The Mayfly Project asks readers to sum up their 2001 in exactly twenty words.

My 2001 in a Nutshell Completed a dream. Won three more. Followed one, postponed others. Perfection is my Achilles Heel, in all good things. Heartbender.

Looks like everyone's in a blogging lull. But then, most of the readers are similarly preoccupied.

Just waiving in to say 'Hi!' I hope you're all having great holidays and have safe and memorable New Years celebrations (memorable in the good way).

My own tunnels are getting a little brighter, and hopefully there is light (and maybe a little less driving rain?) at the other end.

I have so many vivid dreams, waking dreams, sleeping dreams. It's stupid that the thing I'm missing the most nowadays is my train rides. I want to sit staring out a window and just write and write.

I'm almost tempted to spend tomorrow on a train going somewherre, and then somewhere back, just so I can get back into the creative groove, tapping my dreams, and bottling up the ensuing stream.

Have a great 2002 everyone. I'm looking forward to sharing mine with you.

Here it is, 11:30, and I've only just realized that I'm the only person in my row of ten that's at work today. I wonder how many on my floor are here? Now I won't feel gulty about taking a long lunch. :-)

So I've expressed in the past how I feel about resolutions, but I've got a few ready for 2002 anyhow:

1. Use people's names. I don't use peoples names when I talk to them. I have a latent fear of accidentally getting the name wrong, and thereby invalidating whatever respect that person thinks I have for them. I'm bad with names. Good with people and who-knows-who and who-does-what, but the actual nombre descriptors often don't get recorded well in my head, so much that even wehn talking to people who I've known for years and *of course* know who they are, the habit remains, and I don't use their name when I talk to them. The worst and most common example is the passing-in-the-hall: "Hey Kevin." "Hi." I never trust my fifth-of-a-second name recall and the risk of embarassment doesn't make it worth it.

   So, flash cards for linking faces and names, and take the risk of making a mistake.

2. Learn how to say goodbye. When I say goodbye to someone, after lunch, at the end of an evening, maybe even a phone conversation, I can't let go. I close it up with this weird need to know when I'll see or talk to the person again. Dirk Gently says every time he leaves someone's company he assumes they're dead, and when he sees them it's a time of surprise and rejoicing. I'm not that bad, but I've got to learn that out of sight doesn't mean out of mind, or out of existence. Maybe it's my frightfully short attention span; If I don't make a little link for the next contact, I might just forget and never talk to them again. Anyhow, once again, small insecurity blossomed into lifelong habit that it's high time I break. I mean, it's silly when, out of habit, you end phone calls with a Southwest Airlines operator or person from the phone company with "'k, I'll talk to you later. Bye!" High time, definitely.

I'm sure I'll think of a few more of these things. Less overt than losing 20 pounds, but even more unshackling.

I've always wanted to learn to fly. When I was 16 I was tempted to join the National Guard Reserves because they'd teach me.

Turns out all I really need is the right plane. My bet is on an Aeronca Champion. They're so easy to fly, they can fly themselves.

So Spellchecker.net just stopped their free service, which I've used to spellcheck my posts before submitting. The service is now pay, which I don't mind in spirit, and it boils down to one-and-a-half cents per 'session,' but they do it in 10,000 session increments ($150).

So I'm wondering, if I were to set up the metering software, would any other webloggers be interested in going in with me to make a purchase? Sure I could put in $150, and over the course of about 3 or 4 years I might even use 10,000 sessions, but for others who use spellchecker, I'd be happy to join up and create an easier (like maybe $10) barrier to entry.

(And no, I wouldn't be taking a cut. $10 would get you 667 sessions. Okay, just to aggrevate aggravate the number of the beast, lets make it $15 for 1,000 session.) So is anyone interested? Maybe I should incorporate it into metacookie, as a nice value-add.

Taking lots of pictures. My mind is in a tizzy. Family surrounding me, working on my end-of-year mental housekeeping, so many kids around, almost all better from my sore throat/fever, missing all my friends and looking forward to seeing them again.

Merry Christmas everyone (and of course, Happy Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Eristide, or what have you). I'll be doing a lot of writing the next few days, and I'll have pictures to match, all going up when I get back.

Other notes: It's amazing how much christmas shopping you can do at Costco. It would be really nifty if someone invented an inline coupler for phone lines, a little box you could put between your phone and the phone line, that would prevent someone from accidentally picking up the phone and breaking into your modem call, but would let people pick up on voice convos. That would sell really well.

Okay, nothing to say that wouldn't turn into a huge story, so I'd better free up the phone line (40 people and 1 phone has some drawbacks).

Byeee! (And THANKS KAREN!)

It sucks arguing on your own site, because all you can do is alienate people who already value your opinion.

Well, I'm packing it in for the next several days as I journey to Carmel for fun in the Family sun.

I may have intermittent web access, and I may not. I'll be taking plenty of pictures, and may even get to writing some more stories during the downtime. I'll be back in full just after Christmas, so enjoy the holiday, cherish your family, friends, and other loved ones, and have a save and joyous holiday season!

And thank you all for reading. I enjoy writing this blog as much as I like to imagine you enjoy reading it. Even though I don't know a whole lot of you, and even though some of us obviously have differences of opinions from time to time ;-) I find it really fulfilling to interact with you, and I want to let you know I'm thankful to a degree deeper than can be measure in hit-counters.

Fare thee well!

George Bush, offering a unique punishment for Ameri-Taliban fighter John Walker:

"Make him leave his hair the way it is and his face as dirty as it is and let him go wandering around this country and see what kind of sympathy he would get."
-- George Bush on Good Morning America

Funny, I see people who fit that visual description every day on Telegraph outside my apartment. It doesn't mean I treat them the way I would treat a militant traitor, and I resent a president (or ex-pres, or 'first father', or whatever) who implies that I should.

Okay, maybe he's not saying I should, but it's not too bright a president who tries to use Americans' blind-eye toward poverty as a joke touting the bright side of our own class-ism.

I think a good 'punishment' for a president is to spend a week as a homeless person, to get an idea of their problems and how to help them, rather than suggesting homeless-ism as an alternate punishment over overcrowded prisons.

Personally, I think George is just trying to forget that he named his son 'Walker.'