2004 Year End Review

Honestly, Scott Petersen. Need I say more? In a word, no.

What a fun filled year... sigh. Not that everything should be "fun" at all times, though it'd be nice to reflect on the last 365 days and be able to say something along the lines of "yep, overall it's been a good year". Depending on the angle or perspective that one chooses to view this phenomenon of yet another year passed, the results will vary -- I'm still searching for the "2004 was a good year" brain bubble, light at the end of the tunnel, memory nugget of great experience that will trump the overall *ridiculous* year. Of course, whether or not 2004 was a good year for humanity also depends on who you're talking to and what planet you live on.

For instance, if you're talking to the CEO of Halliburton, it's been a great year. Regardless of various investigations into the company's awry business practices, Halliburton ranks a strong 7 in the top ten war profiteers list of 2004 (with 10 being the highest, #7 makes for a pretty good year -- someone got a Lexus for Christmas).

It would be interesting to see the results of a worldwide cumulative vote on whether recent days and months have been good, or preposterous, or prosperous, or enjoyable, or o.k., or just plain wonderfully wrong. We'll never see these results, but one can speculate over what they might look like.

Without getting into some rant about the downfalls or imperfections of mainstream media spew machines, it seems proper to mention that outside of my daily existence and immediate reality, these conglomerates have given me less than half a reason to believe in the positive aspects of the overall social/politial/economical/environmental situation(s) on this globe (on the surface, technological, scientific, and spiritual advancement seem to be hopefuls for things that made 2004 a good year, though whether this is true also depends on the angle through which one interprets their impacts on the grander scale of things). Of course, it is my general belief that all things are intrinsically and fundamentally connected, so that all parties are affected by the beaker shaped mp3 player I purchased that plays inspirational music to my stimuli-thirsty inner ear (I don't really have such a device). It's just a question of how they are connected.

For myself, the year has been alright, somehwere in the middle between content and disturbed. I personally don't have much to complain about, it's other's that worry me. Need I ask the million dollar question -- "how in the hell did he get elected?" What. The. Fuck. We have officially entered the presages of the twilight zone.

I don't have any particular resolutions, other than to work on my perspective, my attitude, and my general well-being (which will presumably follow from the rest). As others might feel, this life (or at least this consciousness) is only lived once, and the time is now to experience it.