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<td valign="bottom">Hardly seems real yet.
<p>I mean, it's 24 hours away as I type this and it still seems so far away.
<p>Whenever one of these new years rolls around, I'm taken back to Claremont where I was a skinny, awkward teenager.
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<p><br>I remember sitting in my hideout in the garage, looking out over the piles of urban detritus, thinking about the future. I did that a lot as a kid.
<p>The thing I still can't get over is how all this seemed so far away back then. Back then my major concern was talking to a girl without my voice cracking and 1999 was only something Prince sang about. (And that was when we could call him Prince.)
<p>Now, here I am. Ninteen Ninety-Nine. And I don't quite know what to make of it.
<p>So I did what I always do when I can't quite wrap my head around something. I asked for stories. And 11 of fray's friends and contributors responded.
<p>Here you'll find their stories, their hopes, and their resolutions for 1999. Take a look. And, of course, you can add your thoughts, too. Perhaps we can make sense of this new year together.
<p>In <a href="http://www.powazek.com/home/old/words/1996.html" target="new">1996</a>, I resolved to "hold onto my dreams in a world of people who've stopped." That resolution prompted an email from a new friend to remind me that not everybody out there had stopped dreaming just yet. Three years later that new friend is my lover – and she reminds me of those dreams every day.
<p>This year I think I'll resolve to hang on to the dream, no matter how hard it bucks.
<p>Happy new year everybody,
<p>-- Derek
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<a href="11.html" onmouseover="window.status='{ back }';return true">«</a>
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<a href="01.html" onmouseover="window.status='1 { trade you a cigarette for a pepsi } by jason kottke';return true">1</a>  
<a href="02.html" onmouseover="window.status='2 { the world\'s largest pink elephant } by christian mogensen';return true">2</a>  
<a href="03.html" onmouseover="window.status='3 { more rejection in \'99! } john halcyon styn';return true">3</a>  
<a href="04.html" onmouseover="window.status='4 { my new year\'s resolutions } by lance arthur';return true">4</a>  
<a href="05.html" onmouseover="window.status='5 { new year\'s with the reptile } by michael whitney';return true">5</a>  
<a href="06.html" onmouseover="window.status='6 { I resolved to drink more } by rebecca lynn eisenberg';return true">6</a>  
<a href="07.html" onmouseover="window.status='7 { wool } by luke seeman';return true">7</a>  
<a href="08.html" onmouseover="window.status='8 { a promise kept } shauna wright';return true">8</a>  
<a href="09.html" onmouseover="window.status='9 { \'I just want to go home\' } by gregory alkaitis-carafelli';return true">9</a>  
<a href="10.html" onmouseover="window.status='10 { I spent a lot of money in 1998 } by alex massie';return true">10</a>  
<a href="11.html" onmouseover="window.status='11 { outsmarting the system } by sarah bruner';return true">11</a>  
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<font size="4" face="arial,helvetica"><b>What's <a href="post.html" target="_top" target="story" onMouseOver="window.status='{ add your experience }';return true">your</a> New Year's resolution?</b></font>
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<a href="/hope/index.html" target="_top" onMouseOver="window.status='{fray} hope';return true"><img src="/icns/hope.words.gif"" alt="{hope}" width="90" height="76" border=0></a>
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