I'm not a New Year's Resolution sort of person. Way too formal and serious for me. Besides, why choose an arbitrary day to start something new? Makes no sense. On the other hand, the beginning of the calendar year is a great opportunity to catch everyone in a thoughtful frame of mind, eager to read about what might be coming up in the next 12 months.

So what are we looking forward to in 2008? Some of this is obvious:

1. Olympics – this will be the focus of our lives for most of the year, at least until September, perhaps slightly longer as everyone writes up their personal post mortem on the Games after they're over. With the world's attention on China, there will be plenty of commentary out there, both good and bad. It remains to be seen whether the article I'm writing on ambush marketing and the Olympics will fall into the former or latter category.

2. U.S. Presidential Election – less important to China from a policy standpoint than most people think, but certainly there will be extremely important, and perhaps damaging, words exchanged between the two countries during the year. Whoever is the new president will most likely continue with the same China policy the U.S. has had since 1971, but in the meantime, the sparks will fly as the candidates vie for the title of "Most Tough on China".

3. Economic Policy – macro will continue being a great source of entertainment here, with lots o' stories about inflation and bubbles. The smart commentators out there will roll all of this up with the value of the RMB and trade policy – it's all connected, folks.

4. Environment – this issue is not going anywhere, and will no doubt continue to get a huge amount of international attention because of the Olympics press coverage. We've had three straight days of sunshine and blue skies here in Beijing, which I find positively eerie. I think the fix is already in, but I'm not sure how long the Weather Machine can keep this up.

So much for the obvious. In addition to the US-China relations fireworks, the fun stuff will undoubtedly be whatever surprises pop up during the year. You know, all those interesting stories that no one would have predicted a year ago like the product recalls or fake tiger photos.

So there you have it. A full plate however you look at it. Rather daunting for someone like me who is fundamentally lazy and can't even post on the weekend. Finding the time will be a challenge. This thought came to mind this morning at about 4:00am when I was supposed to be sleeping and was instead playing Loco Roco on my PSP. You might think that a 38-year-old like myself should not be playing bizarre, psychedelic Japanese computer games that involve moving around little Jell-o creatures that sing and dance.

You would be wrong. In fact, I think that a little more chilling out and a lot less freaking out would do us all some good. I saw quite a few little spats in the greater English-language China blog community over the past year. That's a shame. There are lots of people to criticize out there, guys — no need to pee in the community pool. Also, let's not take ourselves too seriously, huh? It's not worth it. As I person with chronic hypertension, I've long since decided that there are few things worth jeopardizing one's health over, and blogging ain't one of 'em.

So as I sit here drinking my coffee and desperately trying to get that infantile Loco Roco theme song out of my head, I look forward to a healthy and happy New Year.

Let's get down to the business at hand: writing pointless opinions that few people read, about topics that are little understood. (And that's my motivational speech . . .)