The Year in Review-2014-2

The year started with Ebola epidemic in Western Africa and till now it has not been contained but it has slowed after major effort by rich countries to pour resources to stop it before it becomes a full blown calamity for all. Some countries restricted citizens of some Ebola hit countries to come to their countries and some send medical teams to treat patients of Ebola in their home countries. Let's see how this year fares for Ebola. The most expensive winter Olympics started in Russia amid tight security and went without any major or minor incident happening and for a few weeks the world turned their eyes towards sports. The annexation of Crimea which was part of Ukraine was also a big news which continue to garner headlines in the New Year also as the Russian holds tighten around it and the world could not do anything about it as you know Russia is a Nuclear power and the only way to deal with it is to hit it with sanctions and that is what the West is doing right now. The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was a major news story last year. Despite massive amount of rescue efforts from major world powers, nobody still knows where the airline went down and if ever we will be able to recover the bodies. For the families who have lost their loved ones, there is no closure to their agony as the vast ocean is the grave yard of their loved ones and they would never know what happened to them.

The Year in Review-2014

As in previous years I am again doing this year regarding what happened last year so that people who have not read my blog or have not has been updated with the news can get a quick check of what happened last year so that they can catch up. My review will have no particular time line meaning it would not start with January and then onto the next month or the next. It will go just randomly go over the most important news of the year based on my assessment and my opinion only. As usual when we start our year we wish everybody well and generally are optimistic about what it will store for us. And thankful or not so thankful that the past year is going and looking forward to the New Year which will be beneficial for us particularly and the world in general. I know that as we greet a New Year, not all of the people may had a good year before. Some may have lost their jobs, some their homes, some went through divorce and separation, breaking up with your significant other, charges of cheating and infidelity and worse of all losing your child or your parents or siblings to diseases or killings. I am in no way minimizing the grief felt by each individual party in this case and everybody has a story to tell about how the previous year went by. Here my review is about world events that affected us in one way or the other. So with this in mind let's start our journey to what were the main events (according to what I read throughout the year) in the year 2014.

Do you follow the critics or your own assessment?

When I watch movies usually I go by the critic’s assessment of how the movie was and how it is made. I know that sometimes it weighs heavily on my decision to watch a particular movie or not. Usually the critics are everyday person who are analyzing the movie for other movie goers and sometimes you have your so called who will critique the movie to death that you get lost in what they are saying and you decide that it is better to watch the movie yourself and decide if you agree with the critics or just don’t want to analyze it too deeply to ruin your experience. In this case, I stop following the critics assessment and just go on watching the movie and decide myself. Sometimes the critics do slam the movie and they are right but sometimes what they think is not good turns out to be a block buster and people throng to see it anyway. I follow the money, if I see that the movie has made more than enough money beyond their budget, it means that most of the people have liked it even if the critics hated it with a passion. But here's the dilemma, even if the movie has made a lot of money that does not mean that I would like it like most of the people. It can be crappy movie but the fans maybe duped into watching it. So it is hard to tell which movie one will like until you sit down and watch it yourself and stop depending on critics and other fans of the movie.

Another year and another round of resolutions for it

The New Year has not even started yet and people (including I) start asking my colleagues and other friends their New Year resolutions. So thus begins another year and another round of resolutions which some studies have suggested a minority of the people are able to keep it or just give it up after a month or so. The biggest one of them is the resolve to lose weight and in no particular order, being nice, eat healthy, reduce debt, travel and many others particular to certain individuals. Why do people keep resolutions is beyond me. I mean I can understand that you are making an effort to achieve a goal but if you are not going to stick to the plan you as well not make one and then regret it later on. I know that it makes someone happy that it is a New Year and if were not able to achieve your goal last year, you may try to achieve this year but the biggest one of all, losing weights is the one that most of the people's resolve gets sent to the dumps in the first month of the year. The other ones like eating healthy, travel and reduce debt is easier to achieve since it does not require that much effort as losing weight because of so much delicious temptations of food out there. My resolve for the New Year is to reduce my debt, eat a little bit healthy (not get overboard with it) and simultaneously start two start-ups tech businesses. I know that it will be too much work but if I love something I would not mind working more hours than usual and I hope that I still to my resolve and not waiver in it as failure is not an option for me. I hope that people who have New Year resolutions maybe able to keep it and follow it through so that they don’t have to make the same resolutions all over again in the next New Year.