Archive for January, 2009
Quite a week for the world
For me, the day of real excitement and history with regard to Barack Obama becoming President of the United States was actually the day he became President-Elect: that was the point at which the country did something amazing and hope was kindled, in the words of Gandalf. I did however watch all of the inauguration last Tuesday, the bit of most interest to me being his inaugural speech. In general I was very impressed: the speech was blunt, honest and to the point, with some soars of most graceful rhetoric but also with clear guiding principles set out. It was on the level three of debate: it didn’t speak of creating x jobs or withdrawing y troops, but it set up ideals: Obama wants to restore America’s reputation (however little I may care about reputations he means restore a reputation of justice and fairness); cease to make compromises on liberty in the name of safety (for me this was the most important thing in the speech); and try to move away from the hold that superstition has over American politics by being more inclusive of more rational ways of thinking
Obama may have praised a regulated free market as a way to create prosperity and he may have called for patriotism to make the world better, but this is only the means by which he argues the goals that we in fact share should be achieved. While I may argue that only a socialist world can truly create peace and prosperity he disagrees, but still holds the same aims in mind. And the fact that he was happy, in his first speech when responsibility as well as expectation weighed upon his shoulders, to not shy away from what he had promised, to not equivocate and compromise unnecessarily makes me trust Mr Obama a great deal. Yes, in his heart of hearts he may be a no-good power-grabbing politician as they often are, but right now I am prepared to give him a chance, I’m prepared to believe that he may be out for the world. This world desperately needs a leader who can turn the tide of selfishness and greed and try to bring about a return to valuing liberty, and a move forward against poverty. Right now, Obama seems to me to be our best hope for that.
New Year’s Resolutions 2009
I’m not generally one to make any resolutions at the beginning of every year but whilst sitting at my desk this year I spontaneously decided to set a few in my beautiful notebook that I got as a prize in London and at that point had yet to use. So I now have a few things to try and do for the year ahead.
- Read for at least half an hour a day (school work excluded)
I want to read more than I do but I simply don’t prioritise it and then run out of time every evening and end up reading virtually nothing. So, on days when I can, I am to read every night in some regard. So far I’m generally doing this, with obvious exceptions for when I can’t, such as last night when I was out at the Oxford Union debating competition - Drink some milk and eat some fruit every day
I often forget to drink milk (though I like it) and my fruit intake is close to zero so I thought this might be a good idea - Keep a diary in [beautiful notebook]
This was another spontaneous decision. While I have this blog, there are daily details and moments that I would like to write down that really would be completely dull and routine to anyone reading this blog. While I must admit that the main reason I want to write it is that I love writing in my new purple-inked fountain pen that I got for Christmas, it’s a constructive thing to do. Moleskine notebooks are amazingly nice to work with - Don’t put off until tomorrow something that can be done today
A common phrase but one that I think rings true: if everyone did this, the world would run a lot more smoothly. I’m particularly prone to putting things aside and then not actually getting them done at all due to my poor memory, so I guess I’m trying to remember this more clearly this year - Don’t take on responsibilities I know I won’t fulfill
I have a tendency to get involved in far too much and find myself then unable to keep up with everything. I’ve hopefully learned from this and I aim to notice it when it happens and do something about it: delegate responsibility, recognise my mistake and pull away and prioritise - Don’t worry about taking a long time to do things
There’s no need to rush. It doesn’t matter that I’m slower than those around me. Just work at things at a reasonable pace - Write a blog post at least once a fortnight
I must admit, I’m really not convinced that this one is going to happen. My blog ceases to be interesting and continuous if I wait too long between posts though so I do intend to try and write here more often. Hopefully my third resolution will not detract from this - Improve my mental maths and learn my times tables by the end of the year
Like everyone else in my class, my mental maths is atrocious: we find ourselves doing sums like 24/8 on our calculators as a matter of routine (and far simpler ones than that). I’m slightly better on things such as surd manipulation because I don’t have a calculator that does this for me and I am very practised, therefore, at manipulating things about in my head. But when it comes to actual numbers I am slow and make many mistakes. So I am going to try not to resort to my calculator when I obviously don’t need to, to try and get out of bad habits. Learning my times tables, which I have never done, also seems sensible - Interrupt people less
I do this far too much. Let’s see if I can improve.
So there we have it, some targets for the year. Wish me luck!