The Year 2008

The entire notion of making resolutions for the new year goes hand-in-hand with the idea of bettering yourself, something I don't need to do. I'm already pretty damn good and am mostly waiting for the rest of the world to wise up and catch up.

Still, there's a few things I'd like to do in the coming year, and a couple things I anticipate happening whether or not I want them to.

I'd like some resolution on selfishness and the environment. Many of the things that are good for me, personally, are worse for the world at large. I need to remember that whenever I'm confronted with one of those "if it saves just one person" arguments, which invariably result in more suffering for everyone involved. Sure, that hypothetical person may live, but she will do so in a world that's somehow reduced by being marginally more annoying or inconvenient.

I'm looking forward to the Olympics as I always do, but not all the people I expect to complain about it being in China. The right will trot out all sorts of things about communist countries and the environmentalists will complain about the air in Beijing. Somehow the games will go on, even the useless events with horses, the US will win an embarrassing number of medals, and idiots will consider that as evidence that we won the Olympics.

We'll have an election, too, with more rancor on each side than is healthy. People on both sides will never consider anyone or anything on the opposing side to have any merit and will continue to demonize and hate the opposition. This will let them feel better about themselves, though, so I guess it's rewarding, if sad.

I fully expect energy costs to rise and the dollar to fall, and I'm thinking the stock market will be pretty cold for the first half of the year. The war and current administration will continue to upset me, and global corporations will still receive my ire. It will be another bumper year for farmers, though, at least financially.

I won't make any noticeable progress on learning Morse code, but I won't think about it, either. I may or may not lose weight, but since I haven't weighed myself since sometime in 2005 I doubt I'll notice any change. I'd like to lose weight and shape up, sure, but I'm convinced it will take more than that, so progress is unlikely.

I know I ate at El Pollo Loco once last year, but it really wasn't my choice. I also bought far more things from publicly traded companies than I should have, so I'd like to reduce that. It's hard, though.

I need to become a better person, but I don't feel much like changing. I want results, but mostly effortless ones, so in that sense this year looks to be like all the others I've experienced.

I want to be loved and respected and desired just like everybody else, but I'm not those are resolutions. I need to change how I think and react, but I don't predict I will.