Neil Young, Canadian legend, really needs no introduction.

I received a new laptop for work on Friday, and I need to transfer all of my files over from my old laptop and set up my development environment by Monday, so I started doing that today. I was trying to listen to Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere while doing so, but I find it incredibly hard to multi-task while this is on. This song makes me want to give up programming, take up the guitar, and release a record that’s just a one hour long guitar solo.

The New Year. A time to look back on past accomplishments, or lack thereof, and begin forming new ambitions and lifestyle changes to promptly ignore.

2007 was a fairly quiet year for me. This was my first year after graduating university, so I really just worked. It’s easy to measure life’s progress in semesters and city moves and trips abroad, but it becomes a bit harder when you’re stationary.

I’ve become a much better programmer over the last year and feel like my career is on the right track, I’ve been living a lot healthier and continuing to slowly lose weight, excluding the last month, and I’m generally happier and more comfortable with myself than I’ve been in quite a while. So this year has been a good one, I’d say, in a quiet way.

I say I’m not really into resolutions, but I end up making them every year anyway, so I might just be in denial about that. I’d like to be someone who’s not into resolutions, but I enjoy setting goals, even if I don’t really plan to achieve them. So here are a few:

Get off the habit of snacking all the time. My boss bought me a huge box of cookies for Christmas, and I live alone, so I’ve pretty much been living off cookies for the last two weeks. I eat some when I get home, lose my appetite for dinner, and then end up snacking again later that night. It’s a delicious, vicious cycle. Sadly, when I went to visit my parents for Christmas and detox, they had bought the exact same box of cookies. It’s a global conspiracy.

Write more. Not just here in the weblog, but actual fiction. I have written a little over the last couple of months, which is a step in the right direction, but I need to take it more seriously. This has been my longest running failed resolution, going about 15 years strong now.

Travel. The only travel I did in 2007 was for work, so I’d like to go on a personal trip this year. I’m slowly getting my student loans paid off and my credit card debt under control, so I’ll have more freedom to do this soon.

Take my bike out at least once. I brought my bike to Victoria last summer, and it hasn’t left my apartment once. It is an interesting conversation piece, though.

Catch up on my reading list. I have a towering pile of books to read, and I’ve gone through a slight reading drought this last month, so I need to start getting through them. I’m going to try and stop buying new books until I’m done these, which should save me money, because I pretty much have enough unread books right now to last me the entire year.

Be open to new experiences. Maybe join a club or take a class in something I’m interested in. Just get out there and try new activities and meet new people.

I hope 2007 was a good year for everyone, and if it wasn’t, here’s to a clean slate!