One of my fellow bloggers (and rapidly becoming someone I tweet at far too much, and when is it appropriate to consider someone on twitter a friend?), Daniel, wrote his own list of things he wants to see in 2009.

Being the kind of person I am I thought this list would contain band names, krakens, killer spiders from mars, triffids, you know, sensible stuff.

His list is VERY geeky (or is nerdy the right word here?). I clearly need to up my nerd/geek game. But in the meantime here is my offering of predictions/wishlist for 2009.

The complete death of everyone on my dead pool list.
After taking the lead in March with the death of Arthur C Clark I'm getting ready for a celebrity death filled 2009. I think I've nearly got my full list ready for announcing on January 1st. To take all ten would be a wonderful achievement. I may even be persuaded to go double or nothing. Although I'm struggling to remember just how much money was bet on the list for this year. I recall it being either £20 or £50. Who cares, I'm going to be taking my best mate Chris' money. :) (And you thought this was going to be a happy happy joy joy list with world peace and stuff... well it probably will be, but this is fun!)

Book someone truly awesome for literature at Greenbelt.
I've got a modest budget to book people for the festival.
This is my first festival as literature coordinator.
I need to make a mark. Show that I've got game.

I'd really like to get Dustin Lance Black as he's an awesome writer. But also because it'd be interesting to hear a voice from the Mormon community about coming out and growing up gay. If anyone has an email address... you know where to get me.

Beyond that I'd like to get Sean Dixon. He wrote "The last days of the lacuna cabal". I loved reading it. It's an interesting post modern treatment of the epic myth of Gilgamesh. I think he'd be interesting to talk to.

And if I'm really lucky I could try and get Jeanette Winterson to say yes.

I guess my vision for the lit stuff is to have people who'll be good in conversation or compelling speakers. I guess in light of the theme (Standing in the long now) I'd like to awaken some nostalgia in people or pick books/poetry/etc that's epic, monumental, monolithic. Your suggestions are, as always, welcome!

More politicians will use blogs and twitter properly
I think Tom Watson is brilliant. He's gently guiding the way forward for different MP's to use twitter. Yes, I know there's other MP's who twitter out there but he's local to me and he actually appears to have something in close approximation to a soul. Or he's very good at faking it. I like to think he's genuine.

And onto one of my pet peeves- blogs that don't allow comments. It's not a blog if you can't fire back comments. As I've demonstrated time and again here nasty comments can be made to go away. Spam, ads, porn, hater comments can all be deleted. Even comments just pointing out bad grammar and not engaging in the content of a post can be allowed to stay. It helps me improve my spelling, punctuation and grammar. You wouldn't think I've got a degree, a pgce and used to teach GCSE English, would you.

Blogging isn't about selling "a service" it's about engagement, communication, conversation, feedback. If you don't want feedback, don't put yourself out there. Or do what she-who-must-not-be-named does and switch off the comments.

To get onto one of those "50 most..." "50 people who..." lists
I've always wanted to get onto one of those "power" lists. People to watch, people with power, best creative types or something. I clearly don't move in the right circles or have friends in high places so won't be appearing on a list any time soon. But I'd quite like to be well regarded by people who do know me. Lots of people have told me I'm funny in the last week or so. One of the Christmas cards at work said "Thanks for making me laugh" and another said "We're really lucky to have you on the team". They didn't have to write that, they could just sign it and be done with it. Nice to know I can still make people smile and I'm not just a random face in a corridor.

Birmingham participation in SF0 will improve
SF0, the multiplayer collaborative production game, is a wonderful experience. I've been playing for a while but it'd be great if other Brum based bods would join so we could really kick off some awesome completions. Totally selfish reason.

See more live music. (Preferably folk, acousticy chilled out music)
Birmingham has an awesome live music scene. It's got music festivals, symphony hall, the town hall, the custard factory, pubs, clubs and buskers.

Do I engage much in the music? No. Should I? Yes, I bloody well should.

(I've been using isowish.com to turn some of these ideas into wishes which people can help me get granted)