my january 5th resolutions

I'll admit the last bit of 2010 slipped past me unnoticed as I braved the torturous trial of college apps reveled in wonderland.

But now that I have my wits about me, I feel I ought to do some resolutions. Late ones, of course, but self-improvement is always a good thing to think about.

Before I start my own, I'd like to share Virginia Woolf's resolutions, which I find quite fascinating:

January 2, 1931:
Here are my resolutions for the next 3 months; the next lap of the year.
To have none. Not to be tied.
To be free & kindly with myself, not goading it to parties: to sit rather privately reading in the studio.
To make a good job of The Waves.
To stop irritation by the assurance that nothing is worth irritation [referring to Nelly].
Sometimes to read, sometimes not to read.
To go out yes—but stay at home in spite of being asked.
As for clothes, to buy good ones.

January 4, 1936:
To read as few weekly papers…as possible [until The Years is finished];
to fill my brain with remote books & habits;
altogether to be as fundamental & as little superficial, to be as physical & as little apprehensive, as possible.

Now, for my own:

BLOGGING-WISE:

• to blog nearly daily and to let my thoughts roam & gallivant & grow across this little nook of the internet like mold as much as possible. This is how I will do it: since I can't seem to fall asleep right away anymore, I will think of topics right before I drift off to dreamland, and write a post the next day.

• to catch up on all the review copies I have lying around, and to be more timely in the future with my dealings with authors and publicists

• to enact a new meme that I had an idea for yesterday, where I'll share a poem I've read that I like once a week or once every two weeks and comment on it.

• to strive to make sure I have a perfect balance of somewhat silly posts and more serious, contemplative posts.

• to comment more on other blogs, and to properly thank the lovely people who do comment on mine.

• to once and for all settle on a header I like.

And I figure I need to get some personal resolutions down in permanent ink. So here's mine:

PERSONAL:

• to keep a dream journal regularly

• to walk the dogs every day

• to turn away from less productive pursuits, i.e. watching tv and movies and browsing other nodes of the internet where I'm only an inactive observer. Instead, I should read, read, read and blog, blog, blog. If I can find a way to make the unproductive productive (i.e. watch tv for the purpose of learning how to screenwrite, then that would be lovely.)

• to be altogether more kindly to the people in my life

• to consider each word I say with great care

• to finish another practice novel with all the trimmings: many, many drafts, many revisions, many beta runs, and much agonizing

• write everyday: whether it be through blogging, school and scholarship essays, dream journal, new novel, poetry, short story, or free writes
  

• to strive to fill my mind with new knowledge ; to go the library and rent out tomes of books so that I will be someday able to converse intelligently about Dadaism and Plato and music and to by the end of the year, know twice as much as I know now.
  

• to be more confident

• to care less about things that don't matter and to care more about things that do


• to not let it get in my way that many people have more resources and advantages than I do in terms of their education, and to instead create my own opportunities to learn and grow. But to also be thankful and keep in mind that I'm lucky to have the resources and advantages I do, since some people don't.

• to once and for all clean up my careless commas, ponder my usage of dashes, and to fix my horrendously awful use of semicolons, which I'm sure you've all had to suffer through.

And that's about it, I think.

What are some of your resolutions?