Today is New Year’s Day in my life (screw the calendar). For the past couple of years, I’ve made it pretty apparent that I don’t want anyone knowing when my birthday is; however, today I’m 21 and for the first time ever, I’ve had an amazing year filled with success. Being 20 was an amazing time in my life, filled with great friends, new opportunities and many successes. I hope that I’m not jinxing myself with this entry, and that the time between now and next year is filled with equal or greater times.

It wasn’t all me though, and there’s tons of people I want to thank. I’m going to shine the spotlight on a handful of people I’d personally like to recognize and thank today for making this past year amazing. So, here goes…thank you to:

Ninja Jim and his family and friends.

All of the amazing family and friends I have in my personal life.

Everyone I’ve come into contact with at American River College and UC Davis. Especially Liz and Shira.

Chris Burrous, Alan Sanchez, Cambi Brown, Zach Melchiori, Brent Baader, Tracy Ketchum, Bruno Cohen and everyone at CBS13 and CW31.

Sam McManis over at The Sacramento Bee, and “CoolDMZ” over at SacRag.com.

Marissa, Kim, Jessica, Andrew, Monica, Keith, Lil Cee, Hill, Shawn and everyone at 100.5FM The Zone, as well as our bosses Jeff, Megan and Brian.

Jennifer, who has worked with CBS Radio for a while now and sat in a dark little room in the promotions area of The Zone, for the amazing conversation, advice and those occasional funny jabs.

The Arizona Tea Company. I drank a lot of that stuff during my time with The Zone. I still do.

Paul Robins and Phil Cowan—my radio inspirations from all those years ago and Sacramento radio legends in their own right.

Everyone at Alice Radio in San Francisco, and all of their great listeners. Special thanks to Dayna in the late night, The “O.G.” Heather and her bro Nephi, the entire Alice Morning Crew, Joshua and Andrew.

My wonderful friends over at SacCenter.

Everyone who still puts up with me at LiveJournal and reads these syndicated posts on a daily basis.

Lori Hahn of Hahnathome.com for never failing to make me smile with her posts of inspiration and wisdom. Lori truly gifts the world with every post she writes. Think of Lori as the Oprah of blogging. Except I’m sure Lori would like to have Oprah money.

Paul of Jestertunes.com and Alex of Gerbilbox.org for coming to my rescue a month ago—Paul with reviving my blog and providing me some temporary hosting, and Alex for providing me temporary hosting as well.

Dick Majka, one of my LiveJournal friends, for his generous donation so that RadioMatthew.com and all of the sites I help run could live on for at least another year.

Webmaster Will for his tireless effort and hard work. Throughout our entire friendship, Will has never failed to offer his intelligence and dedication so that our websites can run smoothly. I’d totally be lost if it wasn’t for Will.

Everyone who appears on my blogroll. If you’re there, and I didn’t personally out you in this entry, many thanks. And if you’re one of my readers, commenters or e-mailers, thank you so much.

And last, in closing, thank you to EVERYONE who goes to the polling places today and VOTES. This is your country, and it’s your life—make sure you’re represented by someone who has YOU in heart and mind, not their pocketbooks and wardrobes. Remember, we are entitled to life (healthcare and security), liberty (freedom and justic) and the pursuit of happiness (economy and education), not some crappy combination of the three. Our entitlements are not part of a mix and match buffet at Sizzler—we have the right to them all, and our elected representatives should know this. So get out there and vote, make your voices heard.