My resolutions for 2009

It took me the whole first month of the year to figure out what my resolutions will be. Last year’s plan came out pretty well. I accomplished almost all my resolutions. So with this in mind, it was hard for me to come up with another big but realisic plan for my life this year.

So here it is:

• Excersise three times a week

This is the first point on my list because its the only one that didn’t get done last year. And it probably was because it was too vague or abstract. This time I’m making it more accurate so I can measure success.

• Learn to play piano

I already bought a Yamaha keyboard and some books to learn by myself. But its been a bit hard to read notes and stay in rythm. So I will get private piano classes. To measure succes, I’d like to play a complete song with both hands by myself.

• Learn to shoot with a bow

I love shooting. I don’t have much experience on guns or bows, but the few times I’ve tried its been great. I’m also a very good shooter. But bows have a bigger challenge, and that’s what draws my attention. It requires a lot more concentration and calculation than clicking a trigger. I don’t think I’ll go as far as bow hunting, since I’m not comfortable with hunting at all. Target shooting is my thing. With the advantage that I’m now on a bigger city than my birthplace, I just have to find where I can shoot and either get a bow or rent one. Private lessons are a must here too. Maybe I can measure success by entering a competition. That would be great.

• Fix Emac’s identica-mode

So last year I wanted to learn emacs lisp to hack my own modes. I’ve kinda done that and modified twittering-mode to work with any laconi.ca installation. The problem is that I’m getting an error parsing the XML from time to time and I haven’t been able to track down the problem. So this time I’ll write laconica-mode from scratch so that I know my way around the code and finally use identi.ca from Emacs without problems.

• Improve ACM Crossroads website

Two years ago I improved the look and feel of the Crossroads website without changin the basic layout and design. Things have changed on the magazine’s publication and I think its time to change more things around in the website. And now that I have some volunteers to help me out with the chores, I’ll be able to come up with a better layout.

• Deploy one of my personal projects

I have a couple of pet projects that keep my mind busy from time to time. They are web applications, but they never see the light because of one thing or another. The last problem was a bad backup where I lost a lot of progress on all projects. This year I’d like to finally finish one of this projects and publish them in any way.

As a bonus point, I just want to add one thing:

• Ride an ostrich

Yes it is possible to ride an ostrich, I’ve seen it. Its not comfortable, but its definately something to remember.