The two postings about another year beginning have been sad for the most part and they got me thinking. Its not just a new year for me. Today is my 26th birthday. Last year I was depressed and unhappy and completely ignored the day. The past year has seen many changes, I am not the same person I was. I am much stronger-sadder in some ways but better off. I face this birthday and new year with much more hope and excitement for the year to come. I recently watched a French movie "Amelie" which I related to very well. Amelie lived in her dreams and when she had a chance to make her dreams a reality, she almost gave in to fear and let them slip away. I have spent many hours living in my imagination doing all the things I think I am incapable of doing in real life. Well, this year I am trying to look at my dreams in a different light-as things that can come to be if I try not things to hide in instead of living. I know this is really random and aimless but I had to get some feelings out. And being full of hope, I wanted to share some of it. So Happy New Year to you all, live each day to its fullest, and don't look back-look forward cuz you never know what may change! Catherine

I'm honestly glad you are looking forward to a good year and that you are excited about it. I hope your dreams do come true and that you can hang on to that optimism. Do enjoy your 2003.

Ironically enough, I had my 27th birthday on Friday and it was quite a bad day in many respects. However, on Sunday afternoon I watched "Dead Poets Society" for the second time in almost a decade and it reminded me of how important it is to 'let go' and break free from the strict, sometimes choking, guidelines society lives by. Best wishes, Iwan

I'm still sittin' in the fifty, still can't find my glasses and I was working on a very serious poem about quantum computers...which after 3 days is still a whip. I guess fifty is an age when everything seems to take forever to do and you can actually see the hour hand moving on the clock. Funny how the 70's show still seems like yesterday. I can still remember my mother-in-laws kitchen looking exactly like the one on the set. My brother-in-law had a haircut like Kelso's and I actually wore polyesther shirts. Now the kitchen is a hodgepodge of "gadgets", my brother-in-law is almost bald and I wear quilted shirts just trying to stay warm.

Hardly the only old-timer. I turn 52 this year. Being female, I have the opposite problem with my personal heating than tjames has, and my sense of time is that everything is going too fast (not too slow). I don't want to drive bigger and speedier cars. I don't care about carrying around electronic gadgets on my head and hips. I can't tell the current young actors and actresses apart. And I have a feeling that the Poser world discriminates against anyone over the age of 30 because aside from Dalinese and a few others, no one is trying to represent anyone close to my age group in the galleries. I find I like my dogs and cats better than most people, and I value my time alone more and more. I don't have any great thrill about the new year. 2003 looks exactly like 2002 so far. Oh well. Tottering away.

Dialyn, you are only as old as you think you are. I hope that this year holds something special for you even if its just relishing the time you spend with your dogs and cats. They do tend to be nicer than many people!

No, I'm going to be 52 years old and I have the birth certificate to show it. I'm not 12, not 22, not 32, and not 42. I'm not ashambed of it. This is what 52 looks like and I don't have any interest in pretending to be younger. The thing about 52 is that it encompasses all the years that came before it. I'm not into this, think young, be young stuff because I don't want to be young and the way young people think alarms me. I am going to be 52 years old. And that's fine with me. Because I've survived. I've conquered demons. I'm wrinkled, bruised, and scarred. And I'm not a pretty picture. So what. I'm here. I'm who I am. And that's fine with me. I'm going to be 52...and I am so glad I don't have to relive any of the previous years that have created what I am today. Give the think young speech to someone else. I want to think like I am going to be 52. Because I am. And it's an amazing thing to have survived and still be here to say that.

It occurs to me that what really makes me angry about the think young, be yound speech is that it implies being young is better than what I am. Be what you are, whatever age you are and celeberate that. Youth is fine for the young, but over rated in many ways. So glad I'll never travel that trail again.

DIdn't mean to make you angry. I just have seen many older people who get so caught up in being old that they forget that they are still alive. You certainly don't seem to be at that point! I also didn't mean to imply that being young is better than being older. Each phase of life has its good points and bad. So here's to being alive and surviving! Cheers

Since this seems to be age confession time, I'm 32. the forehead is getting a little bigger, the grays are beginning to sprout, and the music I liked as a teen is now showing up in car commercials. Fortunately, I have my lovely wife of ten years and two furry adopted daughters who make me appreciate the years we've spent together and the years to come. There's a great movie called Innocence I think everyone here should see. It's about growing old, accepting the things you can't change, and doing something about the things you can before it's too late. Have a better one.

Joe...Play those two hound doggys something blue and sweet so they'll sing real nice aroooo arooo.

Ha ha! They're actually American Eskimos and they only sing for the fire engines--my playing just puts them to sleep. You can see them here: http://www.hitchcockblonde.net/cool_canines Look in the Friends section for Megan and Phoebe.

Attached Link: Click the Friends link for Megan and Phoebe

Well as far as age goes I will be 54 this year and am feeling all of those years but never give up as if I would I would dwindle away to nothing lol

Oh dear! I am neither an old woman nor a young girl, not a wise woman, nor a fool to be I'm living a life, and it remains to see that what will be, simply is. hee hee sorry, my poetry is simple and, in this case, rather silly my prose prosaic, my life well lived. It seems to me, in all the above, to be something I share With the old and the young, the wise and the weary Losing my sight, my touch, my hearing Yet my mind keeps a going and going and going while the doctor's they probe, and stick me unfeeling but that's ok, you see, I'm crazed mentally kaput, unhinged, and ynsaen

From the Internet (of course): 1. The badness of a movie is directly proportional to the number of helicopters in it. 2. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time. 3. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. 4. The most powerful force in the universe is: gossip. 5. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers. 6. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is: age 11. 7. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." 8. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. 9. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings." 10. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them. 11. If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and he decides to deliver a message to humanity, he will NOT use as his messenger a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle or in some cases, really bad make-up too. 12. You should not confuse your career with your life. 13. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter/janitor, is not a nice person. 14. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. 15. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. 16. Your true friends love you, anyway. 17. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

LOL, Dialyn.

The more people I meet, the more I like my cats.