Insert Obligatory New Years Post Here

I've never been much of a New Year's person. I never make resolutions. Except for the last three years, I never left the house on New Year's Eve. This year, however, I have been spending a lot of time reading my favorite blogs, and each of them have had an article on resolutions for 2013 or their favorite things about 2012. Or both. Or several blog entries on New Year goodiness.

So I thought to myself, "Self, maybe you should act like the New Year is something worth doing right." I have several goals (geeky and not geeky) for the next year, so I decided that I would share my New Year goals with you. (I don't call them resolutions because that word's so pretentious it makes me want to break them).

I don't have any New Year pictures, or anything, so here are some
Pac-Man cookies I made for my boyfriend last year.

So here are Amanda's New Year goals, both geeky and not.

1. Post a blog at least once a week.

2. Write a political science article that is publication-worthy, and start on that path. It's never too early to think about the future.

3. Create a costume for Chicago Comic Con or C2E2 that uses a new and challenging type of fabric (maybe lycra or spandex?). I'm thinking Sheik or Huntress.

4. Participate more in class discussions. My extreme social anxiety disorder makes my class participation abysmal. I need to work on that. A lot.

5. Watch Battlestar Galactica. All of it. I've never seen it. 

6. Finish editing my first novel by the end of the school year. Finish writing my second by the end of 2013.

7. Finally finish reading The Deed of Paksenarrion. I got the compilation edition of the book when I was in middle school and started reading it a couple times, but always gave up because the book was so difficult to hold (lame excuse, I know). 

8. Lose weight but, more importantly, get into better shape.

9. Get my first geeky tattoo. 

10. Be awesome when I run the Warrior Dash in June. And by awesome, I mean just complete the course :).  Preferably in an awesome costume.

11. Get to the point where I can sell some of my geeky crafts.

12. Get a summer FLAS fellowship so that I can support myself as an academic over the summer, instead of as a nanny.

13. Write for another blog, alongside my work here at Geekphoria. 

14. Have an idea for my dissertation topic by November 2013. Be ready to take my first prelim during Winter Break of 2013.

I feel like I need more pictures, but nothing really fits.
So here's a picture of my cat. Awwww.

I almost left my goals at thirteen, but then I was a little paranoid that I would be jinxing myself. So I tacked on number 14. It's probably too lofty of a goal, but it's certainly one worth working towards.

This doesn't count as the "one blog entry a week" goal for this week. So I will see you all before Saturday (most likely with a DIY, but maybe with the second edition of Gamer Drama).