In his perhaps revolutionary and/or controversial book "The End of Time" Julian Barbour claims that time is something we construct. I'd love to use that as an excuse as to why it's been over one year since I've written anything here. But I can't. I've fallen into the worst of all traps: getting too caught up in life to remember to balance out all the little things. Unfortunately, little things are not always so little. That's why it's good to keep tending to them,.

Well, y2k came and went. So has Billy C. Microsoft still hasn't been broken up. More people watched the Superbowl this year than voted in the recent sham of a presidential election. But perhaps most important, the Yankees won the World Series for the third year straight. So all is not lost. Napster clones are still helping people share the beauty of music. Nasa proved over and over again that the state run exploration of space is about as efficient as a corporate run computer operating system. Linux has finally made it into the headlines. Dot coms are almost a thing of the past.

Like many, I've been doing my thing, trying to make some small semblance of a difference in my little corner of the world. Whether or not I've succeeded seems almost irrelevant. GW is about to make swiss cheese out of Alaska. The population continues to grow by leaps and bounds ... while the best we can do is make nice documentaries about what it would be like to colonize space. Pessimistic? Not on your life. Unhappy about the current state of affairs? You betcha.

But what the hell can anyone do? Maybe a start would be to make some time ... even if it doesn't really exist. But talk is cheap.