Monday, January 21, 2019

New Year’s Resolutions 2019 (by Ethan)



Do any of you like fun facts? Well, I certainly do! Here is one that will shock you: a mind-blowing quantity of 32% of Homo sapiens (yeah, yeah I know that means “wise humans” but this is true!) lack the ability to snap their fingers! CRAZY!! And it is one of the top eight Easy Things to Do that Most People Can’t Do! DOUBLE CRAZY!!!! What you are about to see is a tour through my three main goals for 2019: one, reading all of the classical novel The Hobbit, but due to its fairly long length, I will need to two, use my time management skills better, in which doing so may allow me some more relaxing time in which I can three, practice snapping my fingers better. Achieving these goals will help me become a better student, become smarter through literature, reduce my stress, and allow me to enjoy my personal time even better with some silly fun.

            So we begin the tour, in the bowl of which the ice cream sits, with the first goal! This is to read the entirety of The Hobbit, by J R R Tolkien, the 255-page 1966 version. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres because it lets my imagination run free. Also, this particular version is a valuable old one, so the print style and format, the page color, even the smell of the book are vintage style, so I am looking forward to reading it. The illustrations are also by the author. To finish, I will have to save enough time (see a goal here?) to read around thirty pages a day. If I am reading The Lord of the Rings, I have completed this goal. When I do finish, I plan to do some research about the author and the book and write a review and post it on my blog (YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT).

            Now, we are moving on to the ice cream, the second goal! This one is snapping my fingers better, and when I say that, I mean AT LEAST thirty decibels. Snapping fingers requires the use of some veeeery complicated physics, timing, and speed control, which is why I find it so interesting and want to give it a try. To do it, however, I will have to practice in my spare time (refer to first parenthesized comment of previous paragraph) at least five minutes a day. To accurately measure the volume though, I will have to find a good app to measure the volume. Being able to snap my fingers is an indication that this goal is history.

Last, but not least, the topping of the ice cream, the piece de resistance, THE THIRD GOAL! This goal is to improve my time management skills. Not mastering this skill had led to me suffering at the hands of copious consequences and adverse outcomes. To avoid that, I set this goal. To achieve said goal, I’m planning to ask my mom for some tips, learning from the books The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey and Getting Things Done For Teens by leading expert on personal and organizational productivity, David Allen; I also have a large whiteboard on which I write down everything I have to do paired with a carefully calibrated and investigated estimate for each task, which, with the help of some timers, I can stick to the plan (although sometimes I hate the timers.). To come home with fairly low amounts of work (if I meet it before the end of school), if I have lots of play time almost every day, or if I have a relaxing and organized daily life is a sign of meeting said goal.

            These are some really big and challenging goals I have set here. But setting difficult goals is what helps us push ourselves out of our limits. Achieving these goals will help me become a better student, become smarter through literature, reduce stress, and let me enjoy my personal time even better with some silly fun. I want to end with a few quotes about achieving:
The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”
-Albert Einstein
“You never fail until you stop trying.”
-Albert Einstein


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