May this new year be everything you wish it to be.

To all the good friends I have met at this site during 2004,

HAPPY NEW YEAR,

And may God in His goodness, bless you every one!

Joe Comer

and

Nurse Jenny

Finally, a moment to post something! After a harrowing end of semester followed by a two-week trip to Florida to visit the parents, we are settling back into a routine (I hope).

My life management skills are in need of renewal. I cannot have another semester like this past fall. I’m going over some of Stephen R. Covey’s material, including his new book, “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness” (got it for Christmas; so far, I like it) and trying to figure how to improve my ability to manage my activities better.

Anyway, I’m hoping to finally and fully adopt the 7 Habits. I’ve always felt they held a great deal of promise, and I think it’s time to see if that’s the case. As a (somewhat modest) start, I make the following New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Get to bed by 10 each weeknight, up by 6 every weekday (this will be the hardest — I am by nature not a morning person, but I know I’ll be able to get a lot more done if I get up earlier than if I stay up later).
2. Post something of significance to this website at least twice a week.
3. Do 20 minutes of aerobic exercise at least three times a week.
4. Learn a new skill, take up a new hobby, or develop some as yet unknown talent (I’m considering learning to play the mandolin — what do you think of that?).

And I’m asking you to hold me accountable.

Feel free to share your own resolutions. Fellow Daily Briefers?

And of course, have a great and prosperous 2005!

From Lt Col Sage and the whole Sage family.

Relatively, not that bad, according to the Disaster Center:

Of course, it is highly debatable how “natural” the famines in the Soviet Union, Bangladesh and Ethiopa were.

Steve Park supplies this first-hand account of the rescue/cleanup work after the tsunamis on Phuket:

We stopped at a hastily arranged rescue center along the side of the road. Across the road were hundreds of bodies lined up, most left in the sun because all the trees are gone and they only had one awning to erect to provide a little shade. The sight and stench were horrible.

We put big gobs of Vicks VapoRub up our nostrils and started helping bag the bodies. But the pick-up trucks kept coming, bringing more bodies faster than we could wrap them in plastic and bed sheets (there were no proper body bags).

Later in the morning, some Thai rescue teams arrived and took over our work. By early afternoon, more awnings arrived and some body bags arrived. We then walked back towards the hills, behind the large naval boat that was washed over a kilometer from the beach.

We found several bodies in the debris back on the hill. Later, walking back towards the beach, the smell of decaying bodies buried under the rubble was everywhere. But there is so much debris, that heavy equipment will be needed to remove it. One rescue team from Taiwan was digging through rubble by hand and recovered one body. At one point, people started screaming and yelling, “the water is coming.”

The death toll now stands at over 150,000.

Big Band leader Artie Shaw has past away at 94. While I’m confident far fewer people will be as affected by his passing as that of Reggie White, It is highly arguable which of the two had more impact on the world in which we live.

If you are unfamiliar with his entrancing clarinet work, and brilliant arrangements, you’ll get a chance to hear his Nightmare on the movie The Aviator. Who knows, perhaps you’ll go on to other Shaw classics, or even move beyond, to the likes of Rich, Carmichael, Coltrane, or Paul? What a wonderful thing that would be.

I am currently watching The Hallelujah Kids on the Discovery-Times Screening Room. It concerns a father and his 19 year-old son, both evangelical ministers, and a 10 year-old son, who is about to become ordained. Personally, I have serious reservations about the idea of a 10 year-old proselytizing.

The father talks of a 10 year-old in the neighborhood of the brick-and-mortar church they are settling in to; he shot his father dead. I would also have a problem in trying that boy as an adult. The father claims that, if the Devil can occupy the soul of that child, why can’t God occupy the soul of his. The whole idea violates the concept of the innocence of childhood.

I read some good ones at Townhall.com today.

Why the war in Iraq is an integral part of the war on terror

The Bush legacy will take a healing period

And yet another Ann Couler gem, 2004: Highlights and lowlifes.

While one of my local PBS stations is airing a Globe Trekker episode, the others are showing; 1) Great Performances, featuring Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Vince Gil, and others. 2) Nova – Fireworks. 3) And Nova – Great Escape. I’ve chosen the latter. I hope the rest replay soon.