Good bye 2009, hello 2010

[Tybae]

It is now time to say goodbye to another year, the close of a decade and hello to a new year and decade.  So many things happened in the last decade.  We saw the first African American man elected as President of the USA.  The Boston Red Sox won their first world series in 86 years.  Michael Phelps won a record 8 gold medals and became the most decorated athlete in the history of the Olympic games.  Italy won the world cup in 2006 (holds a special meaning to me as I was in Italy at the time in a freak coincidence).  We saw terrorists take down the World Trade Center.  We saw the fall of a dictator in Iraq.  We saw a tsunami wipe out entire islands and thier populations.  We saw a hurricane devistate New Orleans.  We saw the death of a Pope and the election of a new Pope.  Terrorists bombed the London Underground.  The space shuttle Colombia broke apart in the sky.  12 countries adopted the Euro as its currency.  The Spirit Rover landed on Mars and took the most detailed pictures of Mars we have ever seen.  We saw the fall of countless banks and financial institutions creating the largest recession since the Great Depression and arguably the largest global recession in history.  We saw scientists take the first images of Titan, the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere.  Bioware released Neverwinter Nights 1, without which the AME would not exist.  Bioware is bought by Electronic Arts.  Obsidian releases Neverwinter Nights 2.  Bioware releases Dragon Age: Origins. 

I have great hopes for 2010 and the start of a new decade.  Hopefully we will see better things to come that will overshadow the bad times toward the end of the 2000's. 

I wish you all a hopeful and prosperous New Year.