2009 Resolutions

The start of a brand new month! Just because I posted yesterday doesn’t mean I won’t post the next day. Remember, the new design also marks a new style for me.

Well let’s get on with it. In the chaos of January (which I’ll detail in a later post because it’s been stewing in my system so much I almost want to throw up), I forgot to make some New Years’ resolutions. Well, not forgot, but I’m not usually in the habit of making them or posting them to my blog. The last (and only) time I’ve done so is two years ago when I vowed this:

So that’s a part and will be a part of my New Years’ resolutions henceforth: To update the Temple of Andrex once a quarter (every three months), and to post a new entry on this blog once a month, (something I’ve unwittingly done thus far on both counts). Although it shouldn’t be too hard, I am pretty forgetful nonetheless.

Which I’ve kept (just barely in some cases.) However, I feel the need to severely overhaul myself over this year, so I’m going to make some changes, starting with…

• …going out on a date. If that sounds pathetic, that’s because it is.
• …graduating high school. If I follow the current plan, I should be able to, but I got completely blindsided last month, which I’ll talk about later.
• …existing for a while without personal pet projects being juggled around. This is my Achilles’ heel, really. Starting up something new every few months, even though I already have a lot up in the air. Sometimes it works out, almost all the time it doesn’t. While from the ashes of these projects I usually gain more and more knowledge (that’s how I can design websites and program as well as I can), I just need to stop and breath a little bit for once.
• …making a game from start to finish and releasing it. As I mentioned on the About page, I’ve been dabbling in game development for more or less six years, without anything to show for it. If I’m getting serious about my future in the gaming industry, this needs to be at the top of my priorities.
• …finishing 90% of the games I currently own. Thankfully, The Backloggery has helped me with this and over the course of January I finished about four games. I need to start getting value out of the games I play, and also realize that these things cost a huge load of money.
• …putting money away for college/car/whatever. I need to become financially independent this year.
• …becoming licensed to drive. Am I blowing your mind that I’m almost a late-teen and I have no desire to drive whatsoever? Like, whoa.
• …going to Church more. If you know me from Church, you know that I do attend almost every dual Sunday service and about half of the teen classes, and think that’s a good amount. If you don’t know me from Church, you’d think that I was overdoing it. But personally I feel that over 2007 and 2008 I got really, really lazy and unmotivated when it came to learning about God. While I never stopped my nightly prayer (outside a rare miss or two) or privately confessing when I needed to, this year I don’t want to miss more than three Sundays, and I want to listen online to each Tuesday/Thursday/other class I miss. I also want to start putting some Pastor Dean messages on my Zune and listening to them on the school bus instead of my music.
• …becoming a less bitter and guarded person. I don’t know what happened, but at the start of school in 2007 I really opened up and put myself out there, but by the end I had succumbed to both arrogance and unmotivation. I need to stop thinking, “You don’t know how smart I really am. You’re beneath me,” when speaking with someone even slightly outside my close inner circle.

I know I’m forgetting some, but this is the basic list of what I want to do this year. Having it here solidifies some of the things I’ve been running from.

2009 is the year I stop running.
-Andrew