The narrative of a New Years Resolution is always the same. It comes to December 30th and you think “Oh, I wonder what my New Year Resolution will be?” But by the time the new year rolls in you have talked yourself out of binding yourself to a somewhat useless contract that you know you will eventually break and then feel guilty about.

Sound about right?

I play that game with myself every year but I like the idea of New Years Resolutions. I like the idea of being able to start fresh on something and to have a goal. Last year I wanted to do something new every month. I think I managed it. Honestly, I forgot all about it by May. But I’m sure I can twist something to fit it to avoid breaking the resolution.

This year I have made a couple of resolutions. All of them have get out clauses or very loose rules. I did wonder if this made them pointless and if I was just a victim of the Resolution system. I then decided I didn’t care that much and wanted to do them anyway!

The first is really a continuation from last year. I want to do at least one new thing every month. Knowing some of what is coming up this year I know this will be easy.

The second is I want to read a book a month. I have never been a big reader, but recently I have really enjoyed looking at something that wasn’t made up of pixels. I also think there is a lot to be learnt from books. One of my favourite pass times has been going to a coffee shop, getting a drink and reading a book.

With this second resolution, I am giving myself a 2 week grace period. The main reason I am doing this is not that I read 12 books but that I have an incentive to read. Even if I only get through 8 books, that is better than the 2 or 3 a year I go through at the moment.

You see, this is what it comes down to for me. Would I complete these resolutions because I want to do them? Or because I have to now that I have blogged about them?

I am doing these resolutions because I want to. I want to do something new every month to keep things exciting and fresh and to make sure I don’t get too stuck in a rut. And I am aiming to read a book a month because I want to read more books. I don’t have to make resolutions for these really but I find it a helpful aid.

As yet, I have not thought what I am going to do this month. Also, I am half way through a book at the moment. So I don’t have a clean start for that. But honestly, it doesn’t matter. The point of the resolutions are to encourage, to guide and to help in what I want to do. As soon as they stop doing that, then I will stop doing them.

Song of the Year

Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event

Ever since hearing this song for the first time I have loved it. It is a song about a situation I think nobody wants to be in and describes it so well. It draws you into the story and then leaves you at the end filled with melancholy and pity for the protagonist. While not the happiest song, the effect it had on me was startling.

Album of the Year

Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons

Easy this one really. Every song on this album is amazing, every lyric edifying and every note pure audible joy. Stunning album. Just stunning.

Film of the Year

Watchmen

This was the hardest one to choose. Mainly because I haven’t seen that many films this year. Saying that Avatar stood out mainly because of its ground breaking CGI. However, after reading the graphic novel first, I still find Watchmen fantastic to watch. Maybe it wasn’t the greatest film out this year but it is my favourite.

Website of the Year

Tumblr

Tumblr have really grown over the past year. I have been using it for 18months or so now and they seem to be getting better and better. I used to be annoyed with the way you can’t search by type, however adding simple tag solves this. Especially now tags are shown in the dashboard and are available in templates. Good work Tumblr.

Favourite Posts of 2009:

Text: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/159382303/things-ive-learnt-today-9th-aug-2009
Photo: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/89066600
Quote: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/201795747/ive-just-found-out-that-when-i-saw-a-patch-of-oil
Link: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/112075559/so-youre-in-love-with-one-of-your-friends-but-she
Chat: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/82030417/me-say-hi-to-brandon-flowers-for-me-we-used-to
Audio: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/103278324/brie-stoner-come-down-this-has-been-my-prayer
Video: http://steveheyes.co.uk/post/110421412/funny-talking-animals-walk-on-the-wild-side

amysian:

Check!

Me & christmas songs are a bit like me & pringles.

Maybe worse.

I was thinking of making one.

Linkey-link please.

ps. if Jimmy Eat World - 12.23.95 isn’t on it, I won’t be happy.

On Wednesday I did a talk at Aston’s CU. Despite running over my time limit I think it went pretty well. During the talk I said I would write a blog post with various links to notes and books I used while researching the topic. The idea of this was because I couldn’t look at the whole of Job in one night, I’d point anyone who wants to in the direction of some good material if they wanted to look more at Job.

Books.

The Bible Book - Nick Page
I found the summary of Job in this commenatary of the Bible really helpful to get an overview of the poem of Job.

The Message of Job - David Atkinson
This was the main commentary on Job that I used. It was very thorough but also not to hardcore to mean you needed a doctorate in theology to understand.

Don’t Waste Your Life - John Piper
I was given this book by a good friend and it has proved to be inspirational. While it isn’t directly about Job, the general ideas that I spoke about where inspired by what Piper says in this book. It is a book that I think all Christians should read. It is a challenging book to read, and Piper does seem to repeat himself in places, but the overall message is good. If you don’t want to buy and don’t mind reading off a computer screen there is a PDF version available for free to download.

Websites.

Here are two webpages talking about how Martin Luther and how he explains the differences between faith and hope.

Faith and Hope

Faith vs Hope

The Orchard
Didn’t use this site during the talk, but you need to check it out!

Talks.

On Hope.
This talk is by Don Miller. Miller is a (in my opinion great) writing who has written many books including Blue Like Jazz and his latest book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. In this talk he address the Imago Dei church community in Portland talking speaking about hope. He addresses the empty comercial gospel sales pitch and the immediate fulfilment it suggests we get and how it is actaully hope that gets us through. Unfortunately you have to pay $3.99 for this talk, but is well worth it. Read everything by this guy.

Calvery Chapel series on Job
Calvery Chapel are a network of churches that have made a lot of their teaching online to be downloaded for free. There is a whole series for every book on the Bible including Job.

I hope that you find this useful. If the audio recording is good I may post that up too.

So I was browsing round the themes section of the site and found this new theme. Kinda nice. Eventually I will my own. But right now, I like this. Not to sure of the colours of the blocks yet but I can change them once I have found a palette I like. Which might be a while. But hey-ho.

oh-sarah:

I DON’T UNDERSTAND

Do i want the tumblr application on facebook?  Does that mean every post I make on tumblr comes up on facebook? Because I don’t want this. 
I would like the choice.  Do I have the choice of linking them?

It currently does mean every tumblr post comes up on your facebook feed. If you don’t want it, don’t have it :)

For the twitter integration you can choose wether to send a post to twitter or not. I would not be surprised if in a couple of months or so there will be a tick box for facebook too.

chrisdesouza:

oh-sarah:

Last night. 
I miss it.

I miss it too.

If I could have last night minus the tiredness and infected blister that would be even better!

I wanted to write something deep and meaningful, something full of hope.

But all I can think is “Man, I am tired.”