I was spending new years at home this year, which is my usual habit, and I heard the usual fireworks going off in the distance. I stepped outside to listen to them, and was struck by the ambiance. It was snowing, overall everything felt very cold and desolate. It was cold and windy, and normally I'd have only wanted to go back inside. But in the distance I could hear some group of people, I could hear the horns they were blowing to celebrate the new year. It was strangely inspiring to hear evidence of a party in the apparent desolate waste. I live in a suburb of chicago, it's anything but desolate, but that's what it seemed like at the moment, anyway. At the moment I thought this thought. "2008, here we come. Please be good to us." Happy near year to all. May it be a good one.