Ambitions for the New Year

I fear to use the word "resolutions" because, you know, those are those things that are made of good intentions and always seem to get broken. But these are some goals I've come up with, and I think they're good ones, and I pray for the strength to stick to them:

1. Go for a half-hour walk every morning, unless the weather is exceedingly nasty.


2. Follow my Time Map for at least one week.


3. Don't check e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night.


4. Turn off the computer when I'm not using it, and use it only during the times marked out for Writing on my Time Map.


5. Write another novel.


6. Read at least one new MG or YA book a month.

We'll see how that goes. I have a few more ideas of things I'd like to do, but I'll save them for later...

ETA: ( A slightly less serious set of resolutions )

Too much information, of an eerily mesmerizing sort

If you have ever wanted to know about the process of embalming bodies in North American funeral homes, Sundry has a brand-new post just for you. She tagged along with her brother-in-law, who works in a mortuary, and watched him prepare an elderly woman's body for a funeral.

I know some people feel that it's important to see the body of their loved one in order to have the necessary sense of closure. But after reading this, all I can think is, "No thank you, I'll just take a closed pine box."

Uh... happy day before New Year's Eve? Or something.