Honesty – My 2009 New Year’s Resolution

Been thinking about the New Year arriving in about three days time and which resolution I wanted to choose. I always pick resolutions that are basic enough, that at the end of the year you feel you have managed to achieve the rule you have set yourself. In the past couple of years by resolutions have been ‘Break Out Of Your Shell’ and something similar, which in some sense I achieved.

Some people do have a habit of breaking resolutions by the first weeks of January, but I follow my pattern so whatever surprises the New Year does bring, I can face it no matter what happens. I’m different to how I was a couple of years ago after promising to myself to break out of my shell and it’s a promise I’m still working on. I don’t like being so shy or to feel trapped by my surroundings but sometimes that’s how I feel.

Which leads me to pick Honesty as a Resolution for the New Year. Recently I’ve been in a cycle of agreeing with other people when I doubt the decisions they made were correct. Then behind close doors I would regret the decision, wasting time going over what happen in my head until I’m either tired or lose interest. Plus I never say what I want to say at the right moment in person, ask what’s happening until the last minute or don’t ask questions for situations I have trouble to understand at time and then repeat the same cycle as above.

So for people who know me or know me a little bit, I’ve picked a good resolution. It’s just up to me to make this promise to myself happen. I’ve talked in previous status (now using twitter http://twitter.com/bs10064) about how certain people have made me felt invisible in a crowded room and it’s with Honesty will give me the confidence to ask ‘What’s the Problem?’ The fact that the person I come across as and the person I actually am can be two different people and you want the latter to be true.

But it’s being scared of being honest that will bother me the most, as I’m naturally a nice person. I use to speak my mind many years ago, be cruel to be kind when it was needed. Just that part of me got lost sometime ago and would like to find that part of me again. This next year it’s so important to stand up for what I want to happen and depending on which direction I take, so many things can go right and so many can go wrong. But whatever happens in 2009, being Honest is the best step to take.

I was Honest with admitting my feelings in a previous blog post, I just need to be Honest in person and God knows it’s hard for me, but it’s something that needs to be done.

10 Interesting Facts about Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I give you the gift of Knowledge

* The popular abbreviation 'Xmas' isn't merely popular because it's quicker to type on a mobile phone. 'X' is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ - Xristos - so the shortened spelling of Christmas has been around for hundreds of years.

* Christmas cards were introduced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. Before then it was tradition to write long, detailed letters to friends and family at Christmas, but Mr Cole couldn't be bothered with all that effort. He commissioned an artist to design some cards and filled them with a short greeting, saving us all a lot of writing each year.

* Baubles were probably invented thanks to alcohol. Around 200 years ago, Bohemian glass blowers used to enjoy a cold drink in their hot factories, and when tipsy would start competing to see who could blow the biggest glass bubbles. These then evolved into Christmas decorations.

* Christmas cards were introduced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. Before then it was tradition to write long, detailed letters to friends and family at Christmas, but Mr Cole couldn't be bothered with all that effort. He commissioned an artist to design some cards and filled them with a short greeting, saving us all a lot of writing each year.

* 'Silent Night' was first performed in Austria in 1818. Legend has it that the church organ in Oberndorf broke on Christmas Eve, leaving the priest - Joseph Mohr - with no music for his Christmas service. He handed the words to a poem he had written to a friend and asked that he write some guitar music to accompany it, and 'Silent Night' was born.

* Christmas trees have been popular in Germany since the 16th century but only made it over to Britain three hundred years later. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, originally came from Germany and made a tree part of the official celebrations at Windsor Castle.

* Christmas was banned across England in 1647, when Oliver Cromwell's puritans were in charge. Pro-Christmas riots broke out across the country but the holiday wasn't officially restored until King Charles II took over 13 years later.

* The first fairy lights are said to be have appeared in 1882, when Edward H. Johnson - a friend of inventor Thomas Edison - had 80 tiny lightbulbs made especially for his home Christmas tree. Before this, people would use candles and set fire to their tinsel all the time.

* Traditional Christmas meals in England used to involve pig's heads and mustard. But when Queen Elizabeth I heard the news of the destruction of the Spanish Armada on Christmas Eve 1588, she declared that everybody in England should eat the dish she had enjoyed earlier that day - roast goose. When turkeys were introduced to Britain in the 1700s, they became a popular replacement.

* Think your Christmas Eve is stressful? Spare a thought for poor old Santa. He has less than one millisecond to deliver his presents to each household in the world - and that's if he does a 30-hour working day, allowing for the various time zones. Naturally he makes a bit of time back by skipping all the people on the naughty list.

Source: Yahoo - http://uk.christmas.yahoo.com

Why blogs are easy and logs are tough

There are different types of writing and when you take the ‘B’ from the latter of these two it does mess with your mind. You fall into bad habits by not setting aside time each week to get something wrote down but like always you fit everything in within a few nights without much sleep to get the work finish in time.

So you ask what is the experience of going a few nights without much sleep like? Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who couldn’t cope with it. You are focusing on the computer screen typing down the words, trying to make sure everything makes perfect sense and hope for the best that your hard work pays off. Even know the whole point of putting in all-nighters is that you didn’t put in the hard work by just writing everything down on the day it happened.

Writing down what you’re thinking in a blog is so easy for me. It’s a way of getting out the words you find so difficult to speak in person, with the feeling of regret you are only writing it down and never allowed yourself the chance to speak it in person. You could say your blog is like a safety net. That whatever may happen, whatever words maybe spoken, you will never be hurt by the outside world.

But then where’s the fun of living a life where there’s no trouble. You need to be a little bit hurt, whether it’s physically or mentally to know life is worth living. Got one more lifeline to make sure I can be perfect with my log writing in the new year as my blog writing is already there which I’m happy about.

It's My Turn to be Brave

I’m writing this about someone special to me I met three years ago, who I know will never read this or even realise I’ve wrote this to her. But it’s come to a point that I’ll never get the chance to say the goodbye I’ve always wanted to make and if I don’t I’ll never really move on.

When I first met you I was a lost soul
I wasn’t sure of my future, didn’t know where to go.
When our eyes met for the first time, I was home.
Those feelings of mine aren’t easy to control.

I felt so happy for the first time in so many years.
I thought those feelings died and just disappear.
To know you felt the same way about me fill me with joy
It’s these moments that I’ll never destroy.

Your smile, your laugh, the way you talk still fills my mind.
When I hear you singing, words can’t describe.
You must be an angel and your kindness I’ll treasure.
And these memories will live in me forever.

Our time together was too short, just far too short.
Not enough to last a lifetime got noting to report.
I wanted a happy future or a chance at tomorrow.
I hold on to tomorrow, till it led me to sorrow

It upset me a lot to realise our time was almost up.
I gave you a present, in your presence, when our times stop.
Then a loving moment, that lasted forever, I believe.
When we left I knew you were truly happy.

I’m reminded of you in the many faces I meet.
I thought it was you, than just a stranger passing on a street.
I will never forget you for as long as I live.
Please don’t forget about me, though I think you did.

My life was on a crossroads then and it’s on a crossroads now.
As a friend I’m there for you, those feelings I’ll allow.
This is my goodbye, here is my life, I can’t be afraid.
At long last this is my turn to be brave.