Mandatory New Year Blog

And so, rather obviously this photo is not taken by me, but it does seem to exemplify what New Year stands for... somehow, New Year's Day is always associated with Fireworks. And the fact is, in my entire life, I have only ever seen fireworks up close and personal ONCE. But I have to admit it's really beautiful, ridiculously expensive of course, but very beautiful.

What I am not, is someone who tries to take photos. So even though I have been eyeing the Canon S90/S95, I know that I will not buy one. Mostly, because I am too lazy to lug around a camera most times, and to a lesser extent, I think the peripheral type of products I have, like a camera phone / video phone actually serves my purposes quite well. Discounting work of course.

Anyway... back to New Year and the purpose of this blog... what are your new year resolutions for this year? Mine from last year, due to an exercise held by my sister, had four categories:
1. Financial
2. Physical
3. Emotional;
4. Mental

Financial was to attain "x" amount of savings, did not achieve that.. maybe I hit the 3/4 mark, but eventually invested it all (to me, it's still counted as savings, since it's a stable investment and I cannot spend the money anymore). So I guess though I fell short, I did sorta achieve that. Oh, and to donate "x" amount to charities, which I exceeded, which is good :)

Physical was to achieve a body weight of "x", and I am about 6 kg off the mark by end 2011. The good thing is, after losing about 7/8 kg since end 2009, I have managed to maintain this weight loss. But I did not succeed in losing the 6 kg required for me to be in the healthy weight range to achieve my target of "x" in 2010. Of course, what is "in" is for me to be underweight, but hey, let's take things easy and go for healthy huh! The resolution also included a 2 x gym class per week (still more or less on track), 2 x swim per month (failed), 1 x trek per month (well, I sorta do a jog once every two weeks, so I shall count this as a success)... Anyway, morale of the story, the 6 kg shall have to come from 2011... And, I am very inspired by Asia's Biggest Loser.

Emotional was to plan for a short family trip - did one with my mom and one with my dad. So the list is checked. It also included 2 x outdoor trips with Sapphi (my darling dog shown in my profile photo in case you're wondering), which I did not succeed in doing.. I am sorry Sapphi.

Mental was to read at least 4 self improvement books, I read two/three (depending on how loosely you categorise self improvement), so target not met (but hey, I read a LOT of fantasy lol, does that count as anything?) Oh, and to pay respects to Buddha each morning before I leave the house, have to admit I failed in that too...

So... some targets met, some not. Generally, there were improvements, since not deteriorating into something worse is also a bonus (e.g. gaining more weight, or becoming more inefficient, or becoming more evil)... Religion seems to be my weakest link thus far.. mebbe it will improve with age?

This year... I will have to ponder... what would you include in your 2011 resolution?