Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! *fireworks display*

And with a spanking new 2007, comes a new blog layout! Ta-dah! What do you think? I love it! Best I can do with my copying and pasting skills. The background is supposed to make it look like I'm writing on recycled paper. And the tulips in the header, well that's because I like tulips. :)

Oh, press F5 and watch the "Quotes" section in the sidebar. And the row of tabs at the top are clickable and link to the blog posts with the corresponding labels. Isn't that cool? I have no idea how to write the code that does that.

So since this is the first blog entry for 2007, I figured I should start the year in the right path and do........ my new year resolutions!

First of all though, I need to revamp my lifetime goals a bit. I read somewhere that the best way to set lifetime goals is to figure out what I want people to say at my funeral. But that's just depressing. So I decided that I will write my goals as far-ranging as I can.

Here goes...

In my lifetime (as far I can see), I want to

• learn French, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese and any other language that I can
• travel the world, especially Greece, Italy, Argentina, the Caribbean islands and France
• learn how to dance... properly
• have enough free time everyday
• find my soul-mates
• stay close with my family, relatives and friends
• love someone with all my heart
• have someone who loves me with all his heart
• have a fulfilling and challenging career but not let it rule my life (this cannot be a 9-to-5 job!)
• meet people from different places and different cultures
• have an interesting story to tell my grand-kids when I become a cool grandma :P
• be fit and healthy and look good
• give generously without expecting anything in return
• follow through with my plans and not procrastinate
• be satisfied and at peace with who I am

The cross-outs are from my previous lifetime goals, italics are new additions. The goals are all pretty vague and general, except the first two. But I'm going to come up with a way of measuring how far I've achieved each one. Like say if I'm once again in an airport and late for my connecting flight, and I can run from gate A10 to D12 without feeling like my heart is going to burst, then I have achieved the "be fit and healthy" goal.

Alrighty, I'm not going to write my new year resolutions here because it's too personal. Oh but I want to say I've found a way to motivate myself to reach my goals. For every day/week/month that I follow through on what I plan to do, I'm going to put $1 into my imaginary piggy bank for vacation funds. E.g. if I plan to exercise twice a week and I did it this week, $1 is in the fund. Yeah I know $1 is not a lot, but I have A LOT of goals. And I'm not going to take out money if I don't reach my goals. I don't believe in denying oneself of pleasures. :P

At the end of this year, depending on how much is in my "piggy bank", Europe / Hawaii / Pulau Redang here I come!

(I sure hope it's Europe.)