Just some belated beginning of 2014 thoughts:

Since it's now 2014 instead of 2013, I've decided to devote this blog post to the future! As I 1st announced back in early December (a month ago, in fact), I'm in the process of writing a nonfiction take on culture; mostly recent culture, with some "old-school" culture thrown in for good measure. The main reason I've decided on nonfiction instead of fiction is because I believe my generation is perhaps too focused on fiction, allowing the educational culture in this country, which I think is also overly focused on fiction, preventing them from exploring the world around them & getting their thoughts on real life known to the general public. Initially, I thought the 1st 5 chapters (under the banner of "geopolitical chaos") would somehow fit in with "lighter" topics, but on 2nd thought, I may or may not delete that section & insert something perhaps focusing on the future of culture in general (whatever you define that to be)! I hope that once this is done sometime later this year, you people appreciate somebody from this "millennial" generation being able to effectively combine both old & new culture instead of 1 generation ******** on all other generations in the process!

On the topic of travel, I initially planned on heading to Japan this summer, then pushed that back to the summer of next year (2015); now, however, after everything combined to make the tail end of my 2013 generally lousy, I'm now considering returning to my original schedule just to be able to have somewhere to travel outside of the NYC area this year! That's not all, though… There's also the CGI U (the Clinton Global Initiative: University) that takes place every spring, & this year, it'll be taking place in the desert @ Arizona State University! I know most of you would probably tell me to get the 2 1/2 month-long Japan trip out of the way A.S.A.P. & check it off the "bucket list", but now that I've changed my mind multiple times in recent weeks, IDK what I'll decide to do, & where I'll decide to go, this year!

(somewhat relevant UPDATE: http://www.reddit.com/r/teenagers/comments/1v8i97/should_the_private_lives_of_famous_people_be_off/)

Lastly, I'd like to address what I believe is a growing problem: a lack of performers either able, willing, or both to appear on all the New Year's Eve shows that have appeared in recent years. I know everybody has different tastes from everybody else on the planet, & that those tastes change over the course of a few years, but that doesn't mean there should be an obvious conflict of interest on any of those shows! Here, in no particular order, are the hosts & guests who appeared on all the NYE shows last/this year: 

ABC: preceded by the "30 Greatest Women in Music" special, which I believe was actually quite interesting, unlike most similar "specials" I've seen on NYE & the other 364 days/365 of them in leap years!

HOSTS: Dick Clark (I know I just gave his name the whole "strikethrough" treatment, but that doesn't mean I don't miss him starting off each year!), Ryan Seacrest (DISCLAIMER: I've almost never watched A.I. throughout its decade-plus on FOX, since I think that man is so full of himself on every show he hosts, including the annual NYE show!), Jenny McCarthy (who's given me more than enough reasons to dislike her over her screwed-up beliefs about social disorders over the years, but on an occasion that only happens once each year, I usually manage to deal with them, since the alternatives are even worse!) (more on that later……), & Fergie (from Hollywood, which I think looks even more glamourous in person!)

PERFORMERS: Times Square: Blondie (who was featured during the aforementioned 2 hour special, but that was when she was still in her 30s…… Just because somebody was capable of performing in front of almost a million people way back when, doesn't mean she's capable of performing in front of over a million people nowadays!)

Icona Pop (who showed, considering both of those ladies are from Sweden, that success is not defined by international borders!)

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (these 2 were more of a 2012-13 success story than 2013-14, but nonetheless, they restored some long-lost pride to the Pacific Northwest, which I think had been slightly behind the other regions of this country in producing such successful performers!)

Miley Cyrus (insert coherent thought here) 

Barclays Center in Brooklyn: Billy Joel (who, unlike the 68-year-old Blondie, can still hold a crowd with all kinds of different songs for all kinds of different situations & places!)

Miami: Pitbull (I mean, who else could possibly "represent" Miami like that on national TV?)

Hollywood: Capital Cities (I'm just glad that they covered something with the word "holiday" in the title, since neither Vampire Weekend (who released that song in 2010) nor "the Material Girl" showed up to perform it!)

Daughtry (I 1st heard the man himself when he went solo a few years ago, & now that he's formed a band, I'm sure he'll have more success with them than he did solo!)

Jason Derulo (who I unfortunately think was somewhat drunk or something during his various performances, & I think he would've sounded so much more coherent had he not been drunk on stage!)

Fall Out Boy (if I hear that darned song once more this year, I think I'll start going (clinically) insane, since I already heard it enough between radio stations everywhere & the NHL on NBC during last spring's playoffs to not want to hear it ever again, @ least during this year!)

Florida Georgia Line (there seem to be very few full-time country groups left in the top 40, but if these guys can get a few more hits this year, I'm sure all those other country groups that briefly surfaced @ the beginning of this decade will emerge from their current hiatuses & produce a few more hits of their own on radio stations everywhere!)

Ariana Grande (who was an actress on a few Nickelodeon shows in recent years, & honestly, had I not given up on that channel before the beginning of this decade because of my belief that almost all of its 90s & earlier 2000s shows had turned to crap long ago, & that the shows that Nickelodeon attempted to revive its then-fledgling network with were trying too hard to be considered "hip" among its slowly changing target teenage/under 20-something demographics, along with its removal of all the familiar logos & consolidation of other "spin-off" channels, I would've stuck around through that mess just to witness this then-teenager's rise to fame! Putting my complaints with Nickelodeon aside, however, her story, for those of you who've followed the aforementioned network from the beginning, mirrors that of bilingual Canadian actress-turned-performer Alanis Morrisette, who started when Nickelodeon began back in the late 1970s, & then released a few hits of her own, some of which were in French along with her English-language hits! I'm not saying that Ariana needs to become bilingual or even multilingual to achieve even more success than her debut album achieved, but considering the combination of that & a few spectacular (& live) performances, I'd say she's got more success upcoming in her 2014 than most of us could ever imagine at the young age of 20!)

Jennifer Hudson (her recovery from all of her family & personal troubles over the past few years has just been just as remarkable as any young phenoms who've emerged in recent years, but that's not all; her ongoing work with such organizations as Weight Watchers, among others, has shown that there's more to national/international fame than just being able to perform either on TV, in front of thousands of people, or both on TV & in front of such large crowds!)

Enrique Iglesias (speaking of successful bilingual performers, this man has been able to do so for over a decade & a 1/2 now in both English & Spanish, & I wouldn't be surprised if he knows even more languages on top of those 2!)

Robin Thicke (he was mostly unknown for his 1st few years in the industry (or @ least I had never heard of him a few years ago), & I find it quite surprising that anybody in the industry could go so unknown for as long as he did, but between suggestive lyrics & even more suggestive music videos, he's managed to go from relatively unknown (@ least to me) to 1 of the most known performers, even if it is for "all the wrong reasons"!)

the Fray (you might remember 1 of their hits in particular for providing the soundtrack to the hit 2010 based-on-a-true-story football movie The Blind Side, & if you people don't @ least get emotional on the inside when you hear it, then I don't consider you to be a fellow human being!)

NBC: preceded by a special primetime Tonight Show with the soon-to-be-moved Jay Leno, who moves his NYE show from late night to prime time to accommodate NBC's NYE program!

HOST: Carson Daly, who gave so many other top music performers their start on Total Request Live! on MTV, & now hosts TV ratings success The Voice, which allows Mr. Daly to produce even more up-&-coming talents than he was able to produce on MTV!

HOSTESS: Jane Lynch, who also has connections to the music industry through a certain hit FOX show, & (putting my personal reservations aside for a moment) hosts Hollywood Game Night on NBC, which lets celebrities play some of the same games families have enjoyed @ home for generations!

PERFORMERS: Mariah Carey (who was also featured on the primetime ABC special, but her appearance on NBC's show allowed her to perform live instead of just being relegated to "old-school" clips of previous performances, & she also started the trend of live ABC-aired Times Square performances back in 2005!)

Blake Shelton (unlike Nashville & other cities' struggles with producing successful country music groups, their track record with producing successful solo country performers has been unmatched, & this man is just another example of successful solo country performers!)