Belated New Year's Resolutions

1. Paint and redecorate at least the bedroom and office. In the office I want to paint grass-panel walls, and in the bedroom probably a light yellow, and add lots of light blue/green/silver accents.
2. I would say lose 5-10 lbs, but what I really want to lose is just a tiny bit of pudge, and if I gain a few lbs of muscle in the process I don't really know what the lb-age would turn out to be.
3. Wear skirts/dresses more often. Perhaps that is too vague. Maybe I should say, at least once or twice a week? I have plenty I just don't wear them enough.
4. Make more YouTube videos of me singing.
5. Read/Finish 12 books, 1 each month. Probably the following 12 (though, of course, I reserve the right to modify, add or delete from this list):

January: The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
    I joined an email mailing list for the Ludwig von Mises institute, and one mailing was a list of top 10 Libertarian/Austrian Economics books. I decided to go for this one, and got it on CD from the library. I am currently listening to it.
February: The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
    I saw a movie on Netflix “The Namesake,” which made me curious about this book. I think it may just be a short story, and shouldn't take long. I have it on hold at the library.
March: The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
    Back when I had a huge crush on Harrison Ford (as Han Solo), I used to read anything about him that I could get access to. After seeing “What Lies Beneath,” I’ll never like him quite the way I used to, but I still think he’s a fascinating person. Shy in high school, liked biographies, his favorite historical character was Lincoln. In college he double-majored in Philosophy and English, but made low grades and dropped out. He learned carpentry from library books, and got his first carpentry job building a million-dollar studio in Brazil (if I remember correctly). It was while installing cabinetry on the set during tryouts that he was asked to stand in and read the part of Han Solo (or so the rumours go), and the rest is history. At some point he got a pilot’s license and now sometimes pilots his own helicopter in search and rescue missions. Anyway, in one interview he said that The Mosquito Coast was his favorite movie to play in, so I had to see it. It was not quite what I expected, but I just loved the idea of this genius taking his family off into the jungle to live independently of modern society. The fact that he goes crazy in the end just makes it that much more interesting. I know that the way Christians/Christianity is portrayed in that movie offends some people, but I still think Allie Fox is a fascinating character and just wanted to read about him in more detail. I started reading this last year, it is the book that I keep in my gym bag/purse for moments when I’m stuck waiting.
April: 20 Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy G. Lee Bowie et al.
    I decided I needed to know something about philosophy, and went on the Internet in search of a suitable textbook. I loved the format and title of this book, and it wasn’t too expensive (older used textbooks almost never are - which should tell you something about the racket which is our textbook industry). It is a great survey of many thinkers, a good way to get one’s feet wet, so to speak. I do feel that they try a bit too hard to be politically correct. Every chapter has something about feminism, and most have something about racism, plus these topics each get a chapter of their own. Furthermore, two of the great questions are considered to be Creationism vs. Evolution, and abortion. Don’t get me wrong, I think those are very important questions, but in a philosophy book I expected questions with a little more history to them. I am wondering if the focus on contemporary relevancy has super-ceded the focus on philosophy? Anyway, there are still many interesting selections in this book - but I must confess that usually this is the book that I read to put me to sleep.
May: How to Program in C# 2010 by Harvey Deitel
    I enrolled in a programming class for this spring, and this is the textbook for the class. So, I guess another New Year’s resolution is to learn programming and hopefully find a job with it. First day of classes is January 25th.
Summer: The Castle, The Trial, and Amerika by Franz Kafka
    I first found out about Kafka when reading something about Kurt Gödel, where his work was described as “Kafakaesque,” and so I just HAD to get a better appreciation of what that word meant, so I read the Metamorphosis. I still feel that I need to get a better feeling for what “Kafkaesque” means.
September: Faust part II by Goethe
    I read the first part online, and now I need to read the second. 
October: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
    Rachel suggested this book to me. I’ve heard of it before, and keep meaning to read it.
November: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    I’ve hear alot about this book. I think it is fairly short and shouldn’t take too long. I really am somewhat of a slow reader - which is funny because as a child I always thought I was a fast reader. I think I was faster then, mainly because I had more time, secondarily because I generally chose easy fiction, and tertiarily because I never used to stop and think/write about what I was reading. Anyway, I want to make reachable resolutions, otherwise what’s the point?
December: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates
    This is a fairly small pamphlet, and shouldn’t take long to read, so I won’t feel overwhelmed when I get to the end of this list.

And for extra-credit, I will hopefully finish a 13th book: a whopper of a history textbook which I started two years ago online: Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley

Books that didn't quite make it on the list this year (which I may still attempt if I get ahead of schedule, or bored with my other selections): Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, The Island of the Day Before, A Picture of Dorian Grey, Tale of Two Cities, Ethics, A Critique of Pure Reason, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Democracy in America, The Evolution of Civilizations, Thinking in Java 3rd ed. by Bruce Eckel and Elementary Number Theory by David Burton.

Oh, and Goodreads has linked up with facebook, so I've been updating my reading list over there.