On a personal note I'm looking forward to my wedding in two weeks, and then a nice little holiday for the honeymoon after that.
In a general sense of what trends we can expect this year, I'm predicting a real rise in alternative media such as topical blogs, with a lot more bizarre and mind-blowing stunts by interest groups trying to grab our attention. We're already seeing this happening with Greenpeace fighting the Japanese whalers in the South Pacific. This year, with so many people reading Internet sites that seem to automatically favour the most unusual, exciting and weird stories, any group that does something extreme and crazy and daring will get the attention. Remember the two guys a couple of years ago who painted "NO WAR" on the Sydney Opera House? This will be the year when there'll be a stunt like that every other day.
There'll be a real growth in public/media interest in science and technology (partly as a reaction to the world-wearying political/military news, and partly as a reaction to the battle between evolutionists and "Intelligent Design").
In consumer technology we can look forward to Console War 3 (PS3 vs XBox360 vs Nintendo Revolution), OS War 2 (Windows Vista vs everything else) and late in the year a battle between the computer/software companies and the consumer electronic companies as they start to cross over into each-others territory by developing PVRs, download/searchable video, smart TVs, etc.
There'll be heavy campaigning and lobbying by the RIAA and MPAA, and the interests of BluRay and HD-DVD, with some government agencies giving into some demands and others not, the result will be segmented, restrictive and confusing next-gen DVD systems that are even worse than we could have feared. The worst thing of all is that these will sell well in spite of being so awful, simply because of the current consumer mentality of wanting the latest and greatest even if it is junk.
This year we also have the Winter Olympics in Italy and Commonwealth Games in Melbourne to distract us.