Happy 2007

There's something weird about this world, I tell ya.

By the time I've finished typing this, it'd probably be the new year of 2007. People around me are calling "Hey let's go for the countdown!" or similar stuff, but I don't want to. I don't believe in this stuff. What I'd like is to usher in the new year quietly. Let it slowly take over you, envelope you in its embrace. You'll be more aware of it this way. More aware that this is a new year, with new challenges, new experiences, new sights, new sounds. A Whole New World, to quote that song.

For myself, I don't have much of a New Year's resolution. Sure we all have those staple ones e.g world peace, unconditional love, blahblah etc. But what really are New Year's resolutions? Can we honestly tell ourselves that we've followed everything that we wrote down in December of 2005? The majority of us would probably have wrote that down just for New Year's sake. But by February, that piece of paper or Word document would probably have been forgotten, lost in that 80GB hard drive of yours or simply thrown away into a wastebasket. What I truly believe in is to have a constant set of beliefs, beliefs that are positive and can influence you in your daily life. It is not what we write now that defines us, but how we carry out our daily lives in the coming year. It is that constant striving force that will determine whether we make or break 2007.

I'm typing this in the safety and comfort of my home, having a little quiet time to myself. Ever since I went for that totally insane millenium countdown at Orchard back in December 1999, 2359h, I promised myself I'd not go for such stuff again. Only if I were in New York's Times Square.

Many people around me are so enamoured by the incoming new year. Sure, 2007 brings fresh new ideas and brand new experiences. But whatever the case, there is always that excess baggage we carry over from 2006. And that's an inevitable fact. Let me see whether I can list some: --

• Iraq will still be in civil war, thousands will die and another thousand US soldiers will die policing a country that is not theirs
• America's automakers will still be losing millions (and that Camaro SS will never come)
• We will be one year closer to losing all the ice in the world due to global warming
• Polar bear numbers will continue to decline due to that
  
• Thousands of children in Africa will still die from AIDS
• The rebuilding of the damaged homes in Indonesia from the tsunami of 2005 will still doggedly carry on
• Hurricane Katrina victims will still be looking for places to live
• North Korea will still threaten Asia with its nuclear bomb
• Bastard terrorists the world over will still continue to hold All-U-Can-Bomb fests
• Malaysia will continue to nitpick Singapore. Over what, no one can tell.
• I still won't have a girlfriend

Oh well. Looks like 2007 isn't that bad after all :). Happy New Year everybody.