I am so thrilled to be here in the 21st century. This is the future, the century when what was once science fiction becomes science fact. I kind of thought I'd have my own personal jetpack by now, but there's still time.
Lacking zippier modes of transportation, John and I drove our petroleum-product-fueled vehicle to Patty Peters' and Gary Mattingly's house in Dublin last night to celebrate New Year's Eve with our old crowd from San Francisco fandom days. Almost everyone was there: Jay Kinney and Dixie Tracy Kinney, Lyn Kuehl and Cheryl Cline, Rich Coad and Stacy Scott, Terry Floyd and Pam Davis, plus assorted friends, dogs, and children. It was a jolly way to watch the century mark click over, and we greeted it with lots of fireworks and champagne. I did an interpretive millennium dance with sparklers which amused everyone greatly. For once, I had an absolutely wonderful New Year's Eve.
Gary Mattingly and his faithful hound to the left. On the right, Kent Johnston takes the Cosmo Quiz. Jeannie Bowman is appalled.
To the left, Patty Peters poses with John. To the right, Rich Coad gives me the same dubious stare he used to give me when we shared on office.
Last week was quiet and peaceful, and I got all my projects done. John and I had several long discussions on what to do with our vacation next year. It was a tie between Italy and Japan, and we could not make up our minds. The fares were the same. The cost of hotels was the same. The flight times were approximately the same. We've been to both destinations before. The photo opportunities, the food, and the cultures were all equally appealing. It was incredibly hard to choose. In the end, we decided on Japan because it would take us a full two weeks to see all the sights we wanted to see in Italy, and I can only be gone one week at a time. What we chiefly want to see in Japan is Tokyo, taking one or two easy day trips from there. Much simpler, and we won't have to constantly pack and unpack. So it's settled, and I've booked our flights.
Tomorrow is the third anniversary of Aries Moon. When I started out there were less than 80 people on Open Pages, and the media had not yet discovered the online diary phenomenon. Some of my favorite writers weren't publishing yet, and others had been at it for a year already. I thought I was being a terrible copycat, and that I was late coming to the format; it turns out I was the first wave after the vanguard, and am now considered one of the old guard by the majority of web diarists writing today. The first year I was thrilled to have 50 readers at the end of twelve months. The second year I doubled my readership. This year I doubled it again, but I doubt I can pull that off next year. In fact, I don't want to concentrate on increasing readership anymore. I don't have many goals for the diary, but I do have standards and I haven't met them lately. There have been far more "laundry list" entries this year than I'm comfortable with. I've fallen away from my original concept, that of the egocentric newspaper column. I've gotten lazy in the name of updating nearly every day.
I'm going to work on content. If it means a few less entries, that's okay. I write for you, but I also write for me. I think we'll all enjoy the diary a lot more if I stay true to my ideas and stop chasing after meaningless numbers. It's kind of like the difference between 2000 and 2001. You can tell yourself the true millennium has a 1 on the end of it, that the bigger number is the real deal, but the truth of the matter is the other number is every bit as meaningful. We all love reaching those magic numbers. It's what we did while getting there that matters.
Happy New Year!
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