Fred: So you don't worry that it's possible for someone to send out a biological or electronic trigger that effectively overrides your own sense of ideals and values and replaces them with an alternative coercive agenda that reduces you to a mindless meat puppet? Shopkeeper: Wow. People used to think that I was paranoid.

'Time Bomb'


Goodbye and Good Riddance 2008: "...and the horse you rode in on."  

Every year we watch the Charlie Brown special, do the Snoopy dance, wish everybody a Merry Christmukkah, and thank our Secret Santas in the good riddance thread. Which is this one, in case you were wondering. Oh, and 2008? Don't think we've forgotten about you.


Theodosia - Dec 15, 2008 3:47:13 am PST #14 of 381
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"

On the whole 2008 was nice to me, except for the lack of a job at the end of it -- but there's a lot of THAT going around, so I'm not taking it personally (yet).


DavidS - Dec 15, 2008 7:48:09 am PST #15 of 381
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Theo, I enjoyed hearing your updates from the exciting world of computer generated imagery. You seemed to be enjoying yourself so much.

I wish everybody's offloading from employment was equally delightful and educational.


askye - Dec 15, 2008 12:06:06 pm PST #16 of 381
Thrive to spite them

2008 has been a year with good and bad.

I got -- a new job, a new apartment, a new SIL and a newphew.

I also got really into Second Life and met my sweetheart, SLNRLBF (Second Life Now Real Life Boyfriend). Who is awesome and I love, even though we live 1300 miles away.

Mom retired and is loving it.

But this year had a really bad thing, a really hard thing-- my wonderful sweet cousin, J, died in June of a heart attack. He was 34 and I still can't believe I have to say that.

So Christmas is a mix of excitement and sadness.


Gris - Dec 15, 2008 2:28:52 pm PST #17 of 381
Hey. New board.

Reflecting on the year.

Since this time in 2007, I...

  • saw nearly every play and musical up for a Tony award (plus many more).
  • spent 6 weeks singing, dancing, and acting, happily outside my comfort zone.
  • did community theater again.
  • moved into a larger apartment with my sister.
  • got, then lost, an Amazon Kindle. It was a torrid gadget love affair.
  • started playing bridge again.
  • stopped teaching algebra and started teaching geometry (a great improvement).
  • didn't have nearly as much romance, hand-holding, or kissing as I would've liked.
  • started tutoring again.
  • fell in love with Netflix Instant Queue and the magic Roku device that makes it even better.
  • made some new friends.
  • fell out of touch with some old friends.
  • turned 25.

So, mostly good things, but I feel strangely stalled. I'm ready to move on to the next real phase of my life. I don't know if that means a career change, a girlfriend, or something else, but I'm starting to get restless. Perhaps, hopefully, 2009 will show me where I'll be going in 2010 and beyond. Though I'm starting to think, more and more, that where I'm going is a nice suburban life with children to love. Maybe 2009 will begin me on that journey. (C'mon, year! Bring me a girl!)


meara - Dec 15, 2008 2:46:21 pm PST #18 of 381

Though I'm starting to think, more and more, that where I'm going is a nice suburban life with children to love

Is it bad that I read this as "Oh, Gris wants to teach in the suburbs?"


msbelle - Dec 15, 2008 5:45:20 pm PST #19 of 381
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

I am going to wait until after to Christmas to do a full reflection, but I would like to thank 2008 for my job. This year would have been a completely different level of difficult in the 2007 job.


sarameg - Dec 15, 2008 5:59:54 pm PST #20 of 381

I'd like to thank 2008 for Loki and the gift that has been T and her family finding me a huge good thing in her life. I don't think I knew how much I mattered to them until recently. I just thought I was being me and it didn't feel big. Now I know. It was big to them. That's sometimes more than enough.

There's hard stuff. But that's for later.


megan walker - Dec 15, 2008 9:03:20 pm PST #21 of 381
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

Well, I can't even think of reflecting on the year yet, but I came home from a night out with Buffistas to my Secret Santa package. Fun!! Most packages are still wrapped and under the tree, but, to judge from the one unwrapped thing, my SS is scarily on target.


sumi - Dec 16, 2008 5:11:01 am PST #22 of 381
Art Crawl!!!

I feel like I made no progress this year. I keep doing the same thing.

And outside of me: things sucked. Violence hit my workplace and people I work with. We're all still dealing with it.

So I guess that was the major change. Like my personal life is in a cocoon but at work there has been this seachange where on a bigger level we've all had to pull together. (Although we are recovered enough that lots of petty officey things are really bugging again.)


Hayden - Dec 16, 2008 6:45:56 am PST #23 of 381
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."

I published a book in 2008, did readings in Nashville and twice in LA, wrote a column for Powell's Books, met a lot of wonderful and extremely cool people, watched my daughter grow from a tiny baby into a charming little toddling explorer, watched my son's imagination explode into a constant stream of narrative and construction, lost a beloved old dog, adopted a less-beloved dog (but she's growing on me), saw some freakin' awesome movies and tv shows, read some great books, perfected my pork chop brining recipe, lost 25 lbs, put a lot of work into my next major writing project, published a few freelance works, killed a lot of time with some of my favorite people to kill time with, and managed to find time to sleep a little bit here and there, too.

Far as I'm concerned, 2008 kicked 2007's ass up and down the block.