Now, starting a new year. A chance to put all those mistakes I made last year in my rearview mirror and start anew.

I have plenty of priorities for the new year. I need to pay my father back for the money he lent me to fix my car. It was probably my fault that the car would not work. Apparently you have to have some oil in the car. I thought the oil light on my car was hung up, but apparently it was accurate.

So I now have a different engine running the car. I had found that the old engine was causing the car to be covered with a black, powderish substance. I wiped some off last week when I was filling up with gas. I suddenly had a clean back windshield. I also had a dirty sleeve of the jacket I got for Christmas.

So now I need to wash my car. The weather has not led to really being able to wash the car for the past two weeks, so once it gets warmer I need to wash the car, since the oil-filled mist that used to come from the engine is no longer being produced.

I also need to clean my jacket. But that’s another problem.

I also need to put in the effort to write more for this paper. When you’re hired for 20 hours a week, the natural inclination is to see how little you can do for your paycheck. But that’s not the way I’ve always worked. I need to write as much as possible, because that is what I enjoy doing. When I worked for the other guys, I would happily work 70 or 80 hours a week, though I was only paid for 40. It meant more to me to do my job well than to somehow get rich.

That’s what I need to do here. I promise to get another source of income soon, but until I do, there’s no reason I should give less than 100 percent to this job. I believe in this paper. My attitude needs to reflect that.

My other goal for this year is to lose weight. My doctor has told me that if I lost weight I probably would not need blood pressure medicine any more. Sound like good motivation to me. It’s still too cold outside for me to make any definite plans on how to lose the weight. I could eat sensibly, but what fun is that?

I need to find some exercise that I can enjoy enough to become obsessed with. We will work on that come warmer weather.

I also need to start working on my first novel. I like calling myself a writer, but technically until I publish a novel, I really don’t deserve the name. I’ve read my share of novels over the past year, and I have a few ideas. But ideas don’t pay unless I can put them down on paper.

I have several other goals for 2015, but I won’t list them here. Lets get started on these and work from there.