New Year resolutions: If one doesn't expect much, can never be disappointed. So I shall NOT do good works of art, I shall NOT meet my significant other, I shall become more avoidant every day, and I'll be more of a complete bastard in 2003. There, I think this ought to do the trick. ¶

Predictions. Iraq will probably be transformed in a giant asphalt desert (wanna bet Bush will push the big red button?), so will North Korea (now wouldn't a two-front war be good news for the Almighty Economy?). The problem is, if one in every thousand Muslims decides to have a go at the Christian-Jewish Complex that means we'll have a million people willing to fly planes into Daniel Liebeskind's New World Trade Center (they could, however, safely fly planes against Richard Meier's, as it looks ugly as hell). The Great Depression continues: The good news is, Disney could be the next Enron and McDonalds the next WorldCom, leaving the world free from bad comics and bad hamburgers (I'm not against McD because it is capitalizt, I'm against McD because it does taste awful). And 2003 is the year when the tide either turns or keeps going: As the Entertainment Cartel tries to illegalize everything analog, chances are that the artists and technology lobbies bring an end to this madness restoring common sense in copyright and fair use - the first outcome means doom, the second one that we in the Freedom World (not necessarily 'Free') still might return to the halcyon days of the mid-90s, provided that all arabs and arab-looking persons in the US are kept in concentration camps, for their own safety of course, until Hilary Clinton gets the White House in 2008 - if Bush doesn't do like F. D. Roosevelt in this Age of War. Nature will still get its revenge at Man, as always. Africa's population, which consists as we all know (according to 'religious experts') of whores and homossexuals, will keep dying because of God's Remedy (also known as 'AIDS'). Here in Portugal, the right-wing government will either resign or go through extensive renovation after the 111th corruption scandal. More human clones will appear, and the public opinion will lose interest as it realizes clones are boring humans, not satanic monsters from outer space. And finally, 2003 will be yet another fine year with plenty of stupidity, unsavoury justice, and intolerance among the human race. I really hope the Selenites come save us quick. ¶

2003. Yet another year that leaves the Land of Science Fiction and enters the Realm of the Real. Yet another legendary failure of a New Year party, this year it didn't even happen as I spent the eve and the first hours of the new year home, and I'm blogging this before going to bed. 2003, however, is a helluva scary year. Not because of War, not because of Terrorism, not because of the Depression, not because it is yet another shiny new calendar ready to be filled with human stupidity. No. 2003 is incredibly scary because it means 1993 happened ten years ago. ¶