As I look back on 2007, it was a year of change – both big and small – for me and my family. It was a good year, a year of personal growth and self-actualization. It was a year of playing offense. It was also a year of great sadness.

 My father passed away. As an only child, it was sad to spend the holidays without both my mom and my dad for the first time. I am now the man in the family. I am now the elder statesman. Time to grow up. My son went away to college. He has flown the coop. I am pleased to say he is flourishing as a student but I miss him. Time flies when you are having fun. I left AOL, the company where I spent the last 15 years of my life. Even though the company has been nice to me and allows me to use the title of Vice Chairman Emeritus, I am retired and no longer have any say or responsibility at AOL. I wish the company only good tidings and I am hopeful that AOL as a company prospers. I miss the employees and the mission of the company. I am spending more time at Lincoln Holdings with the teams, the Capitals and Mystics. We have new offices; the Capitals have new players; a new head coach; new uniforms; a new brand; lots of new employees; and finally a good month of winning results to end the year. I expect great things from the Mystics this next season as well. I love working out of our new offices at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The new offices and the youthfulness of our staff and their high levels of energy is a great change for me. I made two independent films: "Nanking", which as I have reported during the year, has done quite well and of which I am very proud and "Kicking It", which will premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. I coined a term "Filmanthropy" which I truly believe in. Watch this blog for big news about "Kicking It" and about some new plans in the Filmanthropy space. I learned a lot about moviemaking and the distribution and marketing side of the business and want to add value to the benefit of the industry. I think the industry needs positive change. I plan to help in 2008. I became very involved with two companies as an investor/board member and as Chairman: 1. Revolution Money which is positioned as "PayPal meets MasterCard without the high charges". We launched our services; we raised $50 million in venture capital; and we are now scaling quickly on both the merchant acceptance side and the consumer side. I expect lots of big and positive news from Revolution Money in 2008.2. I also am pleased to be so involved with Clearspring Technologies, a leading Web 2.0 widget syndication company that will pioneer widget advertising and syndicated atomized media networks. This is an exciting space that will explode in 2008. I made a bunch of angel investments in so many companies it is too long to list. I even made an investment last week in a cool alternative energy company called Gridpoint. In all, I made 15 private investments during the year and I plan to now take a rest and NOT make any new investments for a while. I need to see how this first wave of investments do and keep some money for the inevitable next rounds of financing.  I fell in love with blogging. I am very religious about how often I blog. I also am very helpful to all bloggers out there. Join the blogosphere and have your voice be heard.

I went onto Facebook during 2007 and now have more than 1,100 friends. I stay connected to lots of folks in this way. I made lots of widgets during the year at the Caps, for some of the startups I am invested in and for my films. This Web 2.0 syndication stuff really works. I will do more of it in 2008. My good friend, Steve Case, invited me to set up shop at Revolution HQ and gave me a really beautiful office to work out of. I very much enjoy working in downtown DC surrounded by such great and talented people, many of them my long term friends and people that I enjoy being with and respect working with on a daily basis. Revolution is doing some very important work and I am pleased to be part of this evolving network of companies. I intend to do even more in the New Year. The Case Foundation is also doing amazing work and I fell in love with their work on PlayPumps International.

I spent more quality time with my friends and partners during the year. I am blessed to have such a tight-knit group of friends. Here is to even more quality time spent in 2008. It was a great year filled with love; with hard work; and with change. Thanks for being a part of the journey. Here

Can you count how many punches Donald threw? He didn’t initiate the encounter. Watch how the fight started. I count 23 punches. Joe B. must have failed at math.

The Skins are in the playoffs. All is right in our city right now. Go Skins! I am so happy for the franchise and for the fan base. I predict the Skins beat Seattle big on Saturday too.

I don’t even know what to say? We went into enemy territory; played the best team in the East; dominated most of the game; and won 8 to 6. All of our offensive weapons were on display with really great production from Alex Ovechkin, Michael Nylander, Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. Our fore check worked to perfection. Our power play was world class. We looked quicker and more determined than Ottawa and some of our passes that led to goals were other worldly. Well done.

I don’t even know what to say? We went into enemy territory; played the best team in the East; dominated most of the game; and won 8 to 6. All of our offensive weapons were on display with really great production from Alex Ovechkin, Michael Nylander, Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. Our fore check worked to perfection. Our power play was world class. We looked quicker and more determined than Ottawa and some of our passes that led to goals were other worldly. Well done. Yet no lead was safe and to score eight goals and feel like we have gotten lucky to win is really puzzling and you just know that our next game against Ottawa will be a true challenge on New Year Day. We have proven now we can play with the Ottawas and the Detroits. We just need to win consistently and force our will on teams on an ongoing basis. I am very happy now with our productivity on generating points in the month of December. It is our best record since the month of March in 2003 and we are making progress and gaining confidence in our abilities in our team. We showed a lot of talent and a lot of heart last night. 

I still like his stuff and his mash ups. This is a cool site so check it out if you haven’t already. Flounder can’t play goalie well but he can mash it up good.

Say your prayers for a great man, a great executive and a great fan of hockey and the Verizon Center. George Warrington headed up Amtrak at its time of greatest need. He pushed the government hard on the joys and efficacy of rail transport and he pushed for the Acela train for the benefit of consumers.

Say your prayers for a great man, a great executive and a great fan of hockey and the Verizon Center. George Warrington headed up Amtrak at its time of greatest need. He pushed the government hard on the joys and efficacy of rail transport and he pushed for the Acela train for the benefit of consumers. George and I became friends. He attended many Caps games. I went to visit with him and speak to his team in Philly. He was a warm and personable family man. He did deals with us at AOL and the Caps and personally supported the Acela Club sponsorship at Verizon Center. He cared deeply about DC and about travelers. He was always asking me questions about new technologies and how Amtrak could incorporate Web 2.0 business methodologies to help consumers. He will be missed. He was so young and so dynamic and so smart. Life is short. Pray hard.

Yesterday I saw an iPhone ad on network television. The ad highlighted a demo on how to receive stock quotes on the iPhone and the stock symbol that was highlighted was GOOG (Google) and it showed a $510 stock price. I was online and I checked GOOG and its price as of Friday. Google stock closed the week at $702. I thought

Here is information on my new film, Kicking It, as developed by the great folks at Sundance complete with screening times and related info.

We now have parity and competitiveness and most teams are still in the hunt for a playoff spot. This is good for attendance, for TV ratings and for heightening the excitement level for the fan base.

 When we leave a point on the table or we lose a game that was winnable, I just cringe because I know those precious points will come back to haunt us at the end of the season. Every point matters as these standings show. I also get amused by some of the experts who proclaim that such and such a team spending at the cap max and signing players to odd-huge long term deals has completed its rebuild and yet they are a few games ahead of us in the standings with more than half a season left to play. Also I believe this month’s (December) record shows progress for our team. It is our first full month of playing above 500 hockey in several years, a small incremental positive step for us as a franchise. We have miles to go before we sleep and I expect us to remain accountable in the month of January and continue to climb the standings and points ladder. At least that is the plan.

Thank you. That was very sweet of you.