Like a brick of question marks

I am a terribly lazy person. In 1999-2000 I was nearly failing out of high school, and in 2005-2007 I was nearly failing out of university. I am now in the punitive phase of reaping what I've sown: I have an unstimulating job with few prospects for anything better. I am intellectually restless and unsatisfied with my place in life. To help turn these unhappy sentiments around, I want to remind myself how gratifying it is to give to a worthwhile project its due diligence. I thought a week ago that I ought to give myself an arbitrary challenge, one that may encourage a healthy habit.

My project?

To read every issue of The Economist in its entirety for a year.

It's not that big a deal to read The Economist, plenty of people read the whole thing every week as routine. In my case, I approach The Economist with little of the requisite vocabulary and academic background needed to fully understand it. I've been a casual reader of the 'newspaper' (though it's more like a newsmagazine, no?) for a couple of months, mostly sticking to its sections on international politics. I find the financial and policy coverage to be a little confusing, and plenty of this project will be dedicated to trying to learn unfamiliar terms and concepts. My reference will likely be Wikipedia (c'mon, it's easier). Hopefully I'll work through the unpleasantness of being in above my head.

I have few expectations of what I'll write here, but it will be helpful to have a venue to write with the aim of getting clear on fuzzy concepts. It's gonna be a bumpy ride, and I can't promise that this blog will be all that interesting. I invite my readers to correct inaccuracies or argue with me about anything at all.