The time has come to declare what I hope to achieve in 2009. My goals are modest, but important:

Debt Elimination: I will pay off every debt I currently owe. This includes my car loan, my credit cards, and anything else I have outstanding. The one exception is my student loan debt from law school and grad school. As ambitious as I might be, I somehow doubt I'll be able to scrape together over $100,000 by 2010.

Weight Loss: I need to lose about 100 pounds total, but I'll settle for 50 in the next year. That will go a long way toward getting me back into a healthy lifestyle once and for all.

Publishing: I will write and submit for publication at least one article on a law library topic. I haven't written a thing since I left my tenure track job in mid-2007. If I really want to be a library director some day, I need to start publishing articles again, regardless of whether my current job actually requires it.

Hollywood Tom: I will start a movie blog & review website with a handful of friends. I've wanted to do this for several years but always found excuses to postpone it. No more. If someone wants to call me Hollywood Tom, I need to live up to the nickname.

Reading: I will read 26 books in 2009. In 2008 I set a goal of 52 books in 52 weeks. I'll likely end the year having actually read 16. I need to improve on that total, but I also need a more realistic goal. So I'm cutting it in half for this year. Oh, and I'm getting a public library card. This book buying addicition of mine is getting expensive.

I think that'll do for now.