2004 is coming to a close. I thought I would write a bit about the year, but I decided against it. I could’ve prattled on about how bad a year it was in terms of the War in Iraq and the re-election of George “Dubya” Bush. I could have praised the year for being a great year in sports. Exciting Championships in Baseball and Basketball. And let’s not forget about football. The New England Patriots are nearly Perfect and Peyton Manning is playing quarterback better than it’s ever been played.

Or worse, I could have done a “It was the Best of Times. It was the Worst of Times.” kind of thing. Or I could have recounted my personal triumphs and defeats for the year, but who wants to hear that.

The Truth is that nothing will have changed on Saturday. It’s just a basic human need to categorized and label things. So we will take the events, memories and actions of the last 12 months and call them “2004.” And we store them away for a decade or two until VH1 runs I love the 00’s. Then we look at back and say how great it was in the first decade of the millennium.

There is one thing about this year that is worth mentioning in this space. 2004 is the year I starting blogging. And I discovered that blogging is not just an “online journal” it is more than that. It is a community. It is a very interesting form of media (for lack of a better word.) If I published a newsletter or a ‘Zine ( do they still do that?) I would not know my readers in the same way as I do here. In some ways the relationship is very intimate. I reveal some very personal thoughts. In other ways, it very anonymous, many of us do not even reveal our names.

So to the handful of you that read this space, Happy New Year. Not that anything will be different on Saturday, but I wish you well in 2005. And I hope you will continue to read, as I plan to continue writing.