This year I made just one resolution: write weekly. I created this space to enable me to do that, and I did. Sort of. 

With this final post of 2013, I will have published 23 times. That's 23 weeks out of 52 possible weeks. Mathematically, I failed. However, while 44% is failure on a test score, this project isn't a test. It's a work in progress, and I'm proud I didn't give up when it was clear I would not get even close to a perfect publication score.

This is not my favorite time of the year. Television stations suspend normal programming to present sentimental holiday movies and specials; radio airwaves spew a steady stream of crooners fantasizing about talking snowmen and roasting chestnuts. Shoppers increase their debt levels and engage in moronic behavior while pursuing the latest must-haves advertisers have persuaded them they cannot live without. Perfect becomes the adjective de jour: perfect hostess, perfect party, perfect meal, perfect gift... Visual and auditory sensations become overwhelming noise, a tornado of commotion inflating expectations and waistlines, and only the latter isn't deflated when the hoopla dies down.