Happy New Year to my fellow Boingers along with a question or two

#1

I just wanted to wish you all a very happy new year.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I found 2013 to be a sad, depressing, and exhausting year. It’s over in less than 6 hours for me, and I can’t wait to see the back of it. The weird thing is, lots of people I know have had a similar experience this past year. I was wondering about the rest of you. Did any of you have particularly bad or great years in 2013? I’m not looking for details, though I’m happy to read all your happinesses and woes, I’m just curious how the rest of you saw 2013, both personally and in terms of the state of the world.

Also, how are things looking for 2014 for everyone?

Anyway… thanks all for sharing your thoughts and views with me over the year. Despite the bumps, I think I’m really growing to like the new forums here and have really enjoyed some of the great conversations I’ve had here this year. I look forward to yet another year of great conversations and debates with you all!

#2

It was a normal year for me, with both ups and downs. I think the progression of marriage equality puts 2013 over the top for me as a net-positive year.

#3

2013 was a net gain for me. I graduated and am gainfully employed in a job directly related to my major (environmental engineering), and best of all, I’m happy there. But there were a lot of rough parts too. It looks like there’s going to be a divorce in my family, and that’s always painful.

In short, I haven’t gotten to where I want to be, but I think that things will work out. I’m still sure that I’ll get there though.

Next year is going to be tough, because of the divorce. But things will end up ok.

@Mindysan33, I hope 2014 will be better for you than this one. Thanks for starting the thread - these kinds of things provide a sense of community on BB, and I’m really grateful for it.

#4

Pretty awful. If I had to sum up life in the rust belt it’d be EROSION and FACADE. Wealth leaves and it’s replaced with cheap credit. There’s growth but it all seems so tenuous and plastic. There is no cultural identity. Forests and farms get mowed down to make way for housing and retail developments. You can travel to any town in a 300 mile radius and they all look the same.

Not optimistic about 2014. Personally, I’m going to have to leave this area for my own sanity. I doubt this place will survive the next bubble bursting. But where to go? Surely my tribe’s out there somewhere.

May you live in interesting times, right?

Safe and Happy New Years to all.

#5

2013 was mostly horrible and I’m glad to see the back of it.

#6

I love Boing Boing. “Safe” is something that most folks out there in the world don’t think to mention on New Years. I wish all of you the best. I actually feel like I know most of the people on here in some capacity, and I genuinely feel that most everybody here is a good person. And everybody, regardless of whether or not I agree with them, deserves to be safe and happy.

#7

2013 was exhausting and overwhelming.

#8

Take care in the coming year, @Medievalist.

#9

Thanks for the wishes. 2013 was a terrible year for me too. But it did have really astonishingly great points. I hope 2014 is the most amazing year yet. Which is where I’ll stop because it lends too easily to me going on a mope fest.

Happy 2014, all. :sweat_smile:

#10

It was a year. Less stressful than 2011/2012. Compared to many, I was lucky.

State of the world: tl;dw. Complicated; differently, but it’s always different. History never repeats itself but often rhymes. Its sense of meter suckketh mightily, however.

#11

Happy new year, y’all.

My year was marked by personal failings and paranoia ( ._.)
Speaking to you all via BBS was helpful.

#12

I like to think that that’s why Boing Boing is a community now, rather than just a news feed. All the best to you in the coming year, @noahdjango.

#14

Happy New Year!

#15

So, why did the hats everyone was wearing in Times Square say New Year’s Eve 2014? Isn’t that a year away?

#16

Wishing y’all a prosperous and satisfying 2014!
2013 was rather unremarkable for me… The big negative was putting my old cat, Elsie, to sleep a couple days ago – she was ~18, so it was expected, but she had been the one constant in my life since moving to L.A.

#17

Looks like a good place to post my New Year postcard.

#18

The question of the year was “Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?” But, I could win the internet in 2014. So, pass the sugar and let’s see.

#19

Lost my job, mother in law died, 15 year old cat who was born into our house died as well. Baruch Hashem my wife and I still have out health.

#20

My 2013 was fine, overall. I can’t complain about they way my own life is going. I’ll even have health insurance soon, so that’s nice.

But the world overall? I kind of feel like it’s falling apart. The land of the free is becoming a police state.

People are afraid of each other, afraid of anything that’s different. More people have the freedom to marry than did a year ago, but it also feels like the volume is being turned up on the hate setting. Malala Yousafzai wrote a book, she isn’t dead, but how many other girls are dead because they wanted an education?

How many people were denied the right to vote, because someone was afraid they would vote “the wrong way” or they were “the wrong kind of people”? How many people were deported to countries with languages they don’t speak well, and cultures that feel foreign, because they don’t have the right paperwork? How many innocent people were killed in police custody?

I wish I could say that I was optimistic about 2014, but I’m not. Boing Boing at least reminds me that there are thoughtful people out there, caring about the world we share.

#21

Happy New Year everyone!

2013: not my best year, not my worst year.
2014: we’ll see.

‘And now we welcome the New Year, full of things that have never been.’
Rainer Maria Rilke

‘Who or what destroys me is my own decision.’
Max Goldt