Same As It Ever Was

I took down the old marked up 2008 calendar this morning and put up the fresh clean new 2009 calendar. There are many ways in which we mark the passage of time, birthdays, anniversaries, school years, Super Bowls, but the most common is the beginning of a new year on the calendar.

Of course the calendar is an artificial creation, other cultures have their own version, the Chinese mark the passage of time by lunar cycles, they are currently in the 12th moon of the 13 moon cycle, and then we will see references to Chinese New Year, namely at Panda Express where there are likely to be some new dishes added to the buffet table. Apparently the Mayans have their own calendar that says the world will come to an end in 2012, 12-12 to be exact, and there are those in the conspiracy loving, tin foil hat wearing crowd that actually put credence into this notion. But then again, there is an entire religion based on something that was handed down on golden plates by space aliens, or something to that effect, I get murky when it comes to the different creation myths out there. Give me 900 year-old dudes putting a bunch of animals on an ark any day over that other nonsense.

We have the Julian calendar, with the months of July and August added in honor of Julius and Augustus Caesar, the first two Roman emperors, and then in the 17th century a pope named Gregory decided to give us a better version and gave us the Gregorian calendar, which is what we generally agree upon today, at least in the West and most of the civilized world.

But today being New Year’s Day is really just another day on the calendar, any one you choose to adhere to. It’s fun to write and say 2009 for the first few times, and the Rose Bowl is on this afternoon which gives the day special meaning. But nothing really changes with a new year on the calendar, unless you’re the type to make and break New Year’s resolutions, which I am not. The only resolution that I have ever kept is the one I made years ago never to make resolutions anymore. I like the weight that I am at, I enjoy the people in my life and the things that I do, and there’s nothing that I currently partake in that I wish to quit, so that pretty much rules out resolutions for me.

I do enjoy keeping lists however, so a new year gives me a chance to start new lists, or draw a line down the paper as a dividing point between last year and this year on my old list, which is what I’ve already done on many of my lists. I hate to throw things away, as my wife can clearly attest to.

I’m going to keep all of my Starbucks receipts in an envelope so that at the end of the year I can estimate how much coffee I’ve drunk and how much money I’ve spent on it. And I can tell you right now that whatever money is spent will be well worth it, but I’m just curious as to how many cups of good java I drink in a year. I once figured that over the six years that I spent at my old teaching job in South Phoenix that I ate over 1000 tuna sandwiches at my favorite sandwich shop, Port of Subs. I figure at an average of three cups a day for 365 days I should hit the 1000 cup mark easily in 2009, which at 20 ounces per cup would be over 20,000 ounces of good coffee, enough to fill a sizeable swimming pool. Ok, so my goals may not be incredibly lofty, but that’s an impressive number if I do say so myself.

I also will be keeping track, as I always do, of the amount of columns that I write and post on The Daily Grind this year. Last year I posted 112 columns, which I calculated meant that I wrote something on 30% of the days of the year. Hopefully this year I will increase my output some, and I also hope to start blogging on other sites and linking to the Grind.

I will write in the voice of five different, for lack of a better term, characters. The first and most common will be as The Observer, which are the columns in which I simply comment on life and whatever random stuff happens to be on my mind. The second is as The Commentator, where I rant about politics and current issues. Third will be as The Economist, where I will discuss and offer opinions on, well you guessed it, the economy and financial matters. Fourth will be as The Sports Nut, where I will give my takes on the wonderful wide world of sports. Lastly, I am attempting to break out into something new this year and will occasionally post as The Storyteller, where I will write short fictional stories.

Here’s hoping for a great 2009 for all of you out there, as always, thanks for being an audience to write for, it is something that I truly enjoy and while I would still do it even if none of you were out there, knowing that you are there makes it all the more enjoyable and rewarding. I always welcome comments, and am more than happy to take suggestions or requests for topics. And lest I forget, I’m taking USC to win by 10 in a somewhat close Rose Bowl game today. Happy New Year!