Ugh.

Don’t look at the paper today. What an awful day of news. Buy your copy of The Pilot or The Daily Press just, you know, to support the institution of journalism, and then make something papier-mâché with it. Such as a life-sized cow. Or a bust of your favorite Hampton Roads resident of all time. (May I suggest Steve Earle, Clarence Clemons, Wanda Sykes, or Bob Saget. Actually, everyone just do Saget.)

So, it’s my birthday. Instead of our regular If You Read the Paper feature, I’m going to make a list of 50 reasons why the next 365 days–my 32nd year–are going to be fantastic here in Hampton Roads, and nobody can stop me.

I tried to link to everything in hopes that you’ll share in the fun. In no particular order…

1. Kerry Dougherty. We have been terribly aggressive with Kerry Dougherty here on AltDaily. Other than The Cooch, there is no one that has gotten more negative ink than Kerry. And how does this Pilot columnist respond? By ignoring all that, and giving AltDaily and myself credit for helping push the Norfolk city council to greater transparency. Even though I disagree with a lot of what Kerry has to say, her graciousness in this column is exactly how we fix our society: by putting the differences aside and focusing on the common ground. This article gave me so much hope that the thousand different ‘types’ living in Hampton Roads can come together for the common good.

2. The City of Norfolk government is getting better. They voted unanimously to film and air their informal sessions, just months after a number of the council members stood opposed. That’s progress, y’all.

Pic | John Cachero

3. Survive Norfolk 2011. It’s going to be even bigger this year.

4. Art | Everywhere is coming back. Come opening night, April 30th, Granby St. is gonna have a lot more color, life, spirit to it. We did the artist selections last night. Lot of creativity coming your way.

5. What’s going to fill the Harry BBQ’s space. You’re going to come up with something awesome. I know it.

6. The North End of Virginia Beach in the summer. Ahhh. Leave the stressful city behind and enjoy the good life.

7. First Landing State Park in bloom. The Botanical Gardens too, while we’re at it.

8. Busch Gardens. Roller coasters, cotton candy, arm straps on the bumper cars that smell like redneck body odor. I want it all.

9. Grassroots efforts to bring Light Rail to the Beach. The people are rising. You watch. And, oh yeah, The Tide up and running. Chuga chuga, homies.

10. The ferry between Portsmouth and Norfolk. I don’t care if that stinking paddle wheel is just ornamental. I don’t care I tell you!

11. Cycling in Hampton Roads. Every single “important person” I talk to believes that bike riding should be a much bigger part of the local transportation landscape than it is right now. The Year of the Bike. It is coming. We cannot wait to ride our bikes through Ghent when all the flowers are out and the leaves are green.

12. Hampton Roads, The Canvas. We’re going to paint the water tower by the Brambleton Bridge and PETA. HOLY SHIT THAT’S GOING TO BE DOPE.

And now, a video interlude. The mini doc our pal Breezy II made about The Canvas:

13. Out in the Park on June 5th in Town Point Park. Living someplace gay friendly is important to the quality of life of us all, gay, straight, or mother lover. This is a huge step. I predict a new GLBT-friendly bar opens in Ghent or Downtown in the next year. You’ll see.

14. An arts district in Norfolk. What is this? Nobody’s quite sure, but I keep getting emails about it. Whatever it is, count us in.

15. The local tattoo scene. Most under-rated local art. I’ve got four tattoos. I’m hoping to make it eight in the next year.

16. Local music scene. I fell in love with three local acts this past year–Seamonster, Long Division, and Phil Roebuck. I fully expect to fall in love with at least three more this year. And now, for a musical interlude, a video Bryon Summers and I made for Phil:

17. Whatever insanity the WEOK // Loose Lips // Restless people decide to let loose upon Hampton Roads this next year. If the zombies do attack, and they seek out human allies, they’re going straight to these parties to make friends. And I mean that as a compliment.

18. Creative spaces. We are Titans. 757 Creative Space. 757 Labs. Put smart, ambitious people in the same room and good things happen. Excellent.

19. Wind farms off the coast. Wheels are already in motion. Ah, this makes me happy and proud to live here!

20. Community gardens. There will be at least one new one in every city in Hampton Roads, I predict. Dirty hands. Delicious foods. A greater connection to the earth. Stoked.

21. The Yoga Community. There’s a thriving yoga community here already. It’s only gonna get stronger this year. Special shouts to the studios I go to most often, The Space Above and Hot House.

I want to go to there.

22. Chesapeake Arboretum. I’m going to borrow a nice dog, take my gorgeous girlfriend by the hand, and take a nice long walk through the woods this Spring.

23. Beerfest and Winefest in Town Point Park. Love it when our Hampton Roads community gets together to get pissed by the water.

24. Being on a boat when it gets warmer (please invite me because I don’t have a boat.)

25. A world is growing underneath Nauticus. I can’t tell you more right now, but it’s going to be so, so dope.

26. Summer of house parties.

27. Fall of field parties.

28. Winter of snowball fights and sledding.

29. Painting the side of a building. One of our friends owns a building in a very prominent place. They’ve said we can paint the side of it. It’s going to be killer.

30. Seeing the best show of my/our life. Not sure if it’s going to happen at nTelos, the NorVa or a place like JewMa or Plaza del Sol or Winston’s. But it’ll happen this year.

31. D.C. is close, and with high speed rail looking like more and more of a reality, our nation’s capital is getting even closer.

32. The Outer Banks. They’re right there. And they’re another universe. We live in such an interesting and diverse place.

33. Our regional universities making a name for themselves on the national scene. The smarty-pantses shall lead us this year.

34. Our local professors coming down from the proverbial ivory tower and using their expertise (and passion) in the local community. There will be more of this in the next 365 days. Let us will it to be so.

35. Hannah Serrano. My partner is a genius. Can’t wait to see what she cooks up this next year. You should be stoked to have her here too.

Resident genius/banshee Hannah Serrano.

36. Street performance in Norfolk. The city council should push this forward in the next month or so. Norfolk I’m starting to love you for real for real and not just kinda for real.

37. Our local art institutions continuing to be insanely good for a region of our population. Virginia Stage Co., The Chrysler, Virginia Symphony, Virginia Opera, just to name a few. These are some top notch joints, y’all. We are spoiled by them.

38. Coffee shop culture. Seems like a new high-quality coffee shop is springing up every other month these days.

39. Food trucks and food carts. You’ll see more of these in the next year, I have on good information. They’ll make your belly and your eyes and your spirit happy. The streets are coming alive around here.

40. Civic leagues. You–yes you, sitting there reading this–are going to join your civic league this year. And if you’re already a member, you’re going to get even more involved this year. You are your neighborhood, we are our cities.

41. Todd Rosenlieb. He’s dancing around somewhere right now, that rascal! And dance in general. We have a ton of dance talent around here.

42. People aged 18- 40 deciding enough is enough, it is our time to lead.

43. More troops coming home to the arms of loving wives, husbands, children, lovers, mothers, fathers, and friends.

Go home team!

44. New friends. I have the most eclectic group of friends I’ve ever had, and I’ve lived in much bigger cities than this. Thank you, Navy, for bringing all these talented crazies to bloom in these parts. Stoked for more new friends this year.

45. AltDaily headquarters, complete with gallery and retail space.

46. ODU football. The Tides. The Admirals. The new soccer and indoor football teams. Who needs the major leagues? (I sure don’t.)

47. Trips to Richmond. What a cool city, and so close. And yes, I get that D.C., the Outer Banks, and Richmond are not part of Hampton Roads. But their proximity is part of what makes living here great.

48. HRT doing better this year and making us excited about mass transit.

49. More locally owned small businesses run with as much heart as business savvy.

50. You, we, and everyone we know, living not as individuals, but as a community.

Bonus: The AltDaily extended family gives me my purpose every day. Personally, the writers, photographers, videographers, web developers, graphic designers and community activists on our team is what’s going to make the next year the best one I’ve ever lived. None of the rest matters as long as we stick together.