2010: The Year We Break Contact

Where the hell was Roy Scheider when we really needed him?

In the movie 2010, we were told "something wonderful" would occur which, at the end of the film, turned out to be another sun. But that's Hollywood. What did WE get in the real world? Snooki. That's not a sun. That's more of a moon.

This year started out with such promise, but we all know that's just the self-delusion of time. The calendar changes and that's supposed to change everything for the good? What a bunch of gullible schmucks. Another decade in the still new millennium? It's gotta be good!

There were high notes to be sure that were hit right at the git-go, again perpetuating the myth of optimism in an increasingly cynical age. It holds about as much water as a cheese grater, a point proven when the tide turned in the wink of an eye. Oil spills, missing children, terrorist plots in our own backyard, political discourse leading up to a potential revival of the Civil War, 21st Century style combined with some personal kicks in the groin that aren't as easy to recover from as the year passed. It all became off-kilter, much like that hotel corridor sequence in INCEPTION.

But far be it for me to end this year on a down note. To tell you the absolute truth, I'm actually feeling a wee bit upbeat. It hasn't always been so over the last 36o-odd days, that's for sure, but as I've told my friends recently, life has a way balancing out. As I say, the yin, the yang and the whole damn thang. Perhaps it's all a balancing act after all. And sometimes, there's actually a net when you least expect one.

It's also me trying to be reflective and wax poetic at the end of the year, just like every other nimrod with a laptop and a blog to call his own. What have I learned in the year Twenty Ten? well, for one thing, the year isn't over for me until my birthday which falls at the end of January. I'm not done yet. I have a few deadlines to meet by January 29 and maybe we should talk then.

I also send you folks out there in the blogosphere the great wish of finding some balance in this cockeyed world o' ours. It's tough. You fall over a few times and most certainly will get knocked down too. There's no reason you can't get right back again, even if it is slowly. Let's just say you're an easier target on the ground and, if you're standing on your own two feet, you can push back. Balance, baby, balance.

Next up: The Best of 2010, just like every other nimrod with a laptop and a blog. (New Year's Resolution #1: Stop being redundant.)

Happy New Year, ye lads and lassies.