Let’s see… Arthur C Clarke is gone, the Killer Death Flu Of Death has made merry havoc for everyone I know over the last couple of months, fuel prices keep going upward, taxes are hitting me (and a few others) harder than they did last year, I rarely see more than a couple of my friends anymore, I’ve lost touch with several others entirely, I still can’t find comfortable sheets for my bed, I’m getting older and creakier, every one of my computers has some kind of annoying problem getting in the way of my doing what I actually want to use them for, nearly everything worth watching anymore is old stuff, let’s not even go into the fact that there hasn’t been a movie worth seeing in the theater since mid-2007, and, and, and…

2008? You can go sit in the corner. Don’t come out until you can play nice.

Because I said so. That’s why.

Year of the Rat, my ass.