Out with the Old Year, In with The New Year...

Greetings, fans, followers, and others, today's posting will open with an amendment to the last one.  This idea of topic days is now officially on the outs.  I've decided to just have topics of various things.  I might muse on Star Trek one day and movies the next.  Mind you, I will still do one posting a day and the weekend things, the Saturday Night Show and Sunday Night Social, will remain, with the first now called the Saturday Story and the second the Sunday Social.

Now, with that out of the way, it's time to move into the current posting.  Today's posting, which I now announce as the 24th and last posting of 2010, will talk about the year about to close and the one about to open.  A review of sorts, with an eye looking ahead.  Everyone on television does and I see myself on television one of these days, so this is a good way to start.  So, here's the John Maxwell Blog's 2010 year in review.

First of all, there was the Late Night Saga back at the beginning of the year.  Three posts covered the ins and mostly outs of that story, as Conan battled the forces of NBC, who eventually won and gave Jay Leno back the Tonight Show and sent Conan packing.  Conan eventually, in the end, won the war by going to cable and TBS, which I suggested in one of those three postings.  I should mentioned that I no longer, since Conan's return, watch Leno.  He's become stale to me.

Second, there was the Icelandic volcano that no one could pronounce or spell, so I won't attempted it here.  Instead, I'd referred it as Mount Bjork, for she and the volcano are things from Iceland that spills stuff that no one wants and can cause major disaster if left unchecked.  Europe got the most of it, for that's how the world revolves.  Eventually, Mount Bjork ceased and all things returned to normal, as much as can be expected.

And then, of course, was BP's shining oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  It began April 20th and ended in August, a long time as the world watched the Gulf Coast deal with the destruction of liveihoods and generations or know-how as BP itself blamed everyone except themselves and fired their CEO for taking any of it.  Eventually, the spill was stopped but the damage has been done and who knows how long it will be before the Gulf Coast can return to normal.

Of course, I'm forgetting the most destructive event of all this year, the earthquake in Haiti.  It came in January and shook the very core of this very unstable nation, sending it further into chaos and leading to more loss and disaster than the earthquake could leave behind.  We saw celebrities and civilans alike help out to pick up the mess, with one throwing his hat into the electorial ring, with it being thrown out.  With what has happened since then, maybe he should throw it back in.

Chile saw two noteworthy events this year.  In February, we saw the nation have its own earthquake, with a similar response to Haiti.  Then, in the summer, for 69 days, 33 miners laid trapped below the surface, with all eyes on them.  Their survival and rescue was the work of not a whole nation, but of a whole world, with 6 1/2 billion taking part to save 33 lives from death.  All have now surfaced and now, their families and friends are helping them back to their lives, but they're now a little better off than before.

Back in the USA, we had mid-term elections, and like the college tests most fear, it was time to see if the last two years had any effect on us.  In November, we went to the polls and virtually handed back the country to those people who got us into the messes we've spent two years fixing, the Republicans, helped by the so-called Tea Party.  My one fear with those people has that they will have the opposite effect their historical namesake did and lead us into a world of tyranny, where no one is safe from each other.

The last thing I will mention is the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  Even though I am of the hetero variety, I am interested into giving rights to those who need it.  Besides, when gays gets the rights they need, new worlds and new ideas get presented and maybe, this will be one step closed to the world we all dream of, where peace is the norm and all live not for themselves but for another.  That repeal was hard work, with the costs involved weighted but the end result must be the element of trust, for that's the only way this will work.

Now, we look ahead to the future, to the year 2011.  Interesting fact, the first day of this new year is one of those things that's the same each way, 1/1/11.  Besides that, we have much to look forward to.  Despite a divided Congress, we have much to get done, and party politics has no room in there.  Nothing else comes to mind, except that next year, try to be a little more peaceful.  There's no telling what the new year holds but let's hope that it's better than what we got this year.

Yours truly, John Maxwell

Have a happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!