The Reflection Meme

Ah, it's the end of another calendar year, and the reflection meme permeating the ether contaminates us all. Feel it? Which ideas, which themes to keep and which to discard? What is worth a year-end mention and what is best forgotten?

Many in the MSM are doing a decade-long review thing, 2000-2009. They are technically a bit ahead of themselves, but it may make sense if you are one of those round-number people who start a century at year '00 instead of '01, you know, "just because." (Admit it, there's no logic involved. Quick, what happened in the year 00 A.D.?) Mark my words, this decade-review ritual will repeat at the end of 2010, when they have an irresistible multiple of ten to deal with.

I expect two occasional features from my 2009 blogging at TOTF to carry forward. The first is "Why I hate the Confederacy," which no one north or south of the Mason-Dixon Line has given me any reason to abandon. I only managed a couple of installments, but I imagine that with mid-term elections there will be plenty of fodder coming up.

The other is "Quote of the Week," which was far from weekly here, but it regularly graced my academic e-mail for those lucky enough to be on the receiving end. Herewith is a little cyberpunk from a 1999 book that should get us to the end of 2009:

"That which is overdesigned, too highly specific, anticipates outcome; the anticipation of outcome guarantees, if not failure, the absence of grace."
     --William Gibson