Monday, December 31, 2007

Looking Forward To 2008: If You Give Up Your Dreams, You Die!


Everybody’s got a dream and I've always lived by the motto: If You Give Up Your Dreams, You Die! On New Year’s Eve, a time of renewal, dreams sometimes become resolutions. It's sad that most resolutions get broken but that's the way it goes. I hope that the holiday season of 2007 brought you great pleasures and grand memories and that you can look back with a sense of accomplishment and I hope you’re looking forward to 2008 with optimism that the future will be even better.


Every year as the clock nears midnight on December 31st, the eyes of the world turn once more to the dazzling lights and bustling energy of Times Square. Anticipation runs high. New Year's Eve at the symbolic center of New York City has become more than just a celebration - it's a global tradition. The world holds its breath...and cheers as the clocks strike twelve. As the famous New Year's Eve Ball descends from the flagpole atop One Times Square, an estimated one million people in Times Square, millions nationwide and over a billion watching throughout the world are united in bidding a collective farewell to the departing year, and expressing our joy and hope for the year ahead. The wishes of people from around the world will literally rain down on revelers in Times Square at this New Year's Eve celebration when the confetti is dropped. For the first time in history, anyone can write their wishes for the New Year on the multicolored confetti by visiting the Times Square Information Center or by typing a message on a "virtual wishing wall" online. Your message-carrying pieces will then be mixed in with the rest of the one ton of confetti that is dropped in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Messages can be serious or silly, said Tim Tompkins, a spokesman for the Times Square Alliance, which organizes the party. So far, messages have included everything from wanting to be taller or having a smarter boss to asking for the safe return of a child from Iraq, he said. If you’re unable to make it to Times Square in time to add your wishes to the wall, never fear – the Alliance has created a virtual wishing wall on their website. Become a part of history...submit your New Year's Eve wishes here. Selected New Year's Eve messages they receive from around the world will appear here.

Usually at the end of any year, people in the papers and on blogs publish their top ten lists of whatever crap that doesn't interest most people anyway. Like the fact that Britney Spears was the most Googles name in 2007. Wow, does that surprise you? So, one of my friends and loyal Discover Insanity supporters, sent me this funny top ten list which I thought may give you a laugh or two, or three...

Top Ten Thoughts For 2007

Number 10. Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 9. Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Number 8. Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.

Number 7 . Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

Number 6. Some people are like a Slinky ... Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

Number 5. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Number 4. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Number 3. Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200.00 and a substantial tax cut saves you $0.30?

Number 2 . In the '60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

Number 1: We know exactly where one cow with Mad-cow-disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America , but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration.


This is my last blog for 2007. For the rest of you who may have positive or mixed feelings about 2007, the essential message is the same. Take the wheel of your own ship, pick the destinations you want to reach, and get on your way. Stay focused on your goals but be flexible enough to adjust to unanticipated winds and unusually attractive alternatives. Some of you did not have a very good year. Bad stuff happens. Some of the bad things you experienced may have just happened to you, leaving you only with the power to make the best of it and move on. One of my favorite quotes from Michael Josephson is “pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” As we conclude 2007, I send you my best and most earnest wishes for the strength and sense to move forward and that this new year will be filled with endless unknown opportunities to truly Discover Insanity!