So the champagne's been drunk and the New Year is here. The other obvious question is:

What's your new year's resolution?

I usually never remember mine...it's hard enough to remember the goals I have to complete for the week! However a past Spiritual Director once told me that times of change and renewal are the best times to make new habits. "New wine belongs in new wineskins," was the underlying theme, and there's some truth to that for me. So, hoping to make "changes" rather than just "resolutions," here's a few goals I've set for the new year.

Over the next few days, I will be giving my web log a new look. Every year I go for a new look; this time I've been working with some of the newer/custom templates. I've sworn at the computer a few times today just to get them to work!

While I'm trying to find something that is easy on the eyes for you, Dear Reader, I appreciate any input you might have. I'll be swapping test templates in and out during the next few days. By Friday night, I will have made up my mind.

In the meanwhile, have a safe and enjoyable new year's celebration. May this year present you with opportunities to succeed and grow!

Peace and all good,
Vito Martinez, Capuchin Postulant

About the time many of you will be toasting in the new year, kissing your sweetie, and talking loftily of resolutions to come, I will be in a room of about 200 poker players that barely notice it's passing. I have no regret; I agreed to work this evening so others could enjoy the festive night with their friends/family.

Personally, I like to think I have more at stake than a few flighty resolutions for this upcoming year, however my goals do require more work. Seven more months to pay down the debt, 30 days to finish the autobiography and send it in, 4 months to finish everything else and wait to see what the Capuchins say. Indeed, 2008 will be a year to remember - and its still 11 hours away.

For this new year, I think there's a more appropriate song for me than Auld Lang Syne. I have nothing against it; I've stumbled drunkenly through the lyrics plenty of times before. I just happened to find a better Scottish song to ring in the new year.

I'll see everyone next year. Till then, I leave you all with The Ramblin' Rover by Silly Wizard:


There's sober men in plenty
And drunkards barely twenty
There are men of over ninety
That have never yet kissed a girl
But give me a Ramblin Rover
Frae Orkney down to Dover
We will roam the country over
And together we'll face the world

I've roamed through all the nations
Take delight in all creation
And I've cried away sensation
Where the company did prove kind
When parting was no pleasure
I've drunk another measure
To the good friends that we treasure
For they always are in our mind.

There's sober men in plenty
And drunkards barely twenty
There are men of over ninety that have never yet kissed a girl
But give me a Ramblin Rover
Frae Orkney down to Dover
We will roam the country over
And together we'll face the world.

There's many that feign enjoyment
From merciless employment
Their ambition was this deployment
From the minute they left the school
And they save and scrape and ponder
While the rest go out and squander
See the world in roving wonder
And they're happier as a rule

Oh there's sober men in plenty
And drunkards barely twenty
There are men of over ninety that have never yet kissed a girl
But give me a Ramblin Rover
Frae Orkney down to Dover
We will roam the country over
And together we'll face the world

If you're bent with arthritis
Your bowels have got colitis
You've galloping bollockitis
And you're thinking it's time you died
If you've been a man of action
Though you're lying there in traction
You may gain some satisfaction
Thinking: "Jesus, at least I tried."

There's sober men in plenty
And drunkards barely twenty
There are men of over ninety that have never yet kissed a girl
But give me a Ramblin Rover
Frae Orkney down to Dover
We will roam the country over
And together we'll face the world.

Cheers - To: "Facing The World."

-V