WHAT IS YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION?

2008 is knocking on the door. Which means that aside from making New Year's Eve plans, you must start thinking about next year's changes -- especially in your professional life. Instead of settling for the status quo, take a proactive approach to the New Year and give yourself a kick in the pants by setting up some professional resolutions.

Here are some ways to ring in 2008 in true professional style.
Join a professional organization
Are you lacking industry contacts? Taking on some volunteer duties outside of work can earn you some new friends in the right places and serve as a good use of your time. Study your industry and hook up with a professional organization that has the existing credibility and contacts to benefit you. Not only will your extracurricular participation help your industry grow, but it will give you increased access to inside tips and job postings.

If you need some tips on where to go, look at the leaders in your industry and find out which organizations they spend time with. Many high-ranking corporate officials work at the top of professional organizations also. Depending on your sector, there are usually a variety of groups to choose from, like The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Public Relations Society of America and the Society for Technical Communication.
Cut work out of your personal life
Your work might be important, but so is your personal time. That's why you need an adequate amount of "me time" every day. Kick-start this 2008 professional resolution by practicing smart professional habits and planning your workweek in advance. Make it a goal to cut down overtime hours so you won't burn out by taking on too many tasks.

Your home needs you, especially if you have other people who value your time. So cut work out further by not using your laptop or home computer for work and finding daily activities to do in your leisure time, preferably outside. Reading, working out and sports are all relaxing things to do. Give yourself something different to look forward to at the end of every workday. In the long run, your quality of work and your business relationships will improve from increased personal time.
Respond to clients promptly
Business is built on impatience. People want things done well and done now. If you can't do that, they'll find someone else who can. If you're contracting or acting as a first point of contact for clients, your 2008 professional resolution should be to keep in touch.

Besides delivering a high quality of work, it's important not to leave anyone hanging. Work always has to be prioritized, but it should also be consistently completed. Keep up to speed on the progress and expected delivery for any active client projects. This way, when called upon, you can offer a quick and accurate answer at a moment's notice. You can also stick to a simple rule like e-mailing or calling them back within two hours of initial contact. Not only does this keep clients happy, it also builds loyalty and keeps you organized.

Network online
You may not be looking to leave your job or put your career on the fast-track just yet, but you should still be aware of what other opportunities are out there. If you can't dedicate a lot of time to network in person, make your 2008 professional resolution to find the time to do it online.

One of the most rewarding places to network is through LinkedIn.com. With a member profile, you can join in on industry chatter and make new contacts through your friends. Because you're gaining industry exposure and meeting others through people you already know, trust has already been established and you might eventually reap the rewards. Alternately, you can use sites like Monster.com to stay in the loop for job postings or use a more social-friendly site like Facebook.com to make contacts. The key is to get networked if you aren't already.
Attend industry events
An important 2008 professional resolution is: Don't be a stranger within your industry. People need to know who you are and what you're doing. Sure, they might absorb a few quotes from a press release or see your name in an industry magazine, but your peers need to see you in the flesh.

Check out your industry and see what's going on. Make a point of going to at least one industry event per month -- whether it's a dinner banquet, an afternoon golf event or a weekend seminar. If you don't have time to network through volunteering at an organization, you owe it to yourself to do it through your job. It's also a great way to plug your company. If you like what you see, make it a goal to organize your own industry event by 2009.
Let others know they're appreciated
You want to be recognized for your work and so does everyone else. If you do your part, so will they. If they don't, it's their loss, and you'll still come out looking respectable. A small appreciation here and there around the office will win you more friends and give you a solid reputation… or make your great rep even better.

'Tis the season for cards, so you can start with holiday cards for your coworkers and for your valued clients. As your 2008 professional resolution, make it part of your routine to send thank-you notes, e-mails or make calls to business clients and coworkers when the occasion calls for them. Sincerity counts for a lot in business. You can also take charge of your professional chatter by spreading positive encouragement and compliments to your coworkers instead of getting caught up in gossip. Letting people know you value their work lets them know you value them and it keeps your relationship and the office as a whole that much stronger and energetic.
Pursue a professional project
If your job is getting stagnant, make it your 2008 professional resolution to give yourself some new work. Not extra work, just new work. Think about a project that you've wanted to work on, but haven't had a moment to properly outline and discuss with the boss. Maybe there's an anniversary press kit that you'd like to design or a website addition that could attract new business. Either way, it's something worthwhile for everyone involved.

Make sure you run it by the boss first so it can be properly mandated, but also let it be known that you'd like to work on it independently. It shows assertiveness and initiative on your part to be the leader instead of following one. If you can deliver on your promises, you'll be rewarded by your superiors and proud of yourself for pulling it off.
making changes
Don't let 2008 be a year of coasting. Instead, map out your professional goals and balance them alongside your personal ambitions for the New Year. Not only will you watch as new achievements come your way, but you'll be enjoying every step of the journey.

I AM LEGEND

Plot
It’s been three years since a killer virus struck Manhattan. Those who aren’t dead have mutated into vampire-like beasts. All except Robert Neville (Smith), a military scientist desperately looking for a cure.

Review

In the novel on which this moody blockbuster is based, Richard Matheson offered a neat sci-fi twist on the vampire mythos, imagining a world-destroying spore which would turn everyday folk into blood-lusting creatures of midnight. Yet, despite retaining the tweaked-vamp threat, Akiva Goldsman and Mark ‘Poseidon’ Protosevich’s script, as realised by MTV alumnus Francis Lawrence, better resembles a werewolf or Dr. Jekyll. By day, it’s a limber, thoughtful and supremely effective drama. By night, it’s a drooling, lurching, crushingly stupid and clumsily executed VFX disaster.

Sunrise. Smartly employing the sharp eye of Lord Of The Rings lenser Andrew Lesnie, Lawrence presents to us a New York free of all human presence. Shoulder-height grass wafts lazily in Times Square, disturbed only by the occasional herd of deer. Skyscrapers still shout of the glories of mankind’s achievements, but with no-one to hear them they serve only to cast long shadows.

In one sense it’s terrifying -the Mary Celeste as an entire conurbation. Yet it’s also oddly beautiful - a city where nature has regained her hold and the tiniest animal sounds are no longer smothered by the deafening cough of engines.

When we’re introduced to this landscape’s only human inhabitant - one Robert Neville (Will Smith), who is conveniently both highly militarily trained and a brilliant virologist - he’s seemingly enjoying his desolate environment, redlining a sports car through town, his faithful canine companion Sam (best animal performance of the decade, say us) gazing happily out of the passenger window. It’s a great opening sequence, especially when it transpires that Neville’s actually on the hunt, rifle in lap, seeking some venison to supplement his tinned provisions.

For a big studio genre film, I Am Legend goes a surprisingly long way to explore psychology, and Smith fearlessly dives headfirst into the mind of an individual who’s had no human contact for almost 40 months.

The little details ring true, such as when Neville chides his dog for not eating her vegetables - he’s anthropomorphised her so completely that he’s forgotten she’s a carnivore. Ignore the predictably dodgy science and plot-fissures, and you have a tentpole picture that doesn’t, for once, insult its audience’s intelligence. Until…

Sunset. Before we sink our teeth in, let’s make one thing clear: having cut his incisors on infernal comic-book adaptation Constantine, Lawrence knows how to crank tension and apply a shock. So, in its earlier moments, I Am Legend plays on our primal fear of the dark like a maestro. But when it comes to the blood-lapping “dark seekers”, Lawrence’s inadequacies come crashing through. A more experienced director would likely have taken a more clever, less profligate approach to this movie’s monsters. As would a filmmaker who was - like Danny Boyle, helming the superior 28 Days Later - forced to operate on a considerably more limited budget.



After all, what are the dark seekers? Skinny, pale, hairless people with a supernaturally advanced metabolism. So why on Earth did Lawrence choose to make them pure-CG conjurations? And what dismally dire CG it is, too. Lawrence’s ‘vampires’ are cartoonish phantoms, evaporators of fear who mercilessly inhale all the atmosphere so ingeniously woven during the daylight hours. Going full CG was the worst artistic decision Lawrence could have made - short of having the populace of New York suddenly jump out from behind the Empire State and shout “April foo-ool!” at Neville before cutting to the credits.

Verdict
While the sun shines, it’s a four-star thriller with a superb turn from Smith. When the moon rises, it’s a two-star horror cartoon with some of the worst FX we’ve seen all year. So, really, it has to average out at…


Reviewer: Dan Jolin