the air

It seems to me that a significant number of people write down or declare resolutions that they hope to accomplish when a new year begins. What is surprising is the amount of people who fail in their pursuit and then restate those same resolutions year after year. So this year, do yourself a favor and dump the resolutions.

Some Time Required for Assembly

Ask yourself this, “why am I making this resolution?” Often, I bet your answer will be along the lines of improving your lifestyle. While your resolution is admirable, is it realistic? You cannot expect to go from being overweight and shy to sporting a six pack and the center of attention all within a year. Some people will disagree, but here’s the dirty secret: change takes time. No matter what your philosophy is, changing your habits and lifestyle is a drastic option for your body and mind. Change takes time and energy.

Common Sense is Required

First off, don’t set unrealistic resolutions. Think baby steps when you are changing your lifestyle. This will reduce the likelihood of failing. If you want immediate results, take some pills and start dreaming. However, if you want lasting results, take your time and use common sense. Second, be informed. Always be aware of why you are changing your lifestyle and how your steps will affect your lifestyle. Some steps that you think may help your lifestyle could in fact hurt you. For instance, you may think that by eating less, you will be healthier. However, that is not the case if you are used to eating numerous times a day. Don’t strain your body unnecessarily Rather, you should let your body adjust to change and the same goes for your mind.

Fun It Shall Be

No matter what type of resolution you make, please make sure it is fun for you. If you want to spend less money or blog for money, make sure those events are all fun. I’ve noticed myself getting bored of some resolutions because they are boring and take too much time. To combat such an atrocity, I simply turn around and make the resolution more fun. For example, my resolution for 2007 was to brush my teeth at least twice a day. Two months into it, I was finding that I was lazy and not i the mood to brush at day and night. To make things interesting, I changed my toothbrush often and made sure that I drew a calendar on the mirror and crossed off the days I brushed at least twice a day. Soon, my mind started seeing many empty squares and fewer X’s on the calendar. All of a sudden, I developed an urge to brush at least twice and felt really good whenever I crossed off a day. Simple things and simple tweaks can lead to great results.

My resolution

Now that I told you to dump your resolutions, here’s my resolution for 2008: Make no more resolutions!

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One of the things I despise is censorship. I do not believe in censoring any form of media for the greater good. Rather, it is important for everyone to have access to lucid information so that they can develop their own opinions on a particular subject. Nothing angers me more than seeing the mass media censor reality yet promote fictitious entertainment in all its glory.

The image in this post (above), courtesy of Wonkette, demonstrates how mass media is willing to censor the brutality of reality. The image was shown by ABC and throughly censored; shown below is the actual image:

Sure, ABC can be considered a conservative media outlet, but aren’t these the same guys that promote the show Grey’s Anatomy? Grey’s Anatomy, a great show in my opinion, does have scenes in which characters are bleeding profusely and death is an important element. What I do not appreciate is ABC censoring information that they themselves support through their fictitious entertainment programming.

I will accept the fact that gruesome images from reality should be kept away from children. However, aren’t these same children exposed to graphic images in their own cartoons? Perhaps, or maybe we should just stop censoring media and let the parents control their children’s exposure.

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I just want to wish everyone a very happy new year. All the best to your goals and your endeavors and I truly hope that 2008 is a great year for you. Just remember, a new year marks a new beginning. If you wanted to try something new or you wanted things to change, now is the time to act. Don’t be shy and don’t be afraid of change. Embrace and enjoy!

If you are reading this at exactly midnight CST, then be aware, I’m at a party having a great time. Enjoy your night and be safe. Happy New Year once again!

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I just noticed that there is another critical WordPress update that is now available. Like always, all Wordpress users are urged to update. I just updated my blog and as usual, the update went smoothly. Here’s a quick rundown of what the new update has:

WordPress 2.3.2 is an urgent security release that fixes a bug that can be used to expose your draft posts. 2.3.2 also suppresses some error messages that can give away information about your database table structure and limits and stops some information leaks in the XML-RPC and APP implementations. Get 2.3.2 now to protect your blog from these disclosures.

As a little bonus, 2.3.2 allows you to define a custom DB error page. Place your custom template at wp-content/db-error.php. If WP has a problem connecting to your database, this page will displayed rather than the default error message.

You can read more about the update here or download the update here.

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2007 has been another remarkable year for me. To put it frankly, the following milestones are what label 2007 a great year:

• A perfect semester: 4.0 semester GPA
• Caterpillar senior design project
• Elgin Industries internship
• Published paper

There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing straight A’s on your report card. If you aren’t already aware, there is nothing superior to earning a 4.0 GPA in a semester. However, the challenge now is, can I do this again? Since the spring semester of 2006, my GPA has been on the rise. It started out from a 3.71 and here I am, on top of my game. Here’s the secret to my success: it’s really not that hard. You just have to be willing to sacrifice some things for the greater good.

Senior design is considered the final hurdle before graduation. Due to my plan of study, I took senior design a semester early, but next semester, I have pretty laid back courses. Senior design is like an unpaid internship that is graded. From my experience, it is relatively difficult to earn a grade lower than an A.

An internship with Elgin Industries was definitely a high point for me. It came on the heels of attending the national IIE conference. I learned a great deal of what exactly industrial engineers do in a small company and the fact that I really need to move out of the Illinois region. What I really need is to move to a larger company in a warmer climate. Here’s hoping for 2008.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of mine is getting a research paper published at the national level. I got the opportunity to present a paper at IERC2007 in Nashville, TN and learn about other interesting research projects that graduate students as well companies are pursuing.

I don’t want to sound as if 2007 is going to be the only year for me. That’s why, I’ll go ahead and keep this recap short and sweet. Here’s to another great year!

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