a new version of me.

2010. It looks like an alien, futuristic year that we never thought we would reach. In the year 2010, we should be living like the Jetsons riding flying cars and living in outer space, right? But instead we have our iphones and blackberries... whatta letdown~

Many people say new years resolutions are cheesy and pointless, but people who say that are usually the lazy & dispirited.

Whereas I still hold onto this little, underrated thing called hope.

This year, I will really actively try to better myself. I will become Julie 3.0.

But I realize that with these resolutions, I have to start off small... can't make those lofty, idealistic goals that wont humor anyone and are just doomed for failure.

As I look at my January 2009 goals, I listed:

1. I'm going to get something published. (hmm well that didn't happen... even with 6 months of unemployment... though I did work on some pieces that I'm now too embarrassed to look at.)

2. I'm going to learn the trick of the trades. (wow... way to be overly general. I should've just written "BE GOOD.")

3. I'm going to be shameless. (hm more vagueness. Well I did, for the first time ever in my life, confess my adoration for a guy I had a crush on... that was pretty shameless.)

Well for the big 2010,

1st resolution:
I will make a better, more specific set of resolutions. Is this kind of like asking for three more wishes?

2nd resolution:
I will become a yoga/pilates queen. I realized I'm probably the most inflexible Asian woman I know. It's actually kind of embarrassing. How is it that Asian (especially Chinese) women are so limber and acrobatic? Even the older ladies can hit all the poses while I'm struggling like a behemoth. Even during football practices, I'd hate the stretching exercises, because I would be the only person straining to touch my toes. But just you wait- by the end of this year, I'll be as lithe and limber as a cat.

3rd resolution: I will learn how to cook. Or at least become more comfortable with cooking. I told my fam that I'll start off by cooking a meal per week. Even if it's a really simple one. I'm not sure if they're more excited or worried. My first meal was goat cheese & spinach omelette with french toast. (this reminds me... while I was grocery shopping, I was struck with the dilemma of choosing between organic and regular eggs, and I confess I did go with the regular ones- the organic ones were 3x the price~) which leads me to my

4th resolution: I will be a flexitarian. This one's kind of cheating, because it's still kind of vague. But for those of you who don't know... flexitarianism: a semi-vegetarian diet focusing on vegetarian food with occasional meat consumption. People will say this is like "copping out" but read the chapter "All or Nothing or Something Else" of JSF's Eating Animals. Actually don't know if I should make this into a resolution since it's practically what I already do anyway. Fine... this one will just be a filler until I can think of something better.

5th resolution: I will answer the phone nicely. Whenever my family calls, I tend to get very exasperated and automatically switch to this annoyed tone... and in a strange way, this kind of sets the tone for the rest of the conversation and just the relationship as a whole. I realized that I was being very bratty & irritable and that it's unfair that I turn on this sweet, pleasant persona when I'm at work to people who are way more undeserving of such treatment in comparison to my family.

That is it for now. Well there's more, but I'm too embarrassed to post those up publicly.