New Year Thoughts

I've had a few things bouncing around in my brain that I'll put down for therapy today.

• New Year's is the time of setting goals and if you don't look at past performance it is hard to gauge realistic goals for the future. As I review the past I often find myself thinking "I wish I had done that better, known better, etc." Sometimes I hear the sentiment, "I have no regrets" and wonder how these people ever got to such a place and lived such a perfect life. Personally, I do have regrets, about many things and that's because I've made plenty of mistakes. Is that such a crime? It certainly fits into the negative attitude I often harbor. Despite all of that, I find some light at the end of the tunnel when I realize I don't regret anything I've learned from my mistakes. Yes, many lessons have been painful, but they have each given me a little more depth, understanding, patience and empathy. Of course it is better to not make mistakes at all, but to not learn from them would truly be a regretful thing. So my goal this year is to learn from the past, improve and have a life with no regrets.I'll spare the details in the interests of privacy and boredom.

• Shannahan gets Sacked - This was truly a shocker. Am I sad? Yes. The "Mastermind" was the best coach in franchise history and gave us the golden era of Broncos football. I can still see Terrell Davis gaining 10 yards per run in devastating fashion. But those days are over and Shannahan is an average GM at best. He refused to give up that power and lost control of his team. It is time for a change. Perhaps fans are upset because they are scared of a 3 win season. Rightfully so, but it was clear we were not going to win another championship with him as GM/head coach. If you are not playing to win, why play at all? It was a very gutty move by Bowlen. I respect it, but only time will tell if he was a genius or an idiot.

• Movie reccomendations - Ghost Town, 2 thumbs up in the sky. The Dutchess, 2 thumbs down in the manure. Its that simple on these two films.

• I stumbled across a video from Rick Astley recently. I've heard this song before and figured it was a black singer due to the deep quality of the voice. Needless to say, I was shocked to see this dude singing (youtube won't let me embed) but its the pop-up version so it will have some fun facts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HrSN7176XI&feature=related. Classic 80s cringe material. This guy has a look that screams, "Punch me in the face and steal my lunch money." According to Rick's wikipedia site, I'm not the only one who thought he was a Milli Vanilli act. "During much of his career, due to his deep bass-baritone voice, many listeners assumed he was black. In one instance, the comedic entertainer Sinbad discussed him with a talk-show host, expressing his surprise that Astley was not "one of the brothers."

Alright, I've got 2009 off to a nice random start.