In the early minutes of 2009, I said to myself, with great humility and terrible exhaustion, “At least this year won’t be as awful as 2008.”

The universe heard me and apparently mistook my quiet little plea for some kind of brazen challenge or dare, because 2009 began badly and progressively found new and increasingly inventive means of dishing out cruelty. I’m glad it’s over, and I’m glad it’s gone.

So, 2010, I’m the one who’s challenging you to be better. I’ll certainly be doing my part. Can you rise to the challenge?

Hopefully I’ll have some Hercules news I can share with you in the near future — it’s going to be awesome. My writing partner Kevin Rice and I are working on some other things, too, that I can’t tell you about until I can. But it’s all good stuff.

Sometime this week I’ll try to do Top 10 lists for the music and movies of 2009. Or maybe not. I don’t know. One of my resolutions for 2010 is to spend less time in front of a computer, and if the ghost town this blog became in 2009 is any indication, it shouldn’t be that difficult a goal to accomplish.

Bad things (and people) that happened in the last two years aside, the good people in my life continue to remind me constantly that we’ve all got a lot to be thankful for.

In fact, let’s listen to our good friend Glen Phillips sing a song about it.

Here’s to your amazing 2010, and to mine.

Onward and upward!