(For those not familiar with the term, a wannabe is a person that is trying to be like someone else)

I have always loved  this time of the year.  It is a time of renewal, a time to reset the clock and begin anew. What will our lives be like for the next 12 months? Or should I say what would we like our lives to be like for the next 12 months? People often say no one can predict the future, but I tend to believe we (by our actions) define what will happen to us in life to a great extent.

Will we be hit by a car, crushed in an elevator? Those acts are unknown to us. However, what we want to do for a living, how we want to look, who we want to love.......there are certain things in life that are indeed within our control.

One of my resolutions for 2012 will be to avoid people that radiate negative energy. How I define negative energy may not be your definition of same. Both online and off, I can spot a person that is radiating negative energy. I love to blog. Love reading other's opinions and posting mine online. I feel it is a wonderful way of seeing how other people think and how different our lives (and in some instances how much we are the same) can be.  However, what I have learned big time over the years blogging and vlogging (given there are sites where I post videos) is how the world is filled with people that don't want you to voice an opinion that runs counter to their own. It is truly fascinating.

Take race or religion. Let's say someone post a blog about how they don't trust and dislike Muslim Americans. They pontificate on all the reasons for their opinions. Instead of responding with "I hear what you're saying but I see it this way...." There seems to always be the knee jerk reaction to pounce and tell that person they are wrong. Now, the posted commentary may seem to most of the world as bias and prejudicial, however that poster had a right to voice "their" perspective. Even if it differs from yours. Even if we may all reading it, wish they believed differently, they have a right to their opinion and it doesn't mean it is wrong. It simply means their perspective on the issue differs from others. If they were to say for instance proclaim "All Muslims are going to Hell and are murderers" that is clearly not fact and is an opinion.  Yet people will respond in a viseral manner that the blogger is wrong and has his facts wrong. When it is clear they are sharing "their perspective."

I have been told I was wrong on countless blog sites about everything from womens rights, gay rights, religion, sex, politics, race, gun control and even why I love the Packers.  I posted an article on NV about my belief that men and women that get sex change operations should not be afforded the courteous by society as a whole, to address them as their "new sex" just because they decided to change their body parts. In my opinion their DNA is now and will forever be what they were born as. Lord Jesus! You would have thought I had personally insulted every bloggers mother! :-) I received countless responses telling me "I was wrong!" Not "You have a right to your opinion Belinda Joy but...." Nope, flat out I am wrong to have that opinion.

The internet and world at large is filled with angry, negative, always sees the glass as half empty people. Those that like living on the fringe. Those that relish in bucking society norms. If 10 people say Black, they will be the 1 person to say White. And these people also like a good fight. They like to start them and they like to keep them going.  On Newsvine there are people that respond to my articles that know me personally (they just don't know that I know who they are). From former co-workers, clients, vendors, associates and even family members. I get the jabs and attacks from all sides. For the most part I keep things in perspective and remind myself that just as I have a right to my opinion, so too do they. The important issue for me is not to allow people to tell me I am wrong, but to stand in my own version of what I see as truth.

So 2012 will be a year of many, many articles on NV. 99% of them I am positive very few will agree with. Yet that isn't the purpose (at least for me) of blogging. I'm not seeking those that agree with me on life's issues. When people do agree, I simply accept it as one person that sees THAT particular subject as I do. Because I fully recognize they may agree with me on that but rest assured there will come a subject on this - that they won't. Life would be dull if we all agreed on every subject.

No indeed, for me this is a virtual diary of sorts. A way to memorialize how I feel on many of life's issues. So haters and Andy Rooney wannabes, be prepared to be ignored in 2012.  It's going to be all about surrounding myself with positive energy. As President Obama often says, " We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable"

So true President Obama, so true.