My Resolutions for 2009

I wanted 2009 to be the year of happiness - happiness that doen't hurt others. I wanted happiness to be the leitmotif for the whole year. I decided to do some things I love to do. Numbers do figure because I heard somewhere that, resolutions should be measurable.
Visit atleast 6 places of interest, in and around Chennai

Though I failed to make it to the number, I visited a few interesting places: Kamakshiamman Temple at Mangadu, Parthasarathy Temple at Triplicane and Prathyankara Devi Temple at Sholinganallur. There are umpteen places to see around Chennai, which I plan to explore in the next year.

Cultivate one bad habit and get rid of it by the year end

This one seemed crazy on first thought. But it was difficult to identify one bad habit. I could not locate what bad meant. So I settled for one that I didn't love. By my standards, Tea, was the most appropriate one.

Change of project or Change of employer

One of the hardest of the ones listed. Change of employer happened without my influence. Someone acquired our company. I loved the irony - someone else completing my resolution.

Read as many books as possible - Minimum 15

It was a cake walk. I read 28 books and completed 26. More verbiage here: Books I read in 2009

Medical College Admission for my brother

Though it did not fall inside my circle of influence, I made this one intending to be helpful in getting the admission. It has not happened so far. He is giving all out efforts to get enrolled in one of the colleges.

Change my bike

I loved this one. The very thought of a new bike excited me. I bought a white-blue Yamaha FZ-S. I've rode 1300 kms so far and still counting.

Make one new friend

This was the hardest one. I'd prefer making things out of thin air. Yet, it happened naturally. I made a new friend and re-discovered an old one. Chaithanya and Suvetha. Chaithanya is more like a mirror and Suvetha is like a magnifying glass. These people will definitely feature exclusively in one of the posts next year. Hold your breath till then.

Blog atleast 5 posts

Just to keep doing what I started as a time-killing activity. Apart from the weddings and episodes from a love story, I guess others are worth reading.

Learn JMX, JSP/Servlets, atleast 3 frameworks, Websphere, NetBeans, Eclipse with TomCat Plugin

Some techie stuff. I learned Servlets, Spring and Design Patterns. This resolution is still not complete.

Complete Sun Certified Web Component Developer Certification

This one is in progress.

Wow. I just scored 7 out of 10. That means more battles won. Did I win the war? Where is happiness in these things. There is a sense of achievement, fun, completion, definitely. I felt totally depressed for a few months. I was content during the rest of the year. But, where is the happiness I wanted? Happiness is not something that happens when things unfold the way you expected. Happiness is something you don't realise when you're experiencing it. You'll realise that you experienced it when you've lost it. I'm still searching. What does that mean?