When I started thinking about it, I had no clue of what kind of New Year resolutions to create this year. Or how to make sure I don’t break them.

There’s always so many things I need to do, and a year is such little time to make so many dreams come true in. I managed to finish last year’s resolutions because I kept everything realistic, even though I dreamt a lot when I made them. It must sound a bit silly, but instead of in a blur in the beginning of January and then start trying to solve them right away, I usually make them proper and realistic as the year goes on. They start out as dreams for the new year, and then I shape them into something do-able. Y’know, and then I make myself a list of all the smaller pieces and parts I need to do to get the big dream come true.

50 small dreams are easier to fulfil than one huge. And now, after thinking of it for quite a few hours, I think the two large goals for me this year will be to start the beginning of a great portfolio for modelling, and to get enough photography experience to master using a strobe properly. Next year I’ll hopefully be good enough at distributing my time enough to decide joining the Flickr 365 Days challenge. The mini-goals are many, many, but like I said – I’ll make that up as I go along.

I need to loose some weight too, or actually I don’t – but I want to be a perfect XS again and not just a half size in between XS and S. Probably won’t though, unless it happens by it self. I’m really not a big fan of dieting.

Happy Brilliant New Year, darlings! It will be. Feel like sharing your own New Year Resolutions?

Once upon a time, about three months ago while packing up to move to Shanghai, I realized I had too much stuff.

Being materialistic to an incredible degree, it was a quite new kind of day for me. It’s one of the things I thought I’d never admit, not even to myself. While trying desperately to stuff my entire 19 years of life into a 20 kilo suitcase, the amount of luggage you can bring onto an air plane without high extra fees, I finally understood what my dad has been trying too tell me for as long as I can remember: “You simply own WAY too much!”

I realized I the same thing once more after happily trying to forget it for two months, when moving from one room to another in the apartment I share. It took me over a day just to move my things, which I though I had full control over, from a room I hadn’t been staying in for more than a few months. I had already acquired more stuff than I could handle.

I had exactly the same problem even when going home from Shanghai for Christmas a few weeks after moving rooms, as I had when I left Norway. There was just too much things to bring. And I weren’t even planning on bringing much. I made a list of things I felt I absolutely couldn’t leave behind, and suddenly it was three A4 pages long! When I left, I “only” brought with me 13 kilos, after heavily slimming down what I thought I needed.

I just love my things, my books, clothes, shoes, CDs, make-up, dictionaries, art pieces, hair products, camera equipment and not to mention all my jewellery and junk. I’m the kind of person who brings 24 kilos, 4 kilos overweight, when just going on a two week holiday where you technically shouldn’t be needing more than 5.

It’s like what Carrie Bradshaw exclaims in the Sex and the City series: “I like my money right when I can see it – hanging in my closet.” Except I don’t mind it laying around the house either.

However, when I get back to Norway again in May, a lot of those things are going away on Ebay.

My rant from yesterday about insecurity’s got me searching for whole lot of topics today. And getting myself a google reader, just for fun.

• Is Batman a sociopath? An article a bit out of the ordinary.

• Stuff-onomics: Hidden Side of What You Own. Reminded me quite a bit of exactly how much stuff I’ve got. I need to throw away or sell things, but I’ll probably postpone it until I get back from Shanghai.

• Wardrobe Taming – Day-1. Day-2, Day-3, Day-4, Day-5, Day-6, Day-7, Day-8. By the fabulous Gala Darling. I’m re-reading these since I want to get rid of quite a lot of stuff, and it helped a lot last time (a year back). Whoever said wardrobe cleaning was easy?

I’ve always been the one to have 20+ tabs up in one Firefox window, despite being an active user of Read-It-Later. Articles, news, blogs, flickr, facebook, youtube videos, deviantArt, fashion livejournal groups, pages I stumbled – it’s almost too much to mention!

And so I decided to share some. Y’know. Maybe you like the same kinds of things as I currently do.

• The Zombie Preparedness Initiative! Just in case. ;)

• How Computer Addiction Works. I think I am.

• How Net Generation Students Work. It’s really interesting to see my own generation from another point of view.

• My generation’s got many names. “Generation Y”, ” the net generation” and not the mention “generation ego”. It’s my main topic of today, and I guess it’s true – we are really, really self-absorbed. But for some reasons, my brain tells me it’s not an all that bad thing. Some articles; “Boom! Goes the Ego“, “Gen Y’s ego trip takes a bad turn” and “The Internet Age Generation “You”: Raising the Ego?“.

“Generally, it is very rare that people accept new ideas,” Maccoby says. It takes a person with “strategic intelligence” to push a new idea successfully. Such a person must have foresight, the ability to partner with others, and the charisma to motivate an entire organization to succeed. This, Maccoby says, is “productive narcissism.” When a person with this combination of traits emerges – and arguably this will happen fairly often when you have an entire generation of young narcissists – great things can happen. ~ The New Me Generation

You want fries with that?

I’ve been feeling a little awkward lately, in ways that I can’t always describe as well as I’d like to.

It feels like that safe, secure ground beneath me is shaking and ripping and turning into something I don’t fully understand. Or maybe in some ways don’t want to. Everything I honestly thought I was is gone, with only pieces and tiny fragments left for me to use. Maybe I’m calmer, kinder, happier, dumber.. or just done with high school?

I can’t say I know anything about who I am any more, and so I’m getting more and more desperate to figure it out. Who am I? What am I? Where do I want to be? What do I want? -With my life? -To study? -To be? -To wear? What makes me happy?

I guess I’m back at the place I was when I was 16. Wiser, more confident and self secure, of course, but just as confused. So, same thing as last time. I’ll be reading articles like “The Art of Building Self-Esteem” and “The Art of Patience” (the names match!) for a longer period, I’m guessing. While watching Gossip Girl, along with all my usual werewolf/horror movies.

All right, I’m dead slow with updating.

The last few weeks have gone incredibly fast, and I have problems understanding that it’s already December. It feels like it’s still September, but also like I’ve been living for ages and ages in Shanghai. It’s only three weeks until Christmas, and I’m not done with all my gifts either – I’m planning on buying everything in Shanghai since Norway is far too expensive for me right now.

Which brings me to a second topic; I’m going home for Christmas, although only for about 2 weeks. I’m really looking forward to seeing my friends, family and cat again, but I’ll be missing the ones of my friends in Shanghai who’ll be going home for good only at the same time.

Also, I’m already getting a Christmas feeling. I’ve already loaded the special Christmas songs over on my mp3-player, and get hyper every time I see Christmas decorations.