Ten less common New Year's resolutions

Some wise, some unique and some just weird.

In a few days' time many people will be starting the new year by making New Year's resolutions with popular choices being to give up smoking, lose weight or to travel more and see new places. However, if you're thinking of making a less common resolution this year and looking for ideas, then here are a few non-conventional and less obvious New Year's resolutions I found dotted around the internet...

"I will never turn up drunk at court again. Hic!"

1) I will assure my lawyer that I will never turn up drunk at court ever again.

Hmm, yes.  That's probably a wise resolution to make.

2) I will take time to appreciate what I have achieved.

This is a resolution I think I might make as well. Obviously I've never climbed Everest or swam the channel or stuff like that, so I'm keeping things in perpective, but sometimes I set myself goals and then move straight on to the next thing without taking a few moments to allow myself a smile at having finished the thing I set out to do. So this year I'm going to allow myself a few more self-indulgent smiley moments.

3) I will lose weight by buying a more accurate set of scales.

Yes, blame the scales.

A worldwide Christmas message from Charles Fudgemuffin

A seasonal video message from Charles Fudgemuffin to blog readers all around the world.

Charles Fudgemuffin wearing his Christmas hat.

One of the cool things about having a blog is that you get to see all manner of statistics regarding your blog views. This allows you to quickly analyse your most popular posts, but it also provides other interesting insights such as where in the world your page views are coming from.

In line with my books sales, most of my blog hits tend to come from the United States and the United Kingdom, but there have been people viewing my blog from all around the world and even a few views from far flung places like Mongolia.

So for this year's Christmas message I thought I would make an extra effort and include an additional Christmas message especially for any Mongolian blog readers...

Christmas 'higher or lower' quiz

A Christmas themed quiz featuring festively inspired subjects such as kebabs, fireworks and council parking fees.

It's only a few days until Christmas, so to help get in the festive mood I've prepared a short Christmas themed quiz made up of 'higher or lower' conundrums. For each 'higher or lower' question I've listed two or more choices, so see if you can guess which option is the biggest, best, highest or heaviest. You can find the answers at the bottom of the page.

1) Weight gain due to excess eating and drinking over Christmas.

A kebab, pictured yesterday.

First up is a higher or lower conundrum I would guess that most people can identify with. A lot of people (not myself obviously but some people), may find that over-indulgence over the Christmas period leaves them carrying a few extra pounds once the New Year arrives.

But what weighs the most; the average weight gain each person puts on over the Christmas period, or two kebabs?

1) What weighs the most?

A) Average weight each person puts on over the Christmas period.
B) Weight of two kebabs.

Book reviews (part 4)

It's been a while since I last featured any book reviews on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, so here are a few more opinions on books and short stories that I've recently been reading.

The 2½ Pillars Of Wisdom by Alexander McCall Smith - 4.7 / 5.0

The 2½ Pillars Of Wisdom collects three novellas which describe the adventures of three very tall professors at Regensburg University, primarily focusing on the pompously amusing Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. Each novella is itself a collection of short stories and although I enjoyed all three novellas, it was the second volume, The Finer Points Of Sausage Dogs, which was definitely my favourite. I read this section of the book on the beach while on holiday and at times I was laughing away to myself so much that anyone else nearby on the beach must have thought I was a bit strange.

I'm a big fan of the 'No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency' books so overall I was delighted to discover that once again Alexander McCall Smith has created some excellent characters who are involved in some charming and memorable stories.

The karma police are on the lookout...

...for the sly person who left the following note.

iPhone 4 Version (640x960)

A few months ago a Swedish friend on facebook posted a photo of a note left under someone's windscreen wiper on their car. The note read:

"Hej,

Jag stötte bilen och någon såg mig, så nu är jag låtsas att skriva mina kontaktuppgifter på denna not.

Tack,

Hej då."

For the benefit of anyone who doesn't speak Swedish, the note reads:

"Hi,

I bumped your car and someone saw me, so now I'm pretending to write my contact details on this note.

Thanks,

Bye."

Ha, ha, ha. Very amusing. Actually, I hope it was a joke because if it was real it wouldn't be quite so amusing for the person whose car it was, obviously.

Anyway, I thought it deserved to be translated into English so for the benefit of any non-Swedish speakers I've created an English recreation of the original Swedish note as an iPhone wallpaper. The wallpaper at the top right of this blog post is the iPhone 4 version in 640x960 resolution, and for the benefit of any cutting edge people who have upgraded to the iPhone 5, here's one in 640x1136 resolution: