Predictions for 2014, off the top and some over

Predictions for the new year cover a variety of topics including healthcare, landlines, rainfall, blogging and publishing.

1. Consumers will continue to debate whether there should be ads on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc., then sigh with relief that phone solicitors no longer call because they disconnected their landlines.
2. Just when you think landlines have completely disappeared, the new version will include a 22nd century version of the home intercom with screens for Skype like communications room to room, or room to smartphone, that revert to security monitors that can be tapped anywhere the user has internet access such as the office or on vacation.
3. During 2014, there will be a resurgence of blogging as self-published authors seek to develop an audience for their self-published books. Blog posts will be posted in all social media venues until the noise level reaches ringing in the ear level.
4. Self-published authors will continue to rise while a sub-industry quickly develops to assist the reading audience vet the muck from the ready-for-print-fully-edited tomes.
5. 2014 will continue to be the year that healthcare is debated. Audience fatigue will set in sometime mid-year, and by the time school is back in fall session the bulk of the audience will have tuned out, except for those desperate for care who won't understand why it doesn't matter to everyone else anymore.
6. Christmas card sending will experience a resurgence, despite the reticence of 360 Convos to embrace the movement.
7. Workers will investigate how to send drones to the office to do the work and collect their paychecks.
8. Rainfall in the Northwest will reach record lows, as the global warming debate rages on.
9. During the year 2014, no one will invent ear buds (inexpensive) that do not fall apart after six uses.
10. No one will want to see a repeat performance of Miley Cyrus' 2013. 

What do you predict?

On the eve of Christmas, a moment with Clement Clarke Moore

Merry Christmas from 360 Convos and Carol Doane

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A Visit from St. Nicholas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,

With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blixen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

By Clement Clarke Moore

Wishing you a warm and happy Christmas and a new year filled with hope and promises fulfilled.