Feliz Ano Nuevo

Welcome to 2006, everybody. Just wanted to get on here and wish a happy new year to everyone I know (except the piss-drunk cock who punched a dent into my hood on new year's eve -- that guy can suck it 'til December).

This year, I figured I'd make a resolution not to make any resolutions. Kind of like in the movie Singles when Campbell "I Can't Get Work Anymore" Scott tells Kyra "I Look Like a Goblin But Am Married To Kevin Bacon" Sedgwick that he "doesn't have an act" and she tells him that not having an act is his act. Of course, I'm sure one of you smart-asses will now go to imdb.com and inform me that Campbell Scott has several movies in post-production or some crap like that. Regardless, I'm sticking with my original zinger.

Also, I wanted to give a belated shout-out to our good buddy Matt Dees, who, in the tradition of fine journalists everywhere, desperately needed sources for a story about murder-for-hire and blogs and apparently thought that was Regis sitting across from him, so he phoned a friend, i.e. - me.

That resulted in some mad love for this blog in the venerable News & Observer. Here's the excerpt (so you can skip all the murder stuff):

But not all blog controversies are matters of life and death.

Each installment of Evan Markfield's "Blog Cabin" usually entices no more than a few comments from readers. (One post titled "Brush with Greatness" alerts readers that he recently purchased a shower brush.)

But in May, Markfield posted about a college buddy, Mike Ogle, a journalist who had offended residents of Guam with a piece he wrote for ESPN.com about a cockfight he witnessed in the island territory. It wasn't long before several dozen outraged Guamanians found their way to Markfield's blog.

Suddenly he was in a hassle half a world away, with some anonymous posters using profanity and ethnic slurs to argue that Guam was misrepresented in Ogle's piece.

"It was kind of fun or exciting at first, because all of a sudden a lot of people were reading my blog," Markfield said. "It became kind of annoying when things started taking a nasty turn."

Also, a big shout out to Keith and Mary for hosting new year's down in Wilmington, and to the boys for enacting the “ridiculous tie and ridiculous shirt” plan, and to the acne-faced checkout kid at the Food Lion who mocked my Scooby Doo tie. And of course, to all of you. Happy new year!