Instead of reflecting nostalgically on events of the past year, I'm going to devote part of today's entry to How Scottish Things Are So Awesome!
Would you like a few examples? How about Roddy Frame, Billy Boyd, Belle and Sebastian, delicious buttery shortbread, kilts on guys with really good calves and this So Awesome thing where you can throw digital snowballs at digital windows and be met with digital jeers!
If you're American and you want to be married in Great Britain, you can only do it in Scotland. Awesome. In fact...So Awesome.
My friend Graham is Scottish and he and his wife and two kids and two Labradors are So Awesome. (That reminds me to send him a Happy New Year e-mail while I'm sober, not while I'm drunk and teary-eyed with my usual, alcohol-induced love for humanity that can be either charming or disturbing, depending on the amount of booze consumed.)
In non Scottish-related news, last year I thought I was using the word "awesome" way too much, thereby lessening its impact. But now I embrace "awesome" and want everyone out there to know that when I say something or someone is awesome, I really mean it.
Here are the awesome things I have planned for this evening:
Drinking Kir Royales (This is an awesome drink made of sparkling wine and creme de cassis liqueur.)
Eating steak
Hanging out with my friends
Looking awesome (I hope.)
Listening, at least once, to Love's "Alone Again Or," which is about how people can be pretty awesome (or, "the greatest fun," according to the song)
Not getting really, really drunk, which can occasionally be awesome but sets a bad precedent for the year to come, I think.
On that note, I would like to wish you and yours an Awesome New Year. I would also like to say Happy Birthday to my awesome friend Phil and send a shout-out to all the awesome people in New Zealand, where it is already 2004: Don't tell me what happens, okay?
You can find more of the interesting word usements I structure on Apple.com.
Read my article, Better Writing Through Design, on No. 242 of A List Apart.