What's Up With Wojo This Coming Year?

I think the photo above is a great illustration of where I'm finding myself. I'm happy, but a bit worried... I'm at my desk, looking up -- am I looking for something? Maybe... Am I anxiously observing the massive amount of mathematical work looming over me? Definitely... I have a few expectations of myself and of the year to come, and I hope to document them here.

So what's up with me?

Obviously, School

Four major courses, case studies, exams, and weekly assignments. Yes, this is my life, and what a workload! I vacillate between being completely happy with the challenges and problems being presented, while also worrying that things will only get harder from here. Nonetheless, this is the main thing I'll be doing. Seriously, what did you expect?

Politics

I'm hoping to get more involved in Canadian politics. I think I've done a lot of the international political stuff through Five Minutes to Midnight (FMM) and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and there's a few ideas brewing now with regards to Canadian public policy and politics. Okay, there's actually something amazingly cool in the works, but I'm keeping it confidential until it's released. Just wait a few weeks!

I'm going to place FMM in this category as well, though it has a much broader mandate than Canadian public policy. There's a few projects we're working on, and while it's hard to balance my broader life with FMM, I'm happy to continue doing so.

Research and Business

The research projects I've been working on are still moving forward, though much more slowly. So's the business idea and prototype I've been building. In fact, I use the prototype a few times a week to quickly and easily catch up with the blogosphere that I so miss now that I'm not at IBM. There, you now have a hint at what I'm doing!

Breaking Down My Comfort Zone

I try to do this regularly, but more so this year than ever before... This will include more social events and formals, more adventures, travel, running, hiking, etc. It's a vague category, but a very important one. And it totally relates with the ones above.

So what do I think of this coming year? Well, I wrote the above in a Starbucks and then went for dinner, planning to post this when I returned home. At dinner I got a fortune cookie, with a wonderful message. The photo is below (click for a larger version):

... I think that says it all.