I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the future and what it will bring. Will such and such book sell well, will I die in a horrible accident, what will it be like when Kate has a rabbit running around the house, will our country ever be free of the gang of crooks and liars currently ensconced in the White House, and will internet poster omega EVER stop whining? I’ll grant you that some of these concerns are great and some are small, but what can I tell you, it’s how my brain works. I suppose then that I should take some small comfort in knowing something about the future. I can tell you right now what my life will be about in 2006. It’s starting now with a bit of flint and steel, but soon it will blossom into a firestorm that will consume the next year of my life. Unlike an all-cleansing fire, however, this should leave something very substantial behind. 2006: the Year of Wouldn’t-You-Like-to-Know.

In media news, I saw today that Studio Ghibli’s next movie is an adaptation of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. This is great news, as the Scifi channel mini-series from last year was godawful. Le Guin’s story plus Ghibli’s animation magic should be a winning combination. At least I hope so. There also seems to be a chance that Showtime will pick up the recently cancelled Arrested Development, a very funny but not very popular show. I’d like to see the writers get a chance to push beyond the boundaries of network TV. If the most recent episode, in which a warden played by James Lipton gets children to put on his prison drama screenplay as their school play (imagine 8 year olds reading dialogue from Oz), is any indication, the freedom of cable TV could take the show to the next level.