year of the boor... bore... boar

I'm more in the mood to face forward than look back.

I don't have nearly so many reservations about the official mascot of 2007 as I did with the stupid dog. 2007 is the year of the boar. If you have kanji enabled, the character looks like this:

亥

Since my 2006 was nothing to sing about, I wanna make 2007 a karaoke sing-along that we can all join in. I have some very concrete goals in mind for 2007.

1. I'm throwing down the gauntlet on the kanji kentei. I'll take the test twice this year. My goal is to pass level 3, and try to take level pre-2 by the end of the year. In a perfect world, I'll pass level 2 proper in february 2008.
2. money matters. When I turn 28 in April, I want to be debt free (excluding of course, my behemoth student loan debt). By the end of the year, I want to have a certain amount saved as well. I won't disclose that amount here because it's embarassingly small.
3. bigger stronger faster more. I'll be joining a gym very soon, and I don't want to go in there without goals either. This year, I'll set some mediocre ones as a starting point. Run 10k in 45 min; press my own weight 10 times.
4. a backflip. maybe a wallflip.

I don't think any of those goals is out of the question. I want to make this the year where I exceed my own expectations, so I have some "whisper numbers" as well.

Conspicuously absent from my list is the Monbushou scholarship. Although I'm going to throw my hat in the ring again this year, I'm not expecting results this year... not when I haven't made any personal, professional or linguistic progress in the last 365. Maybe 2008 will be my year there.