Well, 2016, it’s been fun — by which I of course mean the complete opposite of fun. So here’s an open thread to say good riddance to 2016. And to look forward with trepidation but perhaps also a little hope to 2017. No trolls, Trump fans, MRAs, etc.
If you’re going out, be safe. If you’re staying in, curl up with this lovely Dumpster Fireplace to celebrate the end of this dumpster fire of a year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLXGkYg9uY
@Axe,
Only 2 friends, huh?
*taps foot in annoyed fashion* ??
@Mish
*yanks collar in nervous fashion* 😛
Forget the semantics. You and Oogly and John and EJ and Scildfreja and Jack and Troubelle and too many to name. Y’all are awesome. I like you and care about you. You’re my buddies, and the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time was getting the chance to know you <3
Hello, and hopeful new year to all.
I haven’t commented lately, for some time I’ve been sick with cold or secluded with family but mostly I’ve just been lazy and tired and not feeling like I have anything worthwhile to say. I still greatly appreciate this community.
Finally home, except that I still can’t have any fucking quiet, because some fuckers downstairs are blasting their fucking bass loud enough to rattle my Windows on the 6th floor. I really wish there were a law prohibiting selling car subwoofers.
Or any subwoofers frankly.
The fireworks have stopped and the sun has risen for the first time in 2017. I was getting worried. Now if we can just fix the cold, 2017 will be fully debugged and ready to be used.
@Dalillama and @Ooglyboggles – thank you. I must have missed that somehow.
And yes, I agree with David’s assessment of the situation – this guy is a powder keg just waiting for a match to set him off, and we should not be that match. I hope the authorities keep a very close eye on him, because I fear he’ll explode in violent rage if he doesn’t get his way soon (which he won’t). And even if that rage is expended solely on himself, that would be a terrible thing.
I hate the instinct that leads people to automatically correlate abusive, manipulative behaviour and/or selfish, entitled attitudes with mental illness, but in this case I think that he has genuine mental health issues that are clearly exacerbating the problem. Unfortunately, having a lousy attitude towards others and what they owe you, and being mentally ill/neurodiverse are not mutually exclusive prospects (if they were, I suspect the stigma wouldn’t be so severe in the first place).
Worst NYE of my LIFE.
So I was with my folks in DC for the holidays and my dog and I needed to fly back to CA. We take the dog and his crate–the one he flew out in–into cargo and it turns out that the SF branch never should have let him fly out in it since he’s a bit too tall and ducks his head a bit when inside. Thankfully they had a tall enough crate someone else left behind and gave it to us free but I still had a minor freak out.
Also I got my period the day before so cramps and fatigue. Also I was getting the sinus infection my parents were getting over so coughing and more fatigue.
So, get on the plane. It’s an hour longer trip going west cause of wind. I can usually sleep on planes. This time there were two babies in front of me and even when they were quiet I just couldn’t sleep.
Pick up car, pick up dog. New crate needs to be broken down to fit in car and it is a pain to do so. Moment of good fortune with no traffic on the way home.
Almost no food at home since I was gone so long so I make something small for me, feed the starving dog, and get ready for bed. I take some cough syrup because I am hacking.
I wake up at 10:47 almost unable to breathe and in very short order tossed my cookies. Of which there were very little cookies and a lot of phlegm. I can’t get back to bed until after midnight, at which there are not only fireworks but what sound like multiple less-fun explosions that had me checking the news.
I only sleep two ore hours and come to now when I’m just trying to get some water in me. Bleh. Going to the clinic in the morning.
Frequent lurker and occasional poster here. Happy new year to you all! Thanks for the articles and all the fun insightful comments.
Personally, I’m starting the year off on an optimistic note. It looks like I might be getting a job offer in Czechia and I’m tempted to go for it. I’m getting less and less keen on being in the UK; the move towards isolation doesn’t sit right with me. So, big change for me maybe…
@dontgiveahoot:
I like you and I think you have an extremely deep sense of empathy; but could we not do this, please?
The assumption (that illness equals violence) isn’t there because some mentally ill people are violent. Some ill people are also very good at maths, or are very conventionally attractive, and yet there is no widespread assumption that being ill means that you’re good at maths or are pretty. People don’t refuse to hire sane people as scientists or as models.
The assumption is there (I think) because humans fear The Other, and want to project all our negative urges onto them. Unfortunately, this is pretty shitty for those people who happen to be The Other and are trying to get through their lives.
Myself included.
2016 has been mostly terrible and frustrating and soul-destroying for me, but some new things have the potential to make 2017 better if I can manage to stay out of my own way.
No celebrating for me last night. I have to play in a couple of hours (it’s still Sunday) and I need to get there early for last-minute emergency practice. I went to bed ridiculously early. Saturday nights are always terrible for me sleep-wise. It’s like I’m afraid I’ll oversleep, so I keep waking up, even though I have a very loud alarm far from the bed.
But today the plan is to make these:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/02/ultimate-fully-loaded-vegan-nachos-recipe-food-lab-vegan-experience.html
Most of the recipes you have to make to make this recipe are already made (HA!).
Happy New Year everyone!
I made a sweet pilau with roasted butternut squash, potatoes, carrots and red onions.
There was pouring rain all night here, so we stayed home and got drunk as fuck. At midnight we grabbed the champagne bottle and a glass each and went to the parking lot down the street, which is situated at the edge of a mountain with a view over the surrounding suburbs and downtown far in the distance. Fireworks everywhere.
And thanks to the current Pokemon Go event, I finally got my Venusaur. Now my Pokedex is complete, other than the region specific ones, the new baby pokes, and the legendary uncatchables. Now what? :p
beth
There’s this 20 minute potted history of what’s happened with Russia, Putin and the oligarchs here.
You know your dad. Maybe he’d watch it. Maybe he’d watch a couple of 5 min segments if you identified them for him. Up to you,
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/putin-turns-political-power-into-extreme-wealth-834551875606
But I found this gem(??!?!) on the way through.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-advisor-the-wealthy-cant-be-corrupt-because-theyre-wealthy
Oh how we larfed.
Happy new year to everyone.
Happy New Year, everyone. However good or bad 2016 was for you, may 2017 be better.
Happy new year everyone!!! 2016 can fuck itself for the deaths it brought and 2017 better behave itself if it knows what’s good for it!
Right, they’re not, so we can’t assume solely based on his rants about his lousy attitude towards others and what they owe him that he’s mentally ill. Don’t do that.
Plus what EJ said.
My new year’s eve was spent with family and a few friends, a sort of “lowkey party,” just eating loads of vegetarian junk food and watching TV, then watching the Jools countdown as is tradition for us Brits, then going out at midnight to see a huge firework display. And of course, lots of wine. But not enough to get drunk. At least not completely hammered! It was great. Roll on 2017! Fuck you, 2016!
Well, it’s been an odd journey around the Sun this time around and I’m hoping we can make an impact and prevent the next administration from wreaking total havoc.
For this year though I kind of want to just get out there and learn things without dealing with the reactionary vitriol that dots so much discourse.
I wanna have a chat about things like (for instance) video game sexism etc, learn things and get perspective, and have a sense of community in the process. I owe it to myself to be educated and it’s good to have pointers beyond just what internet articles and pundits have to say.
But to sum things up, I just wanna wish you guys a peaceful new year
Haven’t posted much here, lately, due to a combination of school&family stuff taking more of my time, amd the regular “by the time I get to a thread whatever I wanted to say has alrwady been said, and better” stuff (and not like I was that much of a regular before), but still reading, and wanted to wish you all a happy new year.
May your pronouns be respected.
May your trolls be funny, rather than exasperating.
May your cats (or other preferred pets) be extra-floofy.
And may your activism, on- and off-line, achieve what you hope for it to.
Here’s a new year manatee I found on Google:
Happy new year everyone. Congratulations to those who walked out of an overall positive 2016, hugs and support for those who weren’t that lucky.
As for me, well… it wasn’t really a good year. But it could have been worse and in fact it was far better than the three previous ones, in no small part thanks to the Mammotheers who helped me come to grips with some of my issues. I’m super grateful for that.
I know there’s some pretty bad times ahead and I know a lot of you folks will suffer the most from them. I know there isn’t much I can do from this side of the ocean but I wanna add my voice where and when it’s needed, and maybe I’ll be able to do more in time.
These days, I wouldn’t never be able to even stick my head outta my hole, if not this awesome community.
So bring it the fuck on, 2017. I’m ready.
I haven’t been commenting much, but I read comments nearly every day. Most of the time, what I think of saying has already been said in the comments.
2016 sucked. I found out my 86 year old dad has pretty much gone to the dark side after being led by the evangelists and “news” stations he watches. He was not this person when I was younger. He was a union supporting, never vote Republican educator. He is too smart to believe this stuff, but it’s like he has been brainwashed. I have been trying to avoid talking politics because he will not hear me when I try to explain that he is listening to false information. No, Dad…Trump will not be an OK president. He is a fascist trash fire. At work, I lost my sales floor manager as an employee and a friend when I discovered he and the part time employee (prior owner’s sister) conspired to fuck me over and leave me with nobody to cover the weekend I was to visit my dad in MI.
On a positive note, the antique mall I manage was purchased by a new owner in the middle of December, and she immediately offered me a $4 per hour raise to stay on as manager. At least there will be less drama now, and my new assistant manager is awesome. ?
I have been renting my house from a friend for 5 years and now she is going to sell it to me at a discount, and Dad is giving me a huge down payment to buy it. My mortgage will be almost $300 less than rent. So that’s a good thing as well. My online vintage store is also doing well enough to pay my new car payment each month.
As long as we can keep Mango Mussolini from destroying what is left of the US, I think 2017 will be a better year.
You should try and see if this would actually work
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/conditioning.png
Wishing everyone ends up with as happy a New Year as possible.
My 2016 was pretty much fucked, both for the usual reasons and some personal ones. On the upside: I’ve been able to at least get through the personal shit. It helps that we got some better managers at work, too. (We used to have one in particular who pretty much treated us like robots, but he left about nine months ago.)
I’m still biting my nails over my family, though. Stepdad is on disability, as is Baby Sister, and Mom has what I’d call “mobility issues” and can’t work either. Last I checked, she was looking at getting on disability herself. I don’t want to know what their situation would be like if they didn’t have that money–or their state-funded medical coverage–coming to them. I can’t move back in (for various reasons) to take care of them, and I’m hoping Kid Sister decides to finish college rather than drop out to do just that.
I also have my own challenges. Sure, I got a raise, but my rent could get pretty high–the apartment manager decided to finally charge us according to current real-estate values, which is why my rent went up back in October. I’m also looking at more transition-related expenses–top surgery in particular–and I don’t expect insurance to cover everything. And w/r/t my emotional life: I may not be suicidal anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m anywhere near totally okay.
I’m gearing up for another rough year, in other words.
Sorry for rambling. Just needed to get that off my chest.
Or this
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bass.png
@bethd
If your Dad is at all religiously inclined, Putin’s ban on discussing Christianity outside of church (which includes in your own home) might crack his shell a bit. It may not, of course. *shrugs*
As for the New Year, it was quiet with storm clouds. Due to work (I’m being deployed yet again) and various home issues (the boiler died, for one) the wife was not a happy bunny, to put it mildly. Spent the evening cooking, wincing at the fireworks, and playing Starbound.