Happy New Year!!

Yes, I know that the new year doesn't technically start until Sunday, but the beginning of a new year is just that--a technicality, and as far as I can tell an arbitrary one at that. So I have decided to start my new year sooner rather than later. The great holiday rush and excitement is all behind me, so I might as well get started.

As I was writing the 2005 edition of the Hermit Chronicles (aka my Christmas letter), I realized how little I had actually gotten done in the past twelve months, so I have decided that in the next twelve months I am actually going to get things done. I am going to put more effort into reading and writing and organization, make progress on the numerous projects I keep thinking about and planning but never seem to get around to executing, get some exercise and decide whether or not eating healthier is really going to be worth my while.

I'm thinking that I will start the year off with a bang and spend January writing a novel. Fifty thousand words in thirty days. Okay, thirty-one days. The official National Novel Writing Month is November, so it's fifty thousand words in thirty days, but according to the book that the organizers have produced, No Plot? No Problem!, you can do it any month of the year. The focus is on quantity rather than quality. Mind you, it doesn't have to be bad, but it's perfectly acceptable if it is.

It might be fun. It might work. It might not. The only way to find out is to try. If nothing else, it should get me going on writing right at the beginning of the year. Then in February I can tackle other projects such as reading and organization.

caveat emptor

I work retail, mostly because it's a relatively stess free occupation, believe it or not, mostly because I choose not to be a manager. The fact that I work in the store of a well-established brand probably contributes to the low stress level. People who don't like the brand don't shop in the store. The return policy is also exceptionally customer friendly. Besides, I'm selling clothing. This is not life and death stuff, although there is the occasional customer who makes enough of a fuss that you might think so.

I'm all for the underdog and the little guy. One of my life's aspirations is the overthrow of Corporate America, after all. Somewhere along the line, however, I think that customers went from being savvy to being scam artists. They think that they are *entitled* to the best price at any time from any place.

If one store charges less, they will demand that the higher priced store refund the difference. If you want the lower price, shop at the store with the lower price!! Price adjustments are to be made at the customer's convenience rather than according to store policy.

The store is always the bad guy out the soak the consumer for all he is worth. And yet one might consider that original prices might not be so high if companies didn't have to account for all of the consumers who abuse the system.

Just a thought from the retailer point of view two days before Christmas.

Holiday Bi-Polarity

It shows my great ignorance of psychology and/or psychiatry that I couldn't decide whether my heading should be Holiday Bi-Polarity or Holiday Schizophrenia. I decided that I would offend fewer people with bi-polarity, not that there is anyone out there reading, and I have thought more than once that I probably qualify as bi-polar even under normal circumstances, nevermind during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

I keep going from being excited about Christmas to just wanting to be teleported to about the middle of January. Work will be less hectic. (I could maybe even take a few days off.) The hermitage will be empty of visitors. And maybe, just maybe, I could settle in for a long winter's nap.

One step at a time. Left foot, right foot. Breathe in. Breathe out. And all that.

Drilling for Peace

I try not to be surprised by government activities, but the attachment of a provision allowing oil drilling in the Arctic reserve to a bill about funding the Pentagon and the war against terror(ism) and for peace and democracy in Iraq shocked me. I guess I still had a little faith left in our elected representation.

Apparently not everyone in the esteemed House of Representatives was exhausted after an end of term all nighter and decided that the easiest was to pass unpassable legislation was to attach it to a huge bill that essentially *must* be passed.

Afraid might be a better word than shocked. I know that this is how legislation gets passed. Completely unrelated issues--or what *should* be completely unrelated issues--get lumped together in a single bill, and people end up voting in favor of things they don't want so that they get what they *do* want. It's an ugly form of compromise in which the real winners are probably the special interest groups handing out the money.

Maybe it's not all bad. Maybe the revenue gained from Alaskan oil drilling can be used to fund the education, health care and other social welfare budget cuts. The Exxon Valdez Memorial High School has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Cruel, Inhuman & Degrading

What does it say about the government of the United States that Congress actually has to pass legislation--apparently over the objection of the White House--dictating that human beings be treated, well, like human beings?

Just as the previous president had a history of not being able to keep his hands (and apparently other things) to himself long before he reached the White House, the current president has a history of acting as if the rules apply only to others and not to him, so why are people surprised by some of his behavior?