The End of the Year as we Know It

TO DO before 1 Jan 2007:

Survive
Finish sketchbook (luckily that looks likely) without accidentally stabbing a vital artery with a pencil
Buy stuff for New Years party and not get hit by a car or renegade shopping cart or stabbed by a madman in a dark alley on the way home from the store
Avoid bridges and my balcony for fear of carelessness or badly-timed earthquake or windstorm
Not get bitten by a rabid raccoon
Repeat to myself: I WILL SURVIVE 2006. I WILL SURVIVE 2006. I WILL SURVIVE 2006. I will be one of the lucky ones.

Hmm, can I manage that all in two days?

What's the Fun of Winning if You Can't Gloat?

NO.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Powers That Be in Iraq (I don't care if it's the US or whatever supposedly local government is in charge): You're not listening.

You weren't supposed to kill Saddam Hussein. You were supposed to put him in a bomb-proof plexiglass box in Burbank so animators could draw his fabulous facial expressions and gestures for the rest of his days ... which probably wouldn't be very many if he were in a bomb-proof plexiglass box in direct sunlight with no air conditioning, especially if he were wearing one of his fancied wool suits. Even with personal animator consideration aside, this argument can be framed in a vaguely political way – because hey, that's what the Romans did! Haul the leaders of your conquered tribes back home and put them on display! Okay, okay, and then kill them, but that is inevitable with the aforementioned wool, plexiglass, and California sunshine. You like the Romans! You obviously want to be the Romans! Look at your political architecture and symbology! Why do you randomly pick this moment to suddenly get all 'mature' and, as a consequence, forfeit one of the greatest life drawing models the world has ever seen? Think how a study of such a man could benefit future generations both artistically and entertainment-wise. The budding animator who draws Saddam Hussein today could go on to make the seminal classic of family entertainment tomorrow, but no! You deprive your children of their generation's Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast – How could you?? Sheesh.