This will be a quick post as I am writing this on the go, but I wanted to revisit the resolutions I set for myself for 2008 to see how many I successfully accomplished. I also wanted to set some goals for the upcoming year. I’m not normally a resolution guy, but I found myself returning to my 2008 resolutions over and over again in my mind, determined to meet them. So, maybe resolutions aren’t completely a self-defeating thing. Determination.

First, 2008:
1) Be willing to let go of the things and people that are not meant to be in your life
Done (for the most part) There are some that are still in my life but are held at arm’s length until I can determine if/why I still need them in my life.

2) Don’t waste your time loving the wrong people. Sounds a lot like number one, but it isn’t.
I’ve spent the majority of 2008 loving myself and not wasting my affections on the wrong people. I can’t say I didn’t have a few slips during the year, but I did do much better than 2007.

3) Get your passport.
No dice. But…keep reading.

4) Use passport mentioned above to visit the places you promised yourself you would visit in 2008
While I didn’t get my passport, I was able to travel to a different country (sorta). I went to Vancouver in the fall of this year, and as I write this, I am sitting in a hotel room in Toronto. Not as exotic as I imagined, but still — I get some credit, right?

5) Finish the screenplay you’ve been promising yourself you would finish by May. (the first draft anyway)
Uh…I was well on my way to having this completed, but spilled Mountain Dew on my laptop a few months ago and it killed my momentum. Not a good excuse, I know. However, I am back on track.

6) Continue enjoying life. Don’t embrace pessimism.
I can say that, for the most part, I have done this. There have been periods of pessimism, but for the most part, I have tried to keep a stiff upper lip

7) Vote!!!
Done! And my candidate won! Now, let’s see if it was all for naught.

8 ) Seduce and wed Rev Run’s daughter Vanessa (it could happen!)
Who?? Sorry, but my affections have roamed elsewhere by now.

9) Get a friggin’ car alarm (more on that later)
Done! But…now I kinda need a new car :o(

10) Return to San Francisco (and if possible, find the crazy lady that verbally accosted me and kick her in the shin)
Done! Well, at least the returning to San Francisco part. Never found the lady, but that’s okay.

And although I didn’t get to roam to many places out of the U.S., I did travel a lot and caught quite a few major league baseball games — Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco. Gotta say, San Francisco is still my favorite, but the Seattle and Cleveland ballparks were also quite impressive. Milwaukee impressed me the least. When the roof closed on that place, it completely killed its mojo.

It has been a good year for travel and seeing new things.

2009 Resolutions:

1) Get my passport!!! (for real this time)

2) Get the new project my good friend Emily and I are working on off the ground. More on that at a later date.

3) Do the east coast baseball ballpark tour. Yankees, Mets, Orioles, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Nationals

4) Visit the Badlands and Mount Rushmore

5) Finish that damn screenplay!

6) See a Cubs game.

7) Make an effort to be more involved in the work being done to treat and cure spasmodic dysphonia.

8 ) Get tickets to the Olympic Winter games in Vancouver for 2010.

Happy New Year!

Unlike most who have viewed this film, I can not call it an out and out masterpiece, although, it is a highly enjoyable film. What I can tell you is that the soundtrack is second to none. And during the scenes in which tunes by Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong played, I melted. I’m a sucker for a great classic jazz tune mated with a beautiful scene on film. David Fincher directed this film. He also directed the movie Se7en. As grotesque and disturbing (and masterful) as that film was, I can’t help but to remember the scene in which Morgan Freeman sidles about his room with a Charlie Parker tune playing in the background.

You can take the most mediocre of films, completely forgettable movies and if it has a great jazz or vocal piece in it, I will remember it just for that simple yet effective detail. Benjamin Button is far from mediocre. It borders on greatness. But the music, ahh, it is superb.

A few years ago, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life to read. I felt bad about the fact that I started the book but never completed it. After hearing the recent soundbites of Warren equating homosexuality to pedophilia and incest, two incontrovertible crimes against humanity, I imagine it may be quite a while before I ever finish the book. I’m sure it’s a good read, but the recent news has kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.

I don’t want to go into a long, drawn out diatribe on this whole Rick Warren thing. There are just a few things I want to point out.

1) I think President-elect Obama made one of his first missteps as our new leader when he chose Warren to offer Invocation at his Inaugural ceremony. Warren is considered by many to be a good man. He is respected around the world and his literature has become required reading for many people of faith. But some of his beliefs are so antithetical to Obama’s, one has to wonder what positives there would be in extending such an invitation. I am in the midst of partaking of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals, and from the introduction alone, one could replace Lincoln’s name with Obama’s and the difference in the two and their approach to forming an administration would be nominal. To me it is true that the best discourse may come from those whose ideals are not always perfectly aligned. Such differences can provoke better decision-making.

However, why would Obama alienate the very people who gave him such a strong backing during his campaign, especially by embracing someone who is not even going to be a part of his cabinet? There is no real benefit to bringing such controversy to a historic ceremony that is full of pomp and circumstance but not at all impactful when it comes to policy decisions. Why rock the boat if you don’t have to? And why spit upon those who so lovingly lifted you upon their shoulders and helped to carry you into the White House?

2) That being said, it must be reiterated that Reverend Warren is not a part of the Obama administration. And it should also be pointed out that Obama has proven himself to be a shrewd, meticulous and determined man. He has made it clear that the final decisions to be made will be made by him. “The buck stops with me.” So, while his choice for this historic yet — in the grand scheme of things — relatively insignificant ceremony was a bad one, I truly believe that Obama’s policies will, in the long run, be more offensive to Reverend Warren’s sensibilities than to the LGBT community. Obama says he supports the Gay community (and abortion rights, which also differ greatly from Warren’s own ideals) and, at this point, I take him at his word. We shall see.

3) On a personal level, it bothers me when people try to equate the struggles of African-Americans to the struggles of Gay men and women. I think the discrimination both groups receive is the same, and I think that the psychological effect such discrimination has on the two groups is the same. But I think there are differences that make one a struggle from crib to grave and another an internal struggle that can remain hidden until it is either forced or voluntarily brought to the fore. I am not diminishing the pain and suffering endured. I am not diminishing the torment one must feel, spending a life rejecting what is only a natural feeling, a feeling that is often portrayed by friends and foe alike as sinfully unnatural. And I am not diminishing the obvious physical and psychological torment endured during overt gestures of hate by the intolerant. I guess I feel that one group (usually) has control over when and how their “outing” is revealed while the other group is thrust into combat the minute they emerge from the womb. The struggle for both is a tough one, but the road on which these struggles transpire is markedly different.

make me laugh out loud on a consistent basis.

But Cyanide and Happiness has just the kind of mentally deranged humor I adore.