As we make our great escape

Listening to: DJ Earworm, "United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop)." We celebrated New Year's Eve at U31, with alcohol, dancing, and ear busting party horns. Ameer received a Flip Mino for Xmas and George learned how to edit using her new Macbook Pro, which resulted in a fun little NYE video. George chose this song as the video's soundtrack and now it's stuck in my head. It's a mashup of every single hit from Billboard's year end Top 25 list. The full track listing is here.

I've been meaning to throw up some sort of post about the end of the year/decade but I've been waylaid by two weeks of everyone coming home and extensive hanging out. There's been a lot of family dinners, late night Mexican food runs, and a flurry of catching up with friends old and new. All that has torn me away from any useful computer time and my task list for the beginning of 2010 is running quite long. I need to do so many top ten lists but since the year is already over, I feel like I missed my chance. I guess the general consensus is that 2009 was sort of a down year and despite having some very exciting successes, I sort of feel like, "Thank goodness it's over and what's coming around the corner?"

At the beginning of last year I attempted to do some resolutions and was all gung-ho about it before everything collapsed and I finished with like four out of fifteen things checked off. This time around I'm tossing out the resolutions and just hoping to do things in an orderly fashion. I've got some important projects lined up and all it'll take is some discipline to knock them out, or so I tell myself.

One thing I did get a chance to do over the holidays was start a rough draft of an essay chronicling the last decade, which roughly coincided with my twenties and me (theoretically) becoming a full fledged adult. That last part is a perpetual work in progress of course but in trying to put together three hundred or so words about each year pair, I did find some nice areas of growth -- as well as highlighted multiple areas of stagnation. So the plan for the next year is to just use the time I have in January to tie up some loose ends, start things I said I would start, and to revisit any calcified habits or opinions I might have. It is, after all, a fresh new decade.

Oh and if there's one thing anyone should, and can, accomplish at the start of a year, it's to change your passwords. This is a public service announcement: Redo your password matrix/system and fix it now before you get stuff hacked or stolen. Safety first people. Safety first!