It seems silly to announce something like this but I am now on the Google Plus bandwagon. I resisted for some time because I wanted to join when I was fit and able to do so. (There was also a minor issue that my e-mail account is also a Google Apps account and we were not able to use Google Plus until the last week but such details need not be discussed.) 

Yah.

Google Plus.

Are you on this thing? Guess what, I am.

Not much can be said about a social networking platform. I think I have an account on a majority of the "main stream" ones and a few where I don't even speak the language but they all do the same thing. They connect people in a virtual sense with those who they may not see down at the local pub. There is much study that has been done and much that is still ongoing about virtual friendships and if they are of the same calibre as those people you see on a regular basis - but, really, does it matter? I prefer the people in person but I never have enough time to nurture those friendships.

Too much going on. Too much needing my attention. Life and socialization is such a double edged sword. I suppose that is where these virtual fillers come into play. I wonder what the world would look like if we didn't have to sleep and eat.

Regardless of the answer, if you would like to add me to your circles and pluses, check me out over here. I think I am going to go out now.

This past year has been great.  The year of 2009 was filled with ups and downs and all kinds of twists and turns.  But now, we are down to it.  The final hours are ticking away and, when we all wake up tomorrow morning, it will be 2010.  Are you excited? 

For us Vancouverites, it will be a bittersweet opening few months with the stress and jubulation that surrounds any city hosting the Olympics.  We love it and hate it all at the same time.  It is like the holidays.  When you first start shopping, all you can think of is the smiling faces of your family and friends.  The perfect gift will be opened and, without warning, their face will light up with joy.  They will (practically in slow motion) wrap their arms around you and plop a loving kiss on your cheek and whisper loving things in your ear.  Of course, reality will strike with a lightning bolt borrowed from Zeus. Imagine, for a moment, sitting down at your kitchen table, a fresh coffee steaming in the light of a January morning, and you open yor credit card bill.  All of the loving thoughts you've been harbouring for months will disappear into the morning air and you will wonder how in the Hell did you manage to spend so much money! 

That is what New Years Eve and Day are all about.  Two final days that we can use to live out a few additional fantasies.  We allow ourselves to forget that, within a few days time, we will be back to whatever activities dominate our "normal" lives.  We will be enjoying the sound of the office again or the classrooms of some foreign university or finding the perfect pitch in a remote recording studio.  Let's make this last bit of our 2009 something to remember.  What are your plans for this eve of the New Year?  I remember the last few have been quite tame in their execution.  Last year was hanging out and drinking heavily at a friend's place.  The transfer into 2008 was something I don't remember.  It must have been uber-tame. 

For 2009, this year is strange since we decided to fly on the cheapest days of the holiday season: Christmas Day and New Years Eve.  Christmas Day wasn't too bad since we arrived earlier in the evening and with plenty of time for gift openings on both ends but this New Years is going to be a little problematic.  We arrive after seven in the evening and, with the weather being what it is in the mountains and in Saskatchewan, we will most likely end up being late.  I hope not.  I believe my family isn't picking us up.  They are heading to their New Years events and dropping our car at the airport before we arrive.

And, yes, I think we all need to get together and view the movies 2001 and 2010 to see how much those fictional worlds are like our reality.  Didn't someone have a dolphin for a pet?  Where is my dolphin?  Happy New Year, everyone!