Take stock of this lousy year — and this not-so-great-decade — and/or look forward to the new year. Or talk about whatever. No trolls!
And on an unrelated topic, I do know about that Make Women Great Again conference and will probably do a post about it soon.
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Happy new year (and new decade), all.
Isn’t this blog coming up on its ten-year anniversary? Or are the archives incomplete?
Regardless, September 2010 seems like half a universe away.
@Aaron
David verified that the start date of the blog is with the post “>Opening Statement” on September 17, 2010. So yes, the blog is approaching its tenth birthday.
Happy New Year!!!! ???
Just under five and a half hours left here in California.
Happy New Year! Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.
Hippo Gnu Deer, everyone. Be safe.
Five to midnight here.
(to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’):
Spi-derma-an, Spi-derman
Does whate’er a spider can!
He spins a we-eb a-ny size
Catches thi-eves just like flies….
Re: WHTM turning 10 next September
That’s a relief. Once this blog’s hit the wall, creepy men will stop trying to fuck with it.
Or wherever that mythical wall is. Seems to get lower every time.
Has anyone seen the stupid add for some NFL app (I think) where people just go back and forth saying:
in an oddly stilted voice over and over, where the syllables are unusually distinct even within the word “football”? (so it’s more l like “free…phone…foot…ball?”
Now I have a variation running through my head where people excited about the Mandalorian show are saying:
over and over.
Happy New Year, Mammotheers!
I’m hoping for a year — and then a few million centuries — of clear vision.
It will be 2020 in California in one minute.
Happy new year to all. I wish we didn’t hurt right now- some of us physically, some of us emotionally, some of us both. But I promise I will do my damnedest to make this a safe and happy year for as many as I can. The recent events David has written about have opened my eyes to the work that needs to be done.
I deal with depression and despondency during this time of year. I’ve thought about giving up. But I’ve realized that as long as there are Nazis to fight, there’s no giving up. No giving in to the midwinter bleakness. All the best to you all, and from this non-Jew I say “never again”. There are more of us than there are of them, and we know better this time. I promise you that.
I started the year on a negative note, because my neighbour with the Porsche decided to ring in the new year by sitting in his car and wildly revving the engine. For fifteen minutes. Can we eat the rich yet?
Here in Taiwan, satellite TV uses January 1 to drop channels not much watched. This year, for TV news, while we still get BBC, CNN, NHK, al-Jazeera and a bunch of Euro channels- they’re dropping Fox News! No more Hannity, Carlson, Fox and Friends….Have to be careful though- the cranky right-wing American businessmen that are its primary audience are already whining how it’s a liberal/globalist/Soros/Democrat plot.
HNY, WHTMeers!
Wishing us all a better and more hopeful year (decade!) than the last one!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year everyone!
@KindaSortaHarmless
This made me laugh. I guess we can hope.
@Crip Dyke
I just looked up the ad and I can totally hear what you’re talking about with the Baby Yoda. FWIW I haven’t watched the Mandalorian, but I think this Baby Yoda thing has been blown way out of proportion.
@David Rose
If it’s any consolation, I also have seasonal depression. You’re not alone. Thank you for your support.
For the several weeks I have had feelings about a movie and no one wants to talk about it with me.
Rise of Skywalker? They won’t shut up about it.
Knives Out? Just lots of gushing.
But when I bring up the movie that had me ugly-crying in front of all of the seven-year-olds, none of my friends have seen it or want to.
I’m talking about Frozen II, of course.
Since the first film came out in 2013, I have identified with Elsa to a painful degree. Avoidance, depression, and anxiety, especially over a fear of hurting people? Oh, sweetie, I have been there.
“Don’t let them in
Don’t let them see
Be the good girl
You always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel
Don’t let them know”
Oh, your father and my mother attended the same parenting school, it seems.
Well, Frozen II is rough. This may be one of the thematically darkest films that Disney has made, right up there with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tangled, though this one is about a different type of awfulness than emotionally abusive parents.
But the emotional climax of the film, the one that had this 40-year-old man ugly-crying, was actually before the film hits its emotional nadir. It’s the song that, probably for plot reasons, Disney has not been promoting while trying to make “Into The Unknown” the new “Let It Go.” But while “Into The Unknown” shows off Idina Menzel’s voice, it has no emotional impact as “Let It Go” did.
But “Show Yourself?” Hoo boy. I don’t even know where to start.
@Allandrel:
My brother & his family wanted me to go with them Xmas day to see Frozen II.
Given what you just posted, coupled with my less than steady emotional equilibrium just now, I’m glad I said “no” and stuck to it. I probably would’ve been clenched in on myself crying–@ I hate crying, especially in public (that only applies to me, though. I have little
trouble w/other people crying though it usually makes me hurt for them).
Thx for confirming for me that I made the right call.
OT (& I apologize since we’ve been discussing some pretty heavy, real world issues both in this thread & previous ones), but I have two questions for Mammothers:
1. Those of you who’ve been through breakups (partners, friends, family members, even), what helped you get through the upheaval?
2. Were any of you later able to continue a relationship/friendship with that person/people? If so, how did you manage it?
Thank you ahead of time.
@ObSidJag
I’m younger and less experienced than a lot of the people here, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
After breakups I’ve usually tried to distract myself with other activities. Since I’m an amateur musician, this meant practicing my instruments a lot more than usual. Listening to music also helped me take my mind off of it. I would listen while walking my dog, but if you don’t have a dog just going on walks while listening to music you like on headphones can help.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, I found that sad songs often helped, because I could relate to them. It appears that the general consensus of the Internet is that other people find this to be true as well. I don’t really have a specific playlist or anything that I can link, and my music tastes are a bit eclectic, so I recommend using your own music.
I’ve had some success with this in the past. My last girlfriend and I had an on-and-off relationship for a couple years before calling it off for good. It wasn’t acrimonious and I don’t think either of us resented the other, we just decided it wasn’t working out. She wanted to remain friends and I was fine with this, but we lived about half an hour away from each other, so this was difficult.
I went through a couple months without contacting her at all, then she started texting me again and we made plans to go out to dinner. Neither of us are interested in having a romantic or sexual relationship again, but we still occasionally go places together or go out to dinner as friends.
This may or may not work in your situation depending on a number of factors, so YMMV.
I hope this new decade brings in the mentality that the human race needs. One that says goodbye to repressive ideals.
Happy New Year! Ten years ago was right around the lowest point in my life, and now things are much better for me, and I am happy for that. I wish the same could be said for everyone*, but I know that is absolutely not the case, so I guess I’m going to try going into the 2020s to make the world a little less shitty for people who weren’t as lucky as I was.
*The bit about things being better, I mean. I don’t want people to have suffered in 2010 just so that the contrast is more impressive. Nobody needs to have a UTI for years on end. Just nobody.
Edit: @galanx
And here I thought they loooooved the free market!
@Naglfar:
From that “opening statement:”
The best thing you can say about the Men’s Rights Movement is that it doesn’t, and hopefully never will, have anything near the impact on the world that feminism has had over the years.
Sigh…
The last few months of 2019 were pretty rough for me. I’ve had worse years, but this time around I lost my job (*stops to shake fist at the C-suite and the industry in general*), I lost my oldest cat, and only one of those can be replaced, which hasn’t happened yet.
But Mr. Parasol and I still have each other, and we still have 3 cats. Hopefully 2020 will be better for us all.
Lost one of our cats on the 30th (she weren’t that old, weren’t ill or injured, she simply didn’t wake up that morning), so the year ended on a particularly low note for us.
Happy New Year everyone!! ???
shadowplay-i’m so sorry to hear about your cat! We recently lost on of our cats, too. She suddenly got really sick and had to be put down. ?
Happy New Year everyone!
I’m sorry about your cats Victorious Parasol, shadowplay, and MissEB47. I haven’t yet lost a pet, and not sure how I’d deal with that. I’ve had my dog for 8 years (she is also 8), and she seems to be in her prime still. Hoping that’s the case for a good long time.
@ObSidJag
I went through a breakup July 2018, so it’s been a year and a half now. I will say that I have moments when I feel I’m still not okay (and that’s okay).
My friends often describe me as logical and analytical, so after the break up I had a lot of very big feelings that I felt like why am I having these feelings? I went to a therapist.That helped a little. I think I also had to accept that feelings don’t always make sense, or that I don’t always understand why I feel certain ways, or sometimes I just need time to articulate why I felt certain things. But I think I had to come to terms with the uncertainty of things.
I think it helped to surround myself with people who love me. I think my friends helped a lot by talking, listening, and just being with me. It helped to hear their stories and how much of a mess they felt.
I also enjoy listening to music as I walk my dog. It also felt cathartic to cry to some sad songs. Sometimes it also helped to just sit by myself. I also journaled. I wrote messages to the person that I never sent.
I also obsessed over that person for a bit and realized that having space from that person would be healthy (not because of anything they did but because of my tendencies).
I also got out and dated. It helped to some degree. It was a confidence boost to know that other people liked me romantically.
I went to the gym more. The endorphins definitely helped. It also gave my mind something to focus on. I definitely recommend something like this (to occupy your mind and that you feel improves yourself, like ticking something off your bucketlist).
I worked. I mean, I tried to let work distract me.
I have not continued relationships with the few people I’ve had relationships with. I’ve had some friends that have though. I think in each case, they gave each other time and space before trying to build a friendship.