The Obligatory First Post of 2012

Missing the first day of January would be a bad start toward fulfilling my resolution of averaging a blog post a day in 2012, wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, I'm just not seeing that much exciting to blog about today. So I guess I'll just throw out a few trivialities.

The Iowa Republican caucus? Yawn. I won't be surprised if Ron Paul finishes first, second, third or fourth. I won't be surprised if Gingrich finishes second, third or lower, or if Santorum finishes as high as third. I will be surprised if Romney doesn't make at least second place, if Gingrich wins, if Santorum lands first or second place, or if Paul places worse than fourth. As you can tell, none of these surprise/non-surprise markers resolve into real predictions of note. Frankly, I'm already bored to tears with this election. Maybe that will change.

Last night was the first night in nearly two months that I didn't sleep outdoors in a tent (click on the "tent living" label if you're interested in why). New Year celebrations kept me up until the wee hours, and in an altered mental state to boot. Also while it's not quite a "resolution," my intent is to see if I can sleep outdoors every night in 2012, so I figured one last hurrah on an indoor bed made sense at this juncture.

For New Year's Eve family movie night, the first selection was Cowboys and Aliens. Not bad. I didn't expect to like it much, but I always enjoy Daniel Craig. Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Clancy Brown et. al didn't disappoint either. Doesn't go on my "favorites" shelf or anything, but I'd watch it again. After that, we tried Across the Universe. I lost interest maybe a third of the way through. Interesting concept, but just didn't hold together well. We also rented R.E.D., but never got to it.

OK, you can go back to being bored with something else now.