I Never Know if "New Years" has an Apostrophe or Not

(I apologize for the not entirely accurate capitalization of the title; it bugs me when I have a string of uncapitalized words in a row. Perhaps I need to start using more important words in my titles...)

It's the first day of the new year and I've already failed my New Year's resolution, which was not to procrastinate.

The first thing I thought this morning (other than the usual "blllgeeeeeeeeeghhhhhhh") was "I should probably work on that project today." My second thought, which was unfortunately not meant to be ironic, was "I'll do it tomorrow."

Mind you, I've been saying this to myself for the past week. Just a few hours ago I told myself I'd finish all my homework tonight so that I could work on the project for a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday. Right now it's 8:54 pm and I've only finished part of my English homework and what I know how to do of my math homework (i.e. not very much at all, but I don't have all my notes written down so I can't really figure the rest out until Monday - blaaaah). Perhaps what makes this situation even more pathetic is that ALL of this homework was technically due last Monday, but we had three days off for the snow-barf (as Maureen would say) and then winter break. I've decided that I'm not going to sleep tonight until I've finished my Chemistry and read chapter 17 of my "Enduring Visions" textbook. *

We can further explore the depth of my procrastination when we consider the things I procrastinate on that I quite like doing, such as practicing guitar. The strange thing is, I don't mind practicing guitar. I actually like it. It's frustrating at times, as I expect it is with most instruments, but it's not like it's a torturous process. If I hated it, I would quit, but I don't. It's just the thought of practicing that puts me off. I don't understand why; it's just yet another thing that I say I'll do in an hour and then it's two days later and I still haven't done it. I suppose it could be because I know that I'll most likely make a few (...hundred?) mistakes, but that doesn't sound credible, even to me. Being terrified of failure is not a characteristic of mine and I don't think anyone would consider making mistakes whilst practicing to be a type of failure anyhow.

I think one of the real reasons that people are so terrible at keeping their New Years/Years'/Year's resolutions is because they feel that if they go astray once, they've failed themselves and may as well give up. I read somewhere that we ought to rename them "New Years/'s/s' Goals" and I definitely agree. The resolutions shouldn't be something that makes you feel BAD if it's difficult to finish. The whole idea is that it's a new year, a new beginning, a new leaf, and that you should change your habits accordingly. Really, as long as you've made a positive, consistent change in whatever behavior needs changing by the time 2011 rolls around, I think you can say you've accomplished your 2010 resolutions, even if you DID get off track once or twice.

I DO have the first post of 2010 (I KEEP ACCIDENTALLY TYPING 2012), so I may as well list the rest of my resolution type things, which I think are pretty self-explanatory:

- Don't procrastinate (or at least procrastinate less)
- Get a for job this summer and beyond
- Start doing yoga (okay, this one requires some comment. I've always liked yoga but I've never done it for real. I feel like people either see it as the routine of a laid-back vegetarian Californian, a pregnant woman, or a middle-aged lady who wants something to do, but it's really not. For one thing, there are tons of types of yoga, from the relaxing kind to the really intense workout kind. I'd really like to be more flexible [I can, for example, touch my toes without dying, but still]. My sister used to do Pilates as a mandatory part of her ballet class, so whatever, b*****s. Also, yoga pants are really comfortable. Just saying.)
- Make an effort to be more sociable
- Acknowledge people in the hallways in a more obvious fashion (I'VE always thought it was obvious, but apparently it isn't to some people - perhaps they need glasses? ah well)
- Regardless of whether I do IB or AP next year, meet the classes and work head-on and take them down like a b****
- Actually study for the math part of the SAT so I can hopefully get some sort of scholarship to some university

And, most importantly:

- Put more effort into my blogs on this blog so as not to completely bore you lovely people :)

Happy New Year!

* This textbook is simultaneously the most amusing and the most frustrating non-mathematical/scientific textbook I've ever encountered. It has this really weird way of describing things that have made me burst out laughing a few times (peculiarly - not inappropriately but certainly peculiarly - it called Aaron Burr a "womanizer." What?) However, that hardly even begins to make up for how much useless/irrelevant information it contains, AND a VERY STRONG grieviance of mine, which is that it will occasionally say something to the effect of "this event/person/handkerchief was very important for the future of America for three reasons" AND THEN IT ONLY LISTS TWO. This is NOT because I have poor reading skills - I have REREAD THE SECTION OF THE BOOK MULTIPLE TIMES and THERE ARE NOT THREE REASONS. AAAAAAHHHH.