Welcoming 2006

2006 is the year of the fire dog according to the chinese astrological charts. i personally do not know at this time what the fire dog brings and how it affects tigers. I do sound overly superstitious right now - i guess there's no harm figuring out how the elements shape up 2006. I guess in a way i am a bit superstitious, not in an overly insane way as to have cards or seers rule & dictate what i should do to my life. Rather, i am superstitious in the sense that i believe that there is indeed a higher force that guides us (God!) and i believe in visualization (power of positive thinking), in karma (cause & effect) and that the world conspires to make things real.

this post is not actually about chinese astrology and what the fire dog brings to the table. I guess i was just in the mood to write something tonight to mark the 1st day of 2006. Its not going to be a new year's resolution list as well cause we all know how these resolutions turn - its like we impose ourselves with something so dramatically difficult to accomplish that we are never able to fulfill them. this post will be about stuff that i need to work out in 2006 - they're not promises but just a listing of things of interest so i don't lose track of them. Well, some of these are going to be stuff i need to do.

Finalize my 6-month relocation plans. Yes, this plan is still very much in the works. We are just finalizing the details on what i should do in Arizona. Right now, there are negotiations for me to rotate in SCP (strategic Cap Planning) in FSM. There's probably also some FSM IE exposure in the works - things need to start taking form in January of i won't be able to hit a 2nd week of April transfer. Remember - this is like the week after the end of the upcoming school term so my schedule is pretty tight.

Pass all of my Written Comprehensive Exams. I have mixed feelings about the WCE - not that i doubt that i have the brains to pass them but if i have the time to study for the exams. Like everybody else, i largely procastinate cause i feel i work better under pressure when adrenaline is at its highest. I can't do that. When i passed all of my validating exams during freshman year, i atributed it mostly to luck & stock knowledge or maybe since there was really no pressure to pass them that made it easier to handle. Oh well, that's seven exams every other friday. The good news here is that its only accounting & economics that concerns me the most cause i have a love-hate relationship with both.

Get fit. Yeah yeah yeah, been promising to do this forever. Trim down the carbo, beef up on the protein. Use my freakin' gym membership more! Start again doing those painful ab exercises. I should also start doing some weights.

Clean up my MP3s. Part of my being an OC is that i have to standardize & tag all of these MP3s. Load more music on my ipod. Maybe i should do this 2 albums a night - if i do that, then slowly i should be able to finish this before Q106 ends.

Clean up, Catalogue all Pictures. I checked and i have probably 10GB worth of pictures already in varying resolutions. I haven't really had time to catalogue the pictures according to the events from which they were taken. I need to do that soon and save to DVD these pictures.

Learn or Do something new. I don't know exactly yet - learn HTML? learn Flash? Photography? Or cooking? Spanish? If time permits, i'll try to do just one of the above.

Read more books. I have Dan Brown's Angels & Demons for about a year now and i never attempted to read it. I should start reading more books this year. Hopefully, when i say read, i'm not talking about textbooks.

Get a good focal raise. Ok, so this is not really under my control but maybe if i remain positive enough then i can get this.

There's really so many stuff i want to do like travel, river rafting, bungee jumping, take pictures, buy so many items (clothes, shoes, a mac, a videocam) ... one at a time, i am sure i will be able to do/have all these things. Good things come to those who wait.