Happy New Year!

[Ann]

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Photo: Hussein El-Alawi

Happy New Year, everybody!

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Happy New Year, everybody!

2017 comes to Pikes Peak: the annual midnight show from my deck, 24 miles away, after a team makes the hard, two-day winter hike to the top with fireworks on their backs. Happy New Year! Sure hope it's an improvement over the last, which ranks as the worst year ever in my life.

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[geckzilla]

Sure hope it's an improvement over the last, which ranks as the worst year ever in my life.

Wow, I feel ya. I don't know your specifics, but my last month especially has been rather hard on me too. I don't know what the worst year ever in my life is. I'm definitely battling depression and filling up a newly created hole in my life with my Hubble hobby.

[Chris Peterson]

Sure hope it's an improvement over the last, which ranks as the worst year ever in my life.

Wow, I feel ya. I don't know your specifics, but my last month especially has been rather hard on me too. I don't know what the worst year ever in my life is. I'm definitely battling depression and filling up a newly created hole in my life with my Hubble hobby.

We lost three pets in the last couple months. Two close friends died this year. Two more close friends are on their way out, probably this year. Brexit. The U.S. election. The increasing shift of the world towards Idiocracy.

Not the happiest of times.

[geckzilla]

It adds up, doesn't it? I can live with the rest of the world idiocrifying. The personal stuff really hurts when it's layered on top of current events, though. I'm sorry your best friends and friends are dying. That's something I've been spared from, at least. I don't know how I would handle it if someone I was close to died tomorrow.

[Ann]

Sure hope it's an improvement over the last, which ranks as the worst year ever in my life.

Wow, I feel ya. I don't know your specifics, but my last month especially has been rather hard on me too. I don't know what the worst year ever in my life is. I'm definitely battling depression and filling up a newly created hole in my life with my Hubble hobby.

We lost three pets in the last couple months. Two close friends died this year. Two more close friends are on their way out, probably this year. Brexit. The U.S. election. The increasing shift of the world towards Idiocracy.

Not the happiest of times.

I have sensed that you and Geck have been feeling low lately, but I thought it was "only" because of the outcome of the U.S. election. (Which is scary enough, I'll grant you that.)

My mother died in November this year, which was a big loss for me. I've been feeling a bit morbid after that, getting particularly hung up on the Carrie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds daughter/mother tragedy.

But I haven't had as many losses as you, Chris. I'm sorry for your losses. And I'm not, in a medical sense, depressed. I hope your Hubble hobby can help, Geck, for your sake and for every Hubble fan out there.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Not the happiest of times.

I have sensed that you and Geck have been feeling low lately, but I thought it was "only" because of the outcome of the U.S. election. (Which is scary enough, I'll grant you that.)

My mother died in November this year, which was a big loss for me. I've been feeling a bit morbid after that, getting particularly hung up on the Carrie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds daughter/mother tragedy.

But I haven't had as many losses as you, Chris. I'm sorry for your losses. And I'm not, in a medical sense, depressed. I hope your Hubble hobby can help, Geck, for your sake and for every Hubble fan out there.

Sorry about your mom. Mine's in pretty poor health... just the decline of age... she could live a few months or a few years. Not so easy to deal with. Like you, I'm not medically depressed, just not very happy with how things have been going, not very optimistic with where things are heading, and generally disappointed with much of the world. I'm glad I live in a place that is at least a little insulated from much of that, though.

[Markus Schwarz]

Wow, that subject turned bleak quickly! The past year held some great ups and downs for me and I feel the atmosphere of nervous apprehension too. But I will start a new job and my own family in 2017, so I am a bit more optimistic.

I found that xkcd nicely sums up the current feelings. And since I had my first encounter with an internet troll on the Asterisk* last year, I will warn you that "this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

Thus, I wish you a Happy New Year 2017!

[rstevenson]

XKCD always lifts my spirits. Thanks for that one Markus.

May all my fellow asteriskians have a good (or at least, better than last) year.

Rob

[starsurfer]

Sure hope it's an improvement over the last, which ranks as the worst year ever in my life.

Wow, I feel ya. I don't know your specifics, but my last month especially has been rather hard on me too. I don't know what the worst year ever in my life is. I'm definitely battling depression and filling up a newly created hole in my life with my Hubble hobby.

I know what that's like and I hope things get better for you, at least we all have astronomy.

[bystander]

Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2021.

Does it bother anyone else that the new year is pronounced "2020-won" ???

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

I can live with the rest of the world idiocrifying.

"Idiocrifying" ... really

At least we have learned how to work & socialize
without burning more gasoline & jet fuel.

(And Polaroid is probably up to millions by now!)

[geckzilla]

Well, I'm still alive, aren't I?

[Ann]

Happy New Year, everyone!

Or, as the message that my excessively caninophile best friend failed to find, but was supposed to find, when her dog was sniffing for eucalyptus-soaked letters hidden in trees and bushes for her to put together as a message. It was supposed to read:

B-E-T-T-E-R N-E-W Y-E-A-R

So, Happy New Year, or a Better New Year than 2020, everyone!

Ann

[neufer]

Well, I'm still alive, aren't I?

• A rhetorical question⸮

<<A rhetorical question is one for which the questioner does not expect a direct answer(; e.g., "Can't you do anything right?"). Depending on the context, a rhetorical question may be punctuated by a question mark (?), full stop (.), or exclamation mark (!), but some sources argue that it is required to use a question mark for any question, rhetorical or not. In the 1580s, English printer Henry Denham invented a "rhetorical question mark" (⸮) for use at the end of a rhetorical question; however, it fell out of use in the 17th century. It was the reverse of an ordinary question mark, so that instead of the main opening pointing back into the sentence, it opened away from it.>>

[geckzilla]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯