Happy New Year!

[jeriddian]

To all the members of the GJA, I wish you a very happy new year. I feel that 2010 is going to be a much better year than the one just past. So I wish the best of luck in the months to come. I am hoping that the GJA itself will also be making some advances during this time.

[Rob]

Bon Voyage, 2009... And Don't Come Back!

Happy New Year, everybody!

[Fireand'chutes77]

And GOOD 'EFFIN RIDDANCE to the 2000's.



We can't even decide what to call the sucker. (They're saying The O's, the Uh-Ohs, the Aughties, the Naughties, Naughts and Aughts... I think I'll just go with "the 2000's.")

It began with political acrimony, ended with political acrimony, with some 10,000 US war deaths sandwiched in between (including 9/11. Hoo-boy. Including 9/11).

Most generations have a defining moment, or one major economic downturn. Mine has had at *least* five crammed into the past 10 years. 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, the 2008 recession, and Obama. In hindsight, the period between the 2002 and 2008 recessions was just a limp, a sideways straggle before the massive "reckoning."

DAMMIT, this wasn't supposed to HAPPEN. Lionel was making gold-and-silver edition trainsets in commemoration of 01/01/00, fer cryin' out loud. Sure, we have internet, but we're supposed to have flying cars and moon bases by now. Instead, we got a massive backward slide, a big f*cking rehash of the 1980's. I mean, I look back on those posters published in 2000 about the ISS and smile a bitter smile at the expected completion date of 2004-ish. I'm a big supporter of NASA, but really, a space station is the ultimate expression of a rich nation's boredom, "the gift for the guy who has everything."

"Well.... we beat the Soviets and we're riding an unparalleled economic boom.... Whad'ya wanna do now?"
"How 'bout a space station?"
*Yawn*
"Sorry.... Hey, yeah, a space station sounds cool... Let's do that."

Instead we get religious nutcases flying jetliners into buildings and an airhead ex-governor railing about "death panels."

You know what makes me really furious? The world takes a massive sh*t on my generation - a stupid war, jaw-dropping deficits, a city left to drown, climate change while oilmen wrack up billions - and the first chance I get to vote is when the economy is crashing down around our ears and it's basically a matter of deciding the future of the country.

Yeah, we "should've," we "would've" elected a black guy eventually, same thing for a woman, but it "should've" been after a warm, comfortable, boring decade and the country, with much the same mindset as popping up the ISS, goes, "Well.... *nup, nup, nup* ....I'm bored. You know, we really should elect a black guy. They really need their turn, after all, what with that whole "multicultural" thingy that's been hot lately.... Besides, it'll be a nice change of pace. And after that, we'll let a woman have a go at it. Good way to round out the set. It's sort of like dressing up an end-table - can't have all the decorations clumped at one end, now can we?"

....Instead, Obama's win is greased on the worse economic meltdown in the past 50 years - "Well, he couldn't be worse than the old foegy, right?" Hooray, yes we can, and now we'll be digging ourselves out for the meltdown that got you the win for the next ten years, thanks.

*Blows party horn.*

Auld Lang Syne........


================================


EDIT: And yet, AND YET, this is post number #8,888. All eights. In Eastern folklore, eight is the luckiest number..... A sign, perhaps? All lucky eights on the first night of a new decade? All of my b*tching and bellyaching was about the *last* ten years, the ten years nobody saw coming at the close of the decade before them. As for the next ten? Who knows, who knows.......

[campy]

Oh, it's a different year than it was yesterday? Whatever.

(Pssst: hey 'chutes, I hope you're at least a little bit concerned about the airheads who are actually in office.)

[lunchmeat]

Poor ol' 'Chutes, his is the only generation in history that's had tough time. ....

Happy new year, folks.

[GoTeamGirl]

Happy New Year!

[Fireand'chutes77]

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, GTG!

May the new year bring you a couple more pennies!

[GoTeamGirl]

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, GTG!

May the new year bring you a couple more pennies!

And you as well!

I really really (really) hope 2010 gets better in terms of, well, everything. I would like to say that it can't get worse, but that's the worst thing to say, so I'll just say that it could get better.

[TransWarpDrive]

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, GTG!

May the new year bring you a couple more pennies!

And you as well!

I really really (really) hope 2010 gets better in terms of, well, everything. I would like to say that it can't get worse, but that's the worst thing to say, so I'll just say that it could get better.

I have to agree with you, GTG. Even with all the problems I've had this past year (medical emergency without insurance coverage; losing my job in early December), I still have to admit things could be a whole lot worse. Hopefully, my sitch will improve in 2010; and I wish the same for everyone else in the GJA. Good luck to us all, and Happy New Year!

[jeriddian]

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, GTG!

May the new year bring you a couple more pennies!

And you as well!

I really really (really) hope 2010 gets better in terms of, well, everything. I would like to say that it can't get worse, but that's the worst thing to say, so I'll just say that it could get better.

Nice to see you again GTG. Let me know when you're old enough to have your own snailmail address, and I'll send you your Christmas present from last year.