The New Year’s Resolution Solution
By Alex Carrier

To resolve or not to resolve,
That is always the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to just admit defeat,
Or to take arms against inevitable failure…

As far as I am concerned, Hamlet had it easy. All he had to deal with was betrayal, deceit, murder, treachery and, alas, poor Yorick.

Okay, he had it hard but I bet he never got caught in the quagmire of making and breaking New Year’s resolutions. All that pressure to find some resolution you think you would like to, should like to, could begin to keep.

Where to begin? You got the diet, money, relationship, better person, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah and so forth, and so forth litany of possible choices. Possible, maybe even probable, but highly unlikely undoable resolutions.

Then there is the old paradox of avoidance through the declaration “I am not going to make a resolution this year!” Which is, of course, a resolution and you managed to both make it and break it before you even had time to write it down.

This year, I determined to get myself out of this mental and social dilemma. (Yes, when compared to global warming, world hunger, sickness and poverty it is a bit absurd but then we all need some absurdity at least once a year.)

Eureka! I think I’ve got it. While pondering the problem, I thought upon the Seven-percent solution (Sir Arthur’s novel not Sherlock’s addiction). A resolution solution is what is needed.

My dear Watson, it is elementary. I resolve to make one resolution this year.

Having done both and having succeeded, I can now turn my uncanny yet bizarre brain towards a more pedestrian question like say, oh, does my butt look big in this dress?

If you like this blog read our free web magazines Virginia Greene http://www.vgreene.com/ and Greene Lite www.vgreene.com/greenelite.
© 2006 Virginia Greene

Time’s 2006 Person of the Year – It had to be You
By Alex Carrier

I want to thank Time Magazine for selecting me, my parents for fueling my imagination and curiosity, my family for helping my get it right, my husband for supporting me in so many ways, my friends for sticking by me…

Okay, so none of us wrote an acceptance speech for this one. We didn’t lose it, misplace it, get it wet, shred it or otherwise make it illegible.

We can’t even say it was an honor just to be nominated because – well, gosh darn – we didn’t know we were even in the running. So, we can’t forget to thank someone unless we extend our heartfelt gratitude to – US!

Simply by my writing this blog and you reading it, we prove what Time Magazine gave as their reason for making You (Me, Us) their 2006 Person of the Year. We proved that the everyman/woman is everybody’s man/woman.

Who would have thought we would swarm the World Wide Web like rush hour computer commuters to tell our stories, show our home movies, become our own news reporters, movie-makers, writers, stars, directors and truly awful overnight hits?

Ah, yes –we were the Numa Numa guy and Star Wars/Jedi knight guy. We have outscooped many a meganews corporation and become huge music/movie hits without networks, record publishers or studios. We are the World Wide Web Media.

We have even learned to use the freedom (and mostly free room) of the Internet to make our personal pitch to anyone with a mouse and a modem and proven we can sell just about anything.

Even when we were bad, we found an audience and when we really bad we found fandom. No stone has been left unturned, no niche unfilled, no rule unbroken and no cliché unspoken.

We have been downright awful, rude, crude and socially unacceptable. We have also been inspired, imaginative and magnificent.

Lord only knows where we will go from here. We might take over the world but I doubt it. After all, I am a writer and wish my own piece of the publishing pie but welcome the addition we all can make to our communal content.

So, I hope while you are reading and surfing, you catch the web wave my way while I am out seeing what the rest of You/Me/Us have been up to today. We’ll meet sometimes and miss many more but we do have a universe of places to go and people to almost see.

All I can say is, this year - it was about Time.

If you like this blog read our free web magazines Virginia Greene http://www.vgreene.com/ and Greene Lite www.vgreene.com/greenelite.
© 2006 Virginia Greene

Dead Squirrels - Tales Don’t Tell
By Alex Carrier

People who work on computers can be a cranky lot – especially when something comes between them and technology. Like – say for instance – lack of electricity!

Oh, yes, I’m used to the “it’s lightening outside so perhaps you should not be touching a piece of electrical equipment” need to get off the computer. Or even the, “what do you mean we should check with the electric company before we dig” interruption of power.

Neither of these applies to the problem inconveniently, irritatingly and, far too constantly, bringing on a good case of author’s ire and writer’s wrath.

The morning is crisp with early winter and sunny in the way that brightens the sky but doesn’t warm it. The husband is off to work, the pets are fed and comfy and I am ready and eager to start writing.

I sit at the computer waiting for the first burst of morning inspiration. The air explodes with noise and everything electric in the house goes completely, irrevocably, deadly quiet. I am faced with the black screen of nothingness. Drat!

There are several of us in the neighborhood who work from our homes and computers are integral to our business; so, it is no surprise to me when I step outside to find a surly group of equally annoyed and frustrated friends.

We converge on our neighbor’s yard knowing what we will find has created this interruption in our morning routine. The fuse is off on the power pole and on the ground is the still sizzling carcass of a squirrel.

The tail is frizzed, the whiskers blackened cinders and the fur smoked. This squirrel is fried, toast, deceased, Kaput, dead, and so is our power.

Live squirrels are delightful to watch. This is the time when they are courting, females coyly twitching their tails come-hither to the hapless males who chase but never catch them. There is a lot of activity so spring should bring many young.

Unfortunately, squirrel antics are interrupting our technology driven home-based industries on a regular, sometimes daily, basis. Not to mention turning several lovely, intelligent women into irascible, irritable, raging lunatics. Like the dead squirrel, it is not a pretty sight.

Which brings me to the conundrum of genetic memory and survival of the fittest. Genetic memory is that wonderful ability nature has for passing along important information from one generation to the next. Like, eating good; not eating, not so good.

Genetic memory is vital to survival of the fittest and the species but here is the rub. The squirrels who have learned the danger of the power line have not passed that genetic memory along to offspring.

And since dead squirrels tell no tales, then I suppose we will all just go back to our homes and wait for the power to be restored – again. So much for deadlines.

If you like this blog read our free web magazines Virginia Greene http://www.vgreene.com/ and Greene Lite www.vgreene.com/greenelite.
© 2006 Virginia Greene