Well, here it is. The end of another year. Not the best in many ways, but not the worst either.

BushCo has not been as successful in pushing their agenda as in previous years which offers hope that the country is wising up to these guys.

Still struggling with various aspects of my life, but interesting developments have also occurred.

I am now singing with The Dekalb Choral Guild which has been an interesting and generally enjoyable experience.

I've also been volunteering at the new Geogia Aquarium which is truly a world-class operation. They claim to be the largest aquarium in the world and I have no reason to doubt them. It is a fascinating place to visit.

I've improved my blog this year, not least by actually writing things for it. The upgrade to the latest version of Movable Type was significant in that I now have greater spam control for my comments so that I've been able to allow comments again. I'm still getting some spam comments (usually less than a handful each day), but they don't get publshed without my approval and deleting them is easier than it used to be.

Church has been difficult as I'm not thrilled with our current Interim Pastor, but more significantly our Music Director for the past 26 years has taken a new job elsewhere. While I am happy for her (larger program, shorter commute), the church feels the loss of her significant contributions to the life of the congregation and especially to the worship experience which has been perhaps the strongest aspect of our congregation, IMHO.

I have found a new community in which I have been active of late at Real Live Preacher, particularly in the chat room which has been set up there. As an outgrowth of that group I have set up Real Live Pirate where some folks who met at rlp share some links and other information. rlp2 (as we call it) might become obsolete as rlp continues to upgrade his site, but so far it has been fun.

I've been having lunch most every Thursday with my brother for several months now (many people at his office now greet me as "Cliff's brother"). We've been using this time both to keep up with what we are each doing and with what is happening in our shared and individual families. More than that, we've been discussing our spiritual lives which have taken us in different directions from each other. I think I understand him a bit better now (though not fully) and I hope he sees a bit more of what I belive and why.

I'm hoping for good things for the new year. A new job would be nice (and there are some irons in that fire). Getting a new pastor could be good, though we'll have to wait and see about that. I trust our pnc (Pastor Nominating Committee) will be able to find someone better than the interim we currently have. If not then I think we are likely to be looking for a new church. We may not wait until this interim is gone.

I guess that's enough for now. Hope to see some of you next year. Have a safe and happy New Year!