Goodbye, 2011, and may you trouble us no more.

Well, 2011 mostly sucked… but it was better than 2010 for me, so there’s that at least >.>

Hopefully 2012 will be substantially better all around.

I have to admit, it’s kind of crazy living in 2012 though – I mean, I know this is ridiculous but a lot of near-future sci-fi from when I was growing up was set in years I’ve already lived through. 

And some of the technological leaps have just been incredible.

I mean, I know it doesn’t solve (and in many ways exacerbates) the problems we have… but I have to admit every so often I have to think how simultaneously awesome and absurd it is that I can say… walk around with more accumulated knowledge in the palm of my hand than existed in most libraries until not that long ago.*

I mean, we’re living in a time frame when it’s possible to carry in your pocket, a computer more powerful than the one that sent people to the moon…  that’s… nuts.

It doesn’t solve the problems of today but… damn, once in awhile I have to take a break from being pissed off and think “That’s pretty neat”.  (Otherwise I will explode.  That happens to me sometimes.)

I guess the point of all that is basically “… holy shit it’s 2012, when did I get to The Future? (And where’s my damn jetpack.)” >.>

*I got an e-reader for Christmas – what can I say? It’s pretty darn neat.

Continuing the hope theme:

Hope is not about proving anything. It’s about choosing to believe this one thing, that love is bigger than any grim, bleak shit anyone can throw at us.
 –Anne Lamott

Happy New Year all.

happy new year fred,and all that crap

2011 was ok for me.I usually measure my years based on my birthdays so it’s difficult to say how 2011 was.Definitely not my worst year.Really,if I think about it,it was pretty good for me.Not the best year for humanity though

Also what JJohnson said.I’m pretty sure I’m younger than him but it still feels pretty “futurey” to me.I mean,i can get on my phone and video chat with someone from china if I pay the right price.That’s pretty much the bare minimum for is being the “future”.

Soon the gray* old year must leave us,
But the parting must not grieve us 
When the new year comes tomorrow 
Let him find no trace of sorrow.      

He our pleasures may redouble,      
He may bring us store of trouble,      
Hope the best and gaily meet him,      
With a jovial chorus greet him.     

At his birth, he brings us gladness,      
Ponder not on future sadness,      
Anxious care is now but folly,      
Fill the mead-cup, hand the holly.      

(Welsh traditional)

Fa la la la la and Happy New Year to all.

I’m trying to hope for the best, although I got quite a shock when the new New Yorker came in the mail today.

*redacted, because the original word causes all sorts of unfortunate results when you google it. This is no time for linguistic misunderstandings.

2011 was terrible. As was years 1999-2010. I expect 2012 to be much of the same.

I think you’re not really doing the job board posts anymore, but I know of an opening I’d like to share… I am looking for a nanny for my one year old daughter. She is in daycare right now, but has an underlying medical condition that makes the usual daycare illnesses more concerning. We are in Minneapolis, and open to live-in or live-out. We are finding that we can’t really afford the going rate of of $28,000 – $30,000 per year. We would be able to offer more like $23,000 to $24,000. We’d want to do it legally, with everyone paying all their taxes.

My e-mail is m-salit at u.northwestern.edu

Hello and Happy New Year.

May 2012 bring less suckitude than 2011 did.

2011 was pretty bad, given I lost my job in June and have been working three part time jobs since then to barely keep my head above water.  But last month I got a full-time job teaching at a community college, so things are looking up.  My hope for this year is to have a baby.  Given my wife’s medical profile, it’s a long-shot, but here’s hoping.

I am grateful to be leaving 2011.  Last year was the worst year of my life for several small reasons and one huge one.  I hope and pray that 2012 will be much better.

Happy New Year to my Slacktivist friends.  May the new year bring you and your family happiness, and may you reach your personal 2012 goals.

Happy New Year to Fred and all the Slacktivites.  We made it through another one!  Here’s to better times.

Here’s wishing that 2012 treats Fred and everyone else here well.

(2011 was far & away the worst year of my life, so things really need to get better this year.)

After working for two summers with searching for a job I got hired to teach theology in a Catholic high school in another city for the 11-12 Year, and then ambushed at the end of the semester with “It’s not working out” and fired for “no cause.”

In truth the reason I was fired was purely theological. My department chair, putting it charitably, was a Catholic nutter. The type that only thinks the Catholic church has the only things to say that are theologically worthwhile, that Moses literally wrote Genesis, and that academically and morally challenging kids with topics on current events and consumerism was a waste of time because it deviated from the shitty books he picked out as text books.

2011, go away. I have to pick up the pieces and find a better school in 2012, but you know what, that’s okay. There are a lot of better run theology departments out there, and more that respect more than just the Fransiscan Pedagogical Method. (For the record, I teach Jesuit style – heavy on the arts and academic challenge, but also done with a hint of brevity and conversational style.)

I got hired to teach theology in a Catholic high school in another city
for the 11-12 Year, and then ambushed at the end of the semester with
“It’s not working out” and fired for “no cause.”

When people complain about how hard it is to get rid of public school teachers (i.e., due process has to be followed), I wonder if they realize this is what they are asking for. I often think that they do.

Happy Doomsday Year, everybody!

Teh Pockle-Lips we haz it:

OK, I’ll try again:

Happy Doomsday Year, everybody!

Teh Pockle-Lips we haz it:

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/funny-pictures-four-lolcats-of-the-apocalypse.jpg

When I hear about this stuff, all I can think of is…
These people want teachers (government workers, union members) to suffer the same indignaties they do, instead of getting the same protections for themselves.

“Crabs in a bucket”.

Freakish deja vu from the comments to this post, like I’m pretty sure I read them months ago, including the post from Mks Mary. Eerie. 

2011 had some fairly steep ups and downs. I’d like 2012 to achieve a pleasant mean, and remain fairly stable thereafter. 

Half past midnight, walking back from the look out on the end of South Street in Philadelphia after watching the New Year’s Eve fireworks. The crowd is laughing, cars are honking their horns, and silvered glittery tiaras and paper top hats bob on heads. Just then a very tall, very beautiful, and very drunk girl, never seen before or to be seen again, throws her arms around us and with a touching sincerity bellows “HAPPY NEW YEAR! NOW GO HOME AND FUCK THE SHIT OUT OF HER!” I’m taking this as a very auspicious sign and good omen for 2012. Have a hopeful and good one everybody.