Lectures began on Monday, and as I write this I have had at least one lecture on each of this semester's modules and received a copy of the module's study guide.

This means, now I know what the core textbooks are, that I've been buying books. I've accumulated a modest collection of books over the years, ranging from children's fiction to adult fiction to philosophy to technical self-study books. Some names from my bookshelves include Orwell, Nietzsche, Byron, Pratchett, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Dalai Lama.

Textbooks are always the most expensive to buy. Not because of the cost of producing them, but the premium put on the information in them. It can't help that there is an almost captive market for university textbooks: if your course requires certain books it's quite prudent to get hold of a copy of each (although sometimes you can get by without them).

The internet has done wonders for freely spreading information, but still, highly academic topics can be hard to find, and expensive when you do. The various academic journals are good examples of this, as they charge you to view their archives (I don't know how expensive journal subscriptions are, I've not had to pay one, but I can't imagine them being cheap).

I can't help but wonder, why is knowledge so expensive?

As for myself, I like owning books, perhaps it's something to do with reinforcing my self-image of being an intelligent person, but on a practical level I often refer back to technical books and enjoy rereading good books. That's why I prefer to buy my books, rather than borrow them from the library, although I've taken to using the second hand bookshop instead of buying new.

Finally, the book buying that prompted this post amounted to £160, with books ranging from £5 from the second hand bookshop to £60 from amazon.com and shipped to the UK (the shipping charge hurt, but I wanted it quickly so I could study from it)

Today was the first day of term.

I got up around 9 and phoned my landlord about the broken washing machine and the lack of gas/electric bills (we've been here for 4 months now and no sign of a bill, although there are lots of letters for him from British Gas - we think something is amiss) and he said he'd sort out the washing machine and come around later this evening to pick up the letters.

I then spent the rest of the day writing an essay titled "Describe one contingency theory of leadership and discuss how this theory can be applied by a university lecturer to lead the students’ learning process."

When I came home I separated my kitchen things from the pile in the kitchen sink and washed up.

The landlord never showed up... no surprise there. He's one of the least reliable people I've ever had to deal with, which is made all the more frustrating because he's also taking our money each month!

No.

That's the short answer.

The long answer goes something like this:

No, because I don't believe in making resolutions. I don't make resolutions because it's almost expected that you'll fail to keep them, which doesn't really help, but also because I don't believe there's a special time to set these kinds of goals.

The best time is now, not tomorrow, and as much as I hate the cliché, I hate people who always talk about doing something tomorrow (perhaps a bit of projection there).

Even if you can't start a new goal now, plan when you're going to start and how. Then the key part, and the hardest: actually do it. I struggle with this bit as much as the next person.

In 2009, there won't be a new me. There will be the same old me, trying to overcome the same old bad habits, and making progress one step at a time. Wish me luck