constantly learning something new.  University should definitely help with this.

5. Bring myself back up to speed on web-related stuff. Once again, I’ve been using the do-what-works approach and neglecting actually doing things properly.  First item on the list is bringing myself back up to web standards for XHTML, CSS, PHP, and SQL.  That shouldn’t take too long.  I also want to delve into Linux at least enough to competently manage a server by myself – I can do most of the basics right now, but that’s not enough.  I also need to get back into graphic design and actually use Photoshop CS4 in a relevant way.  If I can get myself back up to speed on those things, I’ll be happy – and can focus on getting back into actual programming for the next year.

6. Write, write, write. This was one of my only goals for this year, and it fell woefully by the wayside.  I need to challenge myself once again and write short stories and poetry to engage my mind, and make some headway on that novel project I wanted to have a draft of by this time.  Once again, I want a rough first draft of my novel done by this time in 2011.  And maybe I can actually do NaNoWriMo this year.

7. Get back in tune with music. I keep catching glimpses of riffs, getting them down, finding inspiration, but then not finishing any songs.  I have a collection of half-songs that just won’t go anywhere.  I need to get back into writing music and actually finish things even if they’re complete garbage.  And I have to start actually practicing more to re-gain my technical footing and music theory.  Additionally, I have to get a bass, because I can’t write songs on guitar alone – I need to be able to write both sides simultaneously (with vocals) because that’s just the way I work.

Seven goals.  Some of them seem a bit nebulous and undefined, but I do have definite goals for myself set in a measurable way, it would just take me too long to try and fully delineate them.  Basically, 2009 was a sloppy year for me.  I slid by by being good, but not great; and that’s not good enough.  In 2010, I want to push myself and get out of this lazy funk.  If I can actively assert myself instead of passively reacting to what comes my way, then I can start building more and more of myself as a strong foundation for what’s to come.

How much of this optimistic motivation can I maintain?  Who knows.  Hopefully, enough of it to carry me through all of these, because I do feel strongly about them and have for the past… however long.  All of these are more or less concurrent – on top of everything else I’m doing.  Back to Vancouver for the Winter Olympics in a few days, and then the G8/G20 summit after that, and then, hopefully, Afghanistan.  So I’m going to be a busy boy.  That’s when I thrive, though, is when I’m managing twenty different things at the same time.  I shine under pressure.

So let’s do this shit already.  I’m going to attempt to actively track these things on a weekly and/or monthly basis so I can keep myself motivated, and so you can point and laugh at me when I fall short.