With the New Year near, my friend has reminded me of New Years resolutions. So I thought I would make it into a blog post. Now, I never really have done this before as I know most of the resolutions I will not keep – but here is what I would like to obtain, achieve and see in the New Year – 2010.

This past year (2009) has been a year of much enlightenment and I have seen what a friend is and what a fake friend is like. This is what guides me to the first resolution I have set out for the new year. In 2010, I want to make new friends who are caring and understanding and that will stand by me through both good and bad times. However, my view on friendship suggests that friendship is a two way road – for this reason, I believe that part of my responsibility as a friend is to return this care, kindness and understanding – I like to think I do this already – but I like many have failed to be consistent in providing this – I hope that over the next year I can improve in this area.

The second resolution is to continue my search for things I love in life. God has given each of us so much that we can see – but often we are too busy focusing on little unimportant things – that we neglect to see this. This can be a friend, lover or an opportunity. Below is a song which is special to me, it sums up my God and how I see him.

Lord of all creation
Of water, earth, and sky
The heavens are Your tabernacle
Glory to the Lord on High

God of wonders, beyond out galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares Your majesty
You are holy, holy

Lord of heaven and earth

Early in the morning
I will celebrate the light
And as I stumble through the darkness
I will call Your name by night

The third resolutions is to focus on the opportunities I have now. I am now working for a wonderful company and will be starting my studies in the new year. I am looking forward to this – it is going to be a challenge. It will be a balancing act which I will learn how to balance early in the year I hope. I will be studying Marketing and Organizational Physiology (2 majors) and hopefully will be able to walk away with a Bachelors Degree within four years.

In 2010, I will be trying to not over analyze things. This will assist in me being able to be more dynamic when interacting with people – rather than getting bogged down with unintentional small issues which my over analyzing mind has identified.

For the time being, these are my resolutions for 2010. I am sure I will adapt them as time passes and hopefully I will add a few more as the months fly past. As a part of this post, I wanted to add some quotes which have great meaning to me. They are not directly related to new years resolutions, but are important none the less.

“Without passion, you don’t have energy; without energy, you have nothing. Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.” – Donald Trump

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffet

This one, is one from a friend of mine. I am unsure if it is his – but I cant find that anyone else has said it – so Ill quote him. (Update: it is his own quote)

“As I ponder my existence. My sins are as numerous as sand on a beach. God, friends and family have forgiven me. When do I forgive myself?” – Davide Mancinelli

I wish all my friends and readers a blessed and prosperous new year.

God Bless,

Noel Harrison

Wow, so much for this whole last post thing. I could not help but post a few of my favorite pictures from 2009. Below are a few from my Facebook (basically the events I have been to and the photos I was tagged in). I have been lucky to not have those “oops, I should of not been on camera type” photos. So here I go;

Today @ Fire and Ice

Anyway, about an hour later we got home and I have not been so happy to be home in a long while

So this whole thing of my previous post being my last – it was a lie. I wanted to post this – it wont be too long, I promise.

So today my family and I headed out to this hotel restaurant in the Cape Town CBD called Fire and Ice and it was apart of the Protea Hotel Group. Basically, it is this huge restaurant which serves huge milkshakes – I had a cocoanut milk milk shake, my mother had this pumpkin and marshmallow one and my sister had some fancy chocolate mix. It was great.

Heading home, we went around the coast instead of the mountain pass – well this was the initial plan. Soon we found we were stuck behind what seemed to be a few hundred cars at least (I say thousands – but maybe a bit of a exaggeration). One benefit of this I guess is the view you got from the coast road. It was so hot in the car and the sun was attacking my arm anyway so now I guess one arm is red and the other is normal. No problem.

Anyway, about an hour later we got home and I have not been so happy to be home in a long while

Noel Harrison

Below are photos of myself and Lisa (my sister) at the restaurant in Cape Town.

I have just completed my final year at High School. It feels no different! Although this is a new era in my life – no more school (or rather high school mentality) which I am so looking forward to. I have started working a Umoya Network Solutions (www.umoya.net) with the software development division – Staffroom (www.mystaffroom.net) with Tim Keller (www.timk.co.za). This is really exciting for me and I am enjoying the development of an actively used system. It is a change working a full day, everyday – but I am really having a great time.

More to come

Noel