This is the future

Well, it's the 9th of December, which according to all the magazines means it's New Year.

Happy New Year everyone!!!


Auld Lang Syne On Ocarina - The best video clips are here


Time to reflect over 2008 and look onward to 2009...

You may not have noticed, but there's been a bit of economic downturn this year. It's been mentioned here and there. If the media's anything to go by, you've probably had your house repossessed and lost your job, so you'll have sold your computer and you're just imagining you're reading this.

So. Psychologies magazine, which I buy each month to complain about, has predictions about what *we* are going to be doing in 2009. Mostly as a result of the money thing, it makes us appreciate the good things in life because *we* didn't do that before.

Firstly *we* will be looking for serious issues in fiction and drama, and have an increased interest in political affairs. *We* will be buying DVD box sets (because that's how *we* see things) of things like The Wire. At the same time *we* will be looking for escapist glitzy culture because obviously *we*'re going to be a bit confused by all that serious stuff *we*'ve never considered before and will need something to lose ourselves in. Perhaps hiding the serious novels in a maze would help everyone?

*We*'re going to start looking for spirituality and may consider going to church. The church, in an attempt to connect with all these new confused and cynical people, will go through radical changes in a complete about turn of what the church is actually about. *We* have moved away from the relationships formed from duty and *we* will embrace these relationships once more.

*We* will rethink our values and have the shocking revelation that society of recent years has been fuelled by greed. Stunned by this realisation *we* will rethink how we treat the world and generally be better people as a result. This won't cause us to be more moral, no, that's old fashioned, but *we* may think more about whether *we* cause harm by our actions.

< some of us did that already, I'm sure it's not the realisation of the greed thing: I didn't just notice>

*We* won't do anything about our health, but there's new stuff being researched. How nice to know that the researchers are going to do something, presumably they've been saving up the last few years for this Year of Research. Meantime, Oliver James, cheermonger extraordinaire, tells us *we*'re all going to be more prone to depression and stress, which is an profound thought; people might find losing their houses and jobs a bit upsetting. On the plus side, *we* might come to realise that *we* don't need so many things and that our career is the only thing that gives us meaning. *We* may even manage without two incomes.

Leisure pursuits. Well, sadly *we*'re going to give up the lavish and extravagant overseas holidays. *We* will be looking for cheaper ways to spend our time. Heavens, *we* might do things like go to the seaside or take walks. *We* wil also embrace what is known as "bushcraft" holidays where you learn survival skills in the woods.

*We*'re going to grow our own veg and eat out less in another astonishing revelation that not spending money is a good way to economise.

And in a prediction that makes less than no sense, the majority of people will be single, while more people will get together in a need to be with someone. This includes married people who won't be able to afford a divorce so will have affairs instead. The author of this does gratifyingly use the word "paradoxically", before confusing the issue most of all by talking about organic relationships and retro dating.

So, to recap, we're going to pretty much like the same entertainment we did already, join the church and reconnect with our families, think about being ethical, spend less money, go camping in the woods and have lots of affairs.

I'm going to make the most of the rest of this year.