Tis the season, and was that a bad year or a great one

My word, but its been a challenging December. We have been having huge difficulties with our technology and also with the human interface. Can’t get the network running, can’t get the stats downloaded, can’t edit the new web page with Contribute, and now my trusty little desk printer appears to have gone toes up.

Plus the end of the year is just to much catch up and finish, with a lot of wait and see. I for one will not miss 2007 say the way I miss 1976, 1979, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989 1990, 1991, 2004 -2006. Those were good years. I had a lot of fun or got married or had children or passed the bar, or went to Europe, but 2007 despite being dreary over all did have some very high points.

The Jack London Conference was great, got to meet and talk with Christopher Moore, Daniel Handler, and Steve Hockensmith, the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference was great, had dinner with Carolyn See, got to talk with Chris Moore again, ate at some great Santa Barbara eatery’s oh and I won first place in fiction for the Sci-fi, horror, and fantasy division. Finishing two first draft manuscripts was great, finishing my fiction certificate at Cal State Fullerton was cool, the literary workshops and the critique groups were good. As a matter of fact as I look back on the year it was really sweet and suffered only stretches of dreariness, not dread plush as I mentioned there were great punctuations.

This leads me to wonder why I thought, what was a productive and fun year, was so dreary. And then I remember it was the press mostly, and the official prognostications of impending doom. All the bad news, amplified so it drowns out the good. Leads me to consider making a New Year resolution to only sweat what I experience. There’s no point in suffering mentally if in reality I’m doing well. Of course I will do as much as I can to lift others but, would the downtrodden, those who really are suffering, would they think I’m ungrateful for not enjoying what they are deprived of?

So I’ll be happier and grateful and I will be more generous, caring and compassionate.