It's that time of year again. Yep, the obligatory year-end resolutions entry! I didn't do too badly with my resolutions for this year. I got a nice job, did plenty of travelling (including plenty of trips to Michigan, weekend trips around Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and the big one to New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana), wrote a decent amount, and bought a guitar stand (one of these days I'm going to find time to play it!).

Overall 2004 was a good year, despite the depressing job situation for the first half, the scary news from Australia in October, and various political and disastrous events around the world. We met some great people and had a marvellous time at the Wiscon 2004 SF convention, bought a house (we weren't expecting that to happen for at least another year!), had quite possibly the best vacation ever in New Orleans, and welcomed a new member to the family (a mischievous kitten we call Purrbox), among other things.

Without further ado, here are my goals / resolutions / lofty ambitions for 2005:

1. Get back into shape - ever since we went house-hunting back in August, we've done very little exercise. We had been lifting weights and doing some hiking since the beginning of the year, but all that went out the window when we ran out of time and/or felt too tired. On the plus side, we now have a house with a finished room in the basement for use as a gym (as well as for Carrie's scrapbooking, and my rare guitar jamming). We've already started using the new weight bench, and very soon we're planning on adding a treadmill to the room. There shouldn't be any excuse not to pop down to the gym each day for some exercise when the gym is directly beneath our feet!

2. Do plenty of travelling - my parents and my little brother are visiting this year, which has us very excited (we haven't seen them since our wedding in '02). Among other things we'll be acting as tourguides, seeing as they haven't been to Illinois before. I can't wait to show them the sights of Chicago and various other places we've been (and haven't been) around Illinois and Wisconsin. In addition to that, we're also planning on going to Wiscon 2005 in May, and the usual trips to Michigan. We don't have any really big trips planned this year, but a trip to Australia for my sisters wedding could be on the cards, depending on whether I'm snarled in more immigration paperwork around that time or not. We shall see :)

3. Write a novel! Write 20 new stories! - I'm really reaching, but I reckon it's in the realm of possibility. I've written a third of a 100K novel in a handful of months before, so I figure I should try writing a whole one in 2005. I'd also like to keep up on the short stories since they're an excellent way to explore different aspects of the craft and they're a great help to stay motivated, since there's the (almost) instant gratification aspect. I'm also more likely to get some short stories published in 2005 than I am a novel. And no, I don't have any plans to finish the abandoned novel.

4. Read more - I love to read, but didn't read anywhere near as much as I would've liked this year. There's no way I could hope to exceed 2003's total (when I was unemployed), but I reckon I could read more next year. I didn't have as much time this year, and toward the end of the year when I had time, I tended to spend too much of it online. As a bonus, reading feeds into writing, either directly or indirectly (the subconscious is a mysterious thing).

Oh, and one last thing....

Have a happy and prosperous 2005!