So This Is Chrismas...

And what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.... Or something like that. It was exactly one year ago that I made my predictions for 2017; I already recapped the accuracy thereof in the previous post, so now we're going to make some predictions for 2018. As before, some of these will be specifically for me and things that are going on in my life, and some will be for the world at large. Some will be wishful thinking, some will be things that I hope don't happen, and some will just be random-ass shit pulled out of thin air. Let's do this thing!

At the end of 2018....

1. I actually will be closer to 200 than 250; this extra weight that I put on as a result of my knee injury has seriously got to go, and now that I'm coming to the end of the official rehab process and can get out there and exercise without restriction, this should not be too excessively difficult to pull off.
2. I suspect I will still be at the same company. I'm starting to look around at other options, but for all the complaining that I do about certain policy matters, the job itself doesn't suck, and I probably won't jump ship unless I come across a really, really good fit. That being said, at this time next year I will be coming up on four years, which means all of my new-hire equity will have vested, so there will be much less incentive for me to stick around if things aren't to my liking. I do not think I will be still working for BOB at the end of 2019.
3. From the "I hope I get this one wrong" department, I have this feeling that I will have fewer cats one year from now than I do today. My cats are 17 years old (that's 85 in cat years) and in good health, but there's just something in the back of my mind that says that I'm going to lose one of them next year. I don't even want to think about how I'm going to handle that if it does happen, so let's just say that I'm putting this down as a prediction that I intentionally want to be wrong about.
4. I'll still be in the same apartment; my lease is actually up at the end of December 2018, so technically I will still be here even if I haven't renewed my lease. Whether or not I am going to renew said lease into 2019 depends a lot on what happens with item 2 and this next one.
5. I don't think BOB will have IPO'd yet, but I do think that the IPO will be in sight - either we will know when it's happening or we will be in the middle of the preparation phase.
6. I think RAWR and I will still be together. I suppose that means that I'm saying that we are "together" right now, which hasn't been explicitly confirmed or denied by anyone, but it feels like we are. I met her family over Christmas, and her mom referred to me as the person who was dating her daughter, so at a minimum, we are dating. I'm heading back out there in a couple weeks for almost a full week; I'll be working remotely during the day and we'll be hanging out in the evening - this will be the longest period that we've ever spent together, so we will see how it goes - particularly in those situations where her friends will be involved.
7. Bitcoin will still be around, and cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech will still be a thing, but BTC's valuation will have imploded somewhat. I think it will be somewhere around $5000 at year's end; I definitely don't see it still being over $10K. However, I do think that some of the other cryptocurrencies that don't have the same technical limitations may enjoy some continued appreciation. The problem is that there are so damn many of them now that it's hard to really know which ones to follow.
8. There will be no war with the DPRK. I'm sure there's going to be more saber-rattling all around and at least two more bomb tests conducted by Kim Jong Un's regime, but it's not going to lead to actual armed conflict.
9. Robert Mueller's investigation will conclude with incontrovertible evidence that President Trump was aware of and encouraged collusion with Russia during the 2016 election, but nothing will come of it beyond a bunch of talking heads bemoaning the collapse of American democracy. The Democrats in Congress will stomp their feet and whine about impeachment, but the Republicans won't let it happen. Trump will emerge from 2018 with the lowest approval rating of any president in history - even lower than it is now - probably somewhere in the 20-25 percent range - but he will remain unfazed by this and will be preparing his re-election campaign.
10. The Dow will end the year relatively flat, closing somewhere around 25000. It wouldn't surprise me to see some wild mid-year swings though.
11. The Philadelphia Eagles will be on track to have an undefeated year, but they will lose the last regular season game. They will go on to win the 2019 Super Bowl. The Los Angeles Rams will win the 2018 Super Bowl.
12. The Golden State Warriors will repeat as NBA Champions, despite having an injury-filled season.
13. The Basement Blackbirds (my fantasy football team) will once again fail to make the playoffs due to unfortunate injuries to our starters and at least one suspension due to either drug use or sexual assault.
14. I don't think I will return to Ozora in 2018. This might seem like an odd thing to say, but since none of my friends are planning to go, I think I'm going to be hard-pressed to want to go alone. It becomes even less likely when considering what seemed to be a serious uptick in negative impressions from the 2017 edition. That said, anything is possible, and I have a fuckton of points on British Airways since I didn't leave the country this year, so we shall see. I'm definitely going overseas at least once in 2018.
15. There will be at least one company (probably AAPL, but maybe GOOG or AMZN) with a terabuck valuation (1 trillion dollars, for those of you that don't understand orders-of-magnitude prefixes).

OK, I think that's it. Whether or not any of the aforementioned predictions actually come to pass (at a minimum, I really don't want number 3), what I am really hoping for is a bit less chaos and tumult in 2018, although sadly I have no evidence to suggest that this is what I'm going to get. I actually have a feeling that 2018 is going to be even worse (viewing it holistically here, not thinking of any one specific area) than 2017, and maybe things will start to turn around in 2019. About all I can really say is that for the things that are within my control, I'm going to do my best to fight the demons of entropy and disarray. As with everything, we will see what happens.