je voudrais être un yeti

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

Last post of 2009! *wipes tear off cheek* I don't normally make resolutions because I know I'm going to break them, but why not push myself this year? Looking back on 2009, I didn't get much accomplished, so I want to make 2010 awesome!

Here is a short recap of my year, and then my resolutions.

2009 in Review

• January 2: We got the cats! I can't even remember a time before them. They've honestly brought so much joy into my household, and I'm so glad to have them… even if Hank is mentally defective.
• January 20: I watched Barack Obama's inauguration on TV during school hours and had a mini party in my school library. Definitely a good moment!
• January 21: I was nominated for the Bloggies and subsequently lost. However, I was never expecting to win, and just being nominated was such a happy shock!
• January 29: I lost my cell phone and got a new¹ one. (I'm getting a new one in 2 weeks, though! Yay!)
• February 11: Jet ran away, but we found him.
• February 11: My friend's grandmother died after a long battle with cancer. She was like a third grandmother to me, so this was devastating. It's been nearly a year.
• May 3: I took a break from my blog and came back two months later.
• May 25: I had a huge fight with a friend over a school project and didn't talk to her for five months. To put this into perspective, she was DEFINITELY the one being immature. She tried to blame her low mark on me.
• June: I passed all my exams and finished the year on the honour roll!
• July: I discovered the most amazing book I've ever read.
• August 23: I lost my new phone, but found it in a Pictionary box. (Not a huge event, but it was funny so I had to include it.)
• September: I won the Community of Learners award at my school. To this day, I'm not sure why.
• September: I voted 1500 times for Aisling's cousin to win The Next Star. (This is a big event, okay? Do you know how much energy I put into that?)
• September and October: Both the kitties had their first birthdays. (I only blogged about Hank's, though!)
• October 22: I got contacts and was amazed by my awesome vision.
• October 28: I deactivated my Facebook account, but had to cave and reactivate it shortly thereafter. I am weak. (But really, I had to reactivate it so I could give my friend directions to my house!)
• November 3: I figured out what I want to do after I graduate from high school.
• November 10: I got braces and was not amused by the fact that my mouth was in excruciating pain for four days.
• November 14: I got a job as a cashier at a big chain of grocery stores.
• November: I came thisclose to failing math!
• December 17: I got a new laptop, after my (also fairly new) one completely died. This one is amazing and shiny and it makes me so happy. It's white with swirls! And the volume control looks like a light, but it's touch sensitive! And you can turn off the touchpad²!
• December 22: I went to visit my relatives and met the little girl who's staying with my aunt and uncle. I fell in love with her sweet, adorable nature.
• December 29: I lost my iPod! D: This is horrible, because I rely on it A LOT. I had notes on there that I reallllly need.
• Best of all, I didn't die!

Goals for 2010, somewhat ordered by importance

• Pull my average up by 5%³ – First term was not great for me in terms of grades, and my average dropped 5% from last year, 9% from the year before. (Notice a trend here?) Ideally I would raise it back up to where it was 2 years ago, but since my math mark is SO LOW (I missed a week of school and nearly failed the big test), chances of that happening are slim. This is going to be my main goal, since it will require a lot of work.
• Get bank account balance up to $2000 – With my job, this shouldn't be too hard, and I'll probably earn more. This is my minimum, though. I need to save up for lots of big things I'm planning!
• Get my blog post count up to 200 – That's 66 more posts in one year, which is definitely doable! I'm going to try to post more often than that, though. I really want to post 3-4 times a week, but sometimes I lack in motivation and inspiration.
• Comment on more blogs – I'm such a serial lurker, it's not even funny. Along with Aisling, I'm going to try to comment on more blogs. My goal is 21 blogs a week⁴, and I'm going to keep track with a handy dandy spreadsheet. (Because seriously, I just love any excuse to make a spreadsheet.)
• Write more – I have my NaNo novel, which I'm definitely going to have to scrap and rewrite from scratch for the 900th time⁵, and a new idea. I don't know how I'm going to balance the two, but I'm definitely going to make some time to write.
• Clean my room – I've probably needed to do this for the past year, so I'm going to get around to this in chunks: realphabetise books⁶, organise clothes/donate old ones to charity⁷, clean desk (even though I just did that this summer), redo horrible disgusting closet⁸, clean/vaccuum floor, organise bedside table. I will most likely be documenting this journey on my Dreamwidth account.
• Create at least three new designs and use them – I'm not great with Photoshop, but I figure I should make myself practice. This is going to average out to one design every four months, so hopefully I can keep it up. This means that I should probably get working on something soon!
• Buy more clothes – I have very few clothes that actually fit me, due to wearing a uniform most days. I got some gift cards for Christmas, so I should be able to get a few things!
• Figure out electives for next year – I'm going to be doing this within the next few weeks anyway, but it seems big to me. Universities will see next year's report card, so this is pretty important!
• Keep track of money spent – I have an application on my iPod for this⁹, and I used to do it. I just stopped suddenly, so I'm going to start again. This will help me with my main monetary goal too!
• Use an agenda – I stopped partway through this school year. I have no idea why. I just suck like that.
• Pay the library – I've owed them $40 for a year. Enough said. (It would also let me get my card back, heh…)
• Get my braces off – This doesn't really depend on me, more on my teeth, but it's possible. My dentist said 9-18 months when I got them in October, and they're going really fast so far. With any luck I might have them off before next school year!
• Get my hair cut – Last time I had it cut was June 18, 2008. It's probably high time for a trim.

Happy new year to everyone! I hope 2010 brings everything you hope for. If you set any resolutions, I hope you achieve them.

1. and nearly as crappy [↩]
2. which admittedly has no real use, but it's cool [↩]
3. which is where it should be [↩]
4. 3 a day [↩]
5. seriously, I've gone through at least 10 drafts of this stupid novel [↩]
6. I haven't been good about putting them in order in ages [↩]
7. I have so many clothes that don't fit, and I want to reorganise them; colour coding was a stupid idea [↩]
8. seriously, it's a nightmare [↩]
9. first I'll have to, you know, retrieve my iPod from the depths of rental car hell [↩]

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

Today I was walking home from a job interview¹, and by "today" I mean "a few minutes ago". Here I am, minding my own business and walking down the street carrying a huge case of contact solution that I picked up at the mall, when a woman walks into me. From behind. Know why? Because she's texting.

Now, when people walk into me because they're texting, or when cars don't slow down at the crosswalk, I tend to give them a dirty look. That's justified, right? I mean, this woman walked into me. From behind! Because she was texting! So, of course, I shoot her a glare. And you know what she does? She shoots me a glare right back.

Yep, because I should have known that she was behind me, about to walk into me, all because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Clearly it's my fault. God, Clem, why on Earth would you be pissed off at her? Seriously now.

People text too much.

There, I said it. It's true. I read an article about a girl who sends and receives 500 texts a day. Since I got my first phone 3 years ago, I don't know if I've even sent 500 texts total. And, yes, I realise I'm weird. I know people my age text a lot. But you know what? I don't like it.

I don't like walking down the street with my friend while she responds to the 85 billion incoming texts she has and trying to hold a conversation. I'll say something while she's texting, she'll look up and go "Huh?", I'll say, "Never mind," and she'll say, "No, no, really! I really want to know! What did you say?" Uh, if you really want to know, why don't you pay attention the first time? Why don't you NOT respond to texts for the ten minutes that it takes to walk home from the subway station? It can't be that urgent.

And texting during class? Please. Okay, maybe the occasional "oh my god I am dying of boredom in this stupid class", but if you text throughout the whole class and then complain to the teacher that you need another week before the test because you really, really, really don't get it, too bad for you. Some of us actually pay attention and do well on the test. (Okay, maybe I didn't do really, really, really well, but I genuinely do not understand many aspects of chemistry. I also have little desire to understand it.)

One last item in this little rant – texting during the Remembrance Day ceremony.

I'll just give you a little time to let that sink in.

Yes. It happened. Here we are, 2000 students², listening to poems and speeches, when somebody's cell phone starts to ring. Their ring tone? My Humps, by the Black Eyed Peas. Really now. To top this off, my friend, standing next to me, was indeed texting. Now, I don't care if you hate war. I don't care if you don't think that the soldiers died for our freedom. They did die, and this is the time to respect them. You can't turn off your phone for fifteen minutes? Because, yeah, the ceremony was literally fifteen minutes long.

Honestly. I'm not saying nobody should ever text, but it seems like people are becoming incredibly dependent on their phones. Texting is an easy, convenient way to reach people, but it takes you away from the real world. Is it really necessary to be in contact with them all day long? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like sometimes it's nice to turn of your cell phone and live in the real world.

ETA: I did mean to add this to the original post as an aside, but I forgot. ANYWAY! Jem just had her daughter Isabel today, so YAAAAAY, CONGRATS!!

1. I did get the job [↩]
2. my tiny school and the larger one that we share the building with [↩]