Everyone at work today agreed that they were too tired to greet 2009 in style; we all just wanted to go home, do something quiet, and collapse in a heap when the feeling hit us.

In that spirit, Nate and I rang in the New Year by watching episode 3 of Giant Robo. Nate informed me, prior to watching, that Giant Robo is the most expressive robot ever, and he was right—in the most hilarious way. <Maybe I need to make a spoiler tag>Never before have I seen a robot cry buckets after smashing its fist to pieces.</Maybe I need to make a spoiler tag>

But, yeah: quiet. As I looked through The Big Picture’s Year in Photographs a week or two ago, I was reminded of how eventful the last year really was. Personally, the last year was largely unremarkable, save for how quickly it seems to have passed.

I remember when waiting a month for a movie to come out felt like an eternity; these days I think of the time between when House ends for the summer and starts in the fall as a brief, pleasant break from TV. Part of that, I suspect, is due to my old theory that we accelerate to our death (as each day becomes an increasingly insignificant amount of the number of days we’ve already experienced)… but now I suspect another part of that is a side effect of information overload. Specifically: with all the stuff available to distract us, time seems to pass faster.

The internet certainly distracts me, at least. A noteworthy trend from the last year was my inability to be productive anywhere but at work. On the clock I feel honor-bound to not screw around; the rest of my life I’m apparently more than willing to waste by drooling on myself in front of my computer. That’s something that needs to change; I (hope I!) have more to do with my life than what I’m getting done.