The Obligatory New Year Post

Hi readers!! First and foremost, I would like to say... Happy new year 2014!!! Best wishes to all of you, readers and passer-bys alike!!

Let us go straight to the main point why I am writing this post. Like everyone else in the world, there is some sort of obligation to make something once every year, especially in this time of the year. That's right, the new year's resolution!! Some people think that new year resolutions are merely bullshit said during new year which would be forgotten sooner or later. That is their problem for not committing to their own resolutions. For me, I wrote my new year resolution in my phone so that I can refer to it anytime I need. Of course, those pessimists are partially true; I did not fulfil many of my last year's resolution. But at least I did fulfil a few, and it might not be possible if I did not keep track of them every now and then.

Pessimists all over the world, around this time of year

Before I reveal to you all my resolution for this year, I would like to give myself (and all of you readers, of course) a brief preview of the previous year. It has been a rather wasteful year, in my opinion. I have wasted much of my holidays doing absolutely nothing and I did not join any CCA and made any meaningful relationships in the past year. I should elaborate in detail just in case I need to refer to them in the future.

In the long holiday before university started, I hardly do anything productive, despite the long period of time given to me. Most days, all I do was slacking either at home or at my workplace. I do not know why I am so unmotivated during the holidays; during term time in the university, for example, I am so motivated to do things; I took the harder programming module despite the lack of prior experience, even took a part time job and spent quite a lot of time for it. During the holidays, when I have so much time on my hand, I for some reason prefer to relax at home doing nothing, or more accurately, perhaps, play computer games. Just for the record, I played Skyrim for almost the whole winter holiday now (and even then I still have not finished the game, doing too many side quests and the game started to get very buggy, so I played SimCity 4 now instead) and did what was counted as productive only for the first week or two of the holiday, which was learning Python from www.codecademy.com. I would not call it productive, actually, since the lessons there are really simple, especially for those with background and wanted to learn more in depth. I planned to learn Java and C also, but the plan did not come true due to the difficulty in setting up the environment needed. That is why one of my resolution is to stay in Singapore for the summer to do something; it could be internship, work, or maybe just a voluntary work. Shortly, just about anything that prevented me from going back to my home country and wasted another holiday doing nothing.

Although I said that I am highly motivated during the term time, I am not so motivated and making new acquaintances, which resulted in me not taking any CCA. I would love to make new friends and expand my social circle. However, there is a mental block that prevented me to do so. I think it is my sensitivity towards how other people judged me that hindered me to do so. However, I keep getting reminders from many sources, though not directly, the benefits of expanding my social circle, getting involved in an organization and trying new things. That is why joining a CCA also gets a place in my new year's resolution.

Other than the things mentioned above, my list would also contain some resolutions from last year's which have not been fulfilled yet. I wish to be able to fulfil them, or at least paving the way in fulfilling them by the end of this year.

So, without further delay, here are my resolution for this new year, with some remarks in between (maybe I should resolve to ramble less, but that is for another year):

1. To go for most opportunity available (I actually recorded all opportunities coming my way, and counted how many I went for and how many I turned down. This is from last year's resolution, and will always be there ever since).

2. To improve my communication skill (spoken) especially in Chinese and with girls (from last year's too. I failed miserably last year =( ).

3. To be more religious (from last year's. Failed too. Did not go to the temple for many occasions last year.)

4. To be more physically fit (From last year's too. Failed as well)

5. To spend my summer in Singapore working/doing internship.

6. To join a CCA. (To be more specific, CVWO - Computing for Voluntary Welfare Organization. We scholars in NUS need to do 80 hours of community work in our first 3 years in the university. I do not know what would happen if we do not but doing good deeds don't hurt, so why not?)

7. To think less and do more. To be more open to spontaneity. Or in today's term, to be more YOLO. (I have always been reserved and tried to avoid doing foolish stuff, and even more so since an event which would be a part of the series My seemingly perfect past life posts, which I doubt will ever be completed now haha)

As you can see (maybe), some of these resolutions are actually interrelated; if I managed to do one, I am more likely to fulfil another (eg if I join a CCA means I would interact more with people, and more likely to be able to improve my communication skill). So hopefully, I would be able to fulfil most, if not all of them this year. Not only for my sake, but also for you readers' sake, so that hopefully my posts in this blog would be less melancholy and more cheerful and motivational! Wish me all the best!! I wish you all the best in fulfilling your resolutions too!! =D Happy new year, once again!

And, a last motivational pic before I end this post:

Sir yes Sir!!

Note: the list may be updated, if you care. Actually this note is meant for me than for anybody else hahaha
Another note: inserting pictures is a good way to make a post more attractive. Shall do that more often in the future =D
Edited a little here and there to make things more enjoyable to read