With this being the last day of the year 2007, it is customary for me to set goals for the coming year. Like most that do such things it often seems hit and miss whether I will even remember my resolutions by the time March rolls around.

For the last 4 weeks I have been pondering exactly what I might want to (and can realistically) do for this self-imposed new beginning. I have asked myself several times why January 1st is any different than any other day. If something is important enough to focus on for the upcoming year, isn’t it important enough to begin NOW, rather than wait until January 1?

Honestly 3 or 4 “resolutions” have boiled to the surface, but I think this year will be different. Maybe, just maybe, I can achieve more if I don’t make any resolution to do so. Maybe, just maybe, if I do something different, I’ll get something different.

In this coming year I have decided I will focus on a theme, my signature to leave on the year 2008.

This is about the point in this post that I should tell you what my signature will be. I am figuring that if I have to tell you, the reader that my signature is written in invisible ink. Let the year speak for itself. You tell me in 366 days.

Some fifteen years after its release the Netscape browser will cease its evolution. AOL has announced that as of February 1, 2008 development of its 1999 acquisition will cease.

There were many in those early days of the Internet that would live and die by Netscape. Die hard fans that refused to give in to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Eventually most of us were won over by the appeal of a free browser. For the author of this article IE 3 was simply not good enough to warrant a thorough look.

But alas, by IE version 4 I had fully adopted the free browser from the evil empire. By the time that IE 5 was released Netscape was no longer an option for me and looked upon as a relic of days gone by.

Someday, in the not too distant future (aka my lifetime), the Internet as we currently know it will also go the way of Netscape. I can’t predict how it will be replaced but I do know that in the ever increasing quest for more connections to people and more information sharing between billions of people that the current infrastructure will appear as obsolete as the IBM 8086.

There are a lot of movies, some well done, some not, that address the concept of vengeance. Some of them are more in the style of the Godfather where evil is payment for evil. But then there’s this other class in which some harm was done to an innocent and repayment, outside the justice system, is made.

I just watched a movie and it falls into the later class. I won’t publish the name, so as not to spoil the movie for you. I will say that it is one of those in which the “hero” does the same as the “villain” in his quest to get even with those that did him wrong.

This is disturbing to me. One one hand I want to celebrate the victory over evil but on the other hand evil was perpetrated in order to conquer evil. Does that make it right?

This “rightness” is a pretty big concept. At what point is it okay to lower my standards and morality simply because my opponent did. And WOW, what if the business world thought it was not acceptable to stoop to the level of the competition just because you’re about to be put out of business. Doesn’t the good of my presence and purpose outweigh how I achieve my ends?

I’ve heard so much about sending jobs overseas “so we can stay in business as a viable entity” and help out the average guy. I’ve heard too much about taking more from the rich “to help the poor.” For some reason our media, which makes the evildoers into heroes because they have a just cause, wants to pummel us with that message over and over again.

In the not too distant past I attended a workshop sponsored by my employer that included a very interesting “game” to make a point. The workshop divided us into equal sized small groups for this game. It was a game of strategy and the rules were clear and simple. You could either play “nice guy” and all groups win equally or you could invoke a competitive attitude and “beat” the other groups. There was one cutthroat group (we’ll call them strategic) and they won – all within the rules. They did nothing that the other groups were not fully capable of doing themselves. Here is what I noticed. As the game went on for several rounds the “good guy” groups were bemoaning the greed of the strategic group. But even the most vocal “good guy” group eventually adopted the tactics of the strategic group. In the end everyone was only willing to play “nice guy” if others were doing the same. They were no better than the strategic group. It seems to me that they were doing what was expected of them, but when push came to shove their ideas were no more lofty than the competition.

I wish more politicians, businessmen and the everyday people like me would really give these concepts some serious thought.

What is it that causes a person to deny what’s in front of them? I find this a very interesting question in need of an answer.

I started my journey taking a peak at Wikipedia to define denial:

Denial is a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too painful to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.

• The subject may deny the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether (simple denial),
• admit the fact but deny its seriousness (minimization) or
• admit both the fact and seriousness but deny responsibility (transference).

I suppose this path could seem like the path of least resistance. A problem does not exist, so I don’t have to work on it; a problem isn’t that bad, so I don’t have to work on it; a problem is caused by something else, so I don’t have to work on it.

Why is it so easy for me to reject the truth in front of me? In the long run the road of denial is always the most painful and labor intensive route in the journey of life.

According to a recent survey 47% of you have googled yourself. That means that good chances are that either you or the person after you that reads this blog has indeed gone to Google and searched for yourselves.

I would count as one of those who has tried to find myself on the Internet. I’m not sure why others are looking for themselves, but in my case it has to do with this blog and simple curiosity – am I out there unbeknownst to me? In the 10 years or so that I have been perusing the Net how many ‘traces’ of me are out there?

I can tell you that I have come up with some former email addresses that I had long forgotten about. Most addresses will not receive any email since the ISP’s are long ago defunct. So much for finding me of long ago.

What about ‘googling’? Wikipedia defines it as “A neologism arising from the popularity and dominance of the eponymous search engine.” Now that’s a mouthful and honestly I can’t tell you what it all means except that as I looked up neologism I found that it is also a newly coined word – with means “newly coined word.” I guess it’s enough to say that Google has defined how we look at the world and ourselves.

USA Today yesterday reported Kids and parents agree: 18- to 25-year-olds aren’t adults.

At least one psychologist has been studying this age group for this last decade. It seems there is very little or no disagreement about the truth of the headline. What I find interesting is this quote:

Longer life spans have encouraged a more leisurely pace of growing up, says Maryse Richards, an expert in adolescent psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. “This group is different than adolescents, but not yet adults.”
USA Today – December 12, 2007

Longer life span? Come on! What about coddling parents? What about being raised in the midst of “there are no losers, there are no winners” team sports mentality? These are kids raised to expect a “participation” award. These are kids who expect to pass a college class if they usually show up. I see them every week. These are kids who have mommy & daddy complaining to the Dean when the grades are not cutting it.

In case any of my readers are looking for a novelty Christmas present for me, look no further.

Robot B9 is currently in production. The testimonials are phenomenal! Check out the B9Creations web site.

It’s hard to imagine, but within the next few days I’ll be joining the late 20th century! The home base is moving from dial-up to broadband! Now don’t jump up and down too quickly, it really is the slowest speed that my provider offers.

Why the change? I was finally presented with an offer that made sense. There was (and still is) no way that I am going to outlay a huge amount of cash each month for what I consider “recreational use” of the Internet. Theoretical calculations indicate that my throughput should improve by a factor of 20. Now the best option available to me bumps that number up to 200 times current dialup speed.

But let’s not get crazy, I don’t want to break my neck at 200x faster when 20x will get me there.

On December 7, 1941 the U.S. was plunged into war with Japan. It had the 18th largest military in the world – and Americans were even divided on whether to support Great Britain in its war with Germany. That support could cause complications on America’s western shores since Germany had a pact with Japan. America’s support of Britain would automatically increase tensions between the U.S. and Japan.

That “day that will live in infamy” decided the U.S. position. American’s rallied together and mobilized for action in a show of unity that has not been seen since. The nation not only got behind the war effort in thought and speech – they sacrificed their comfort and rationed key commodities to support the effort, the men left their families and enlisted, the women left their families and went into the workplace to keep the industrial machine turning. Everyone of that generation was touched by telegrams of family or friends who gave the ultimate sacrifice in that effort.

As I have mentioned before, in just the U.S. submarine force alone 3,617 sailors gave their lives. Of the World War II submarine force that means that 23% (about 1 out of 4) never returned home. 52 submarines were lost.

Let us not forget, the sacrifice was great, in all services and at home.

It has been a while since I have posted concerning the most intimate of all human relationships… marriage.

As in all things in life, if I’m not reaching out to expand myself, I become stagnant. Growth. It seems to me that relationships are the same. If I am not pursuing growth within a relationship, the relationship becomes stale and old. Comfortable, yes, but stale.

Recently I had to ask myself what about relationships, specifically in the area marriage, should be my purpose. The answer came surprisingly quickly. Transparency. Transparency to see who I am.

I recently read that the basic levels of a relationship might be something like:

1. Cliché – trite things I know that say nothing about me or what I might think.
2. Facts – things I know about.
   This level at least let’s you know what might interest me.
3. Opinions – my beliefs on various issues.
   Now you’re getting closer to me.
4. Feelings – what I feel about things.
   What offends me; what hurts my sensibilities; what brings me joy.
5. Who I am – who I really see myself to be.
   This is my most guarded level, the level that I often avoid looking at. It’s the me I really don’t want anyone to know. Even more than that, it’s the me that needs accepted, needs loved.

Whether I see myself as insecure, unworthy, unwanted, fearful, neglected, or a host of other things; this is the me that so desires to be loved, accepted and needed “as is.” No conditions. No strings.

The goal, as I see it, in marriage is for two to go deeper and deeper into this “who I am” level. It’s called transparency. It’s tough, it takes time and sometimes it hurts a lot, but, like any journey, it’s always worth it.