Optimist or pessimist

On this day, which are you?

The optimist who stays up to welcome the new year?

Or the pessimist who stays up to make sure the old year actually leaves?

When I'm in a relationship, it's great to have a reason to go out and all that. But when I'm single (as I am at present) I really don't care one way of the other. Well, I DO like paid days off. That's cool.

Something I never thought I'd say after surviving the Bush/Cheney decade of terra.

This year I am an optimist. Go figure.

my attitude just isn't the same anymore.

That glass is half full. :)


edit to add - here, for the other half:

This year, I'm thinking about going out. So I'll weight the pro and cons and make a decision later.

Cons of going out
It's cold
I have to get dressed
Have to do hair
Have to do makeup
have to find something nice to wear
have to drive 20 miles
have designated driver
driver doesn't have much winter road driving experience
weather may be bad
designated driver may fall asleep and not wake up when we call for ride.

Pros of staying home

no getting dressed.
stay in stinky jammies
big bed with thick fluffy feather mattress and lots of feather pillows
TV, remote
Champagne in fridge
little good green from the brother.

Oh what should I do?

I'm staying at home as well, for similar reasons.

Happy New Year :toast:

"Hope for the best. Then work for it."

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Grandmother

But what is a person to do when nearly all the "raw data" points in the same direction, a rise of medieval ignorance and a steep decline in our democratic-republic at just the time when such is neccesary to combat the rise of medieval ignorance.

There's so much more to it than that, but that's the summation.

This is a very bad time to be someone who has studied history and past tyranny/totalitarianism.

that the next decade will find real solutions for this plan

For the States.......it will take until 2012 but a lot of the planet
is already aware.




The rare Blue Moon that is on this night and time across this planet
must mean something for the coming decade.

The last decade was a NIGHTMARE compared to hiding under my bed or desk
when we had a nuclear drill in the 50s and early 60s

The planet's consciousness is asking questions
about its health and sanity

lolol maybe I should leave off the toast

:hi:

In my immediate family of three:
*two cancer scares
*one kidney stone (surgically removed)
*failed comps (meaning bye-bye PhD for one member of the family - after everything but the dissertation was done)
*one new chronic illness that will ultimately require a transplant (on top of the one that's been around for 15 years)
*a HS valedictorian now struggling to survive college (because of the new chronic illness),
*an disability access office which has been extremely uncooperative in helping mitigate the impact of the illness
*depression - resulting from the impact of the illness, etc.
*and a decision in the next couple of weeks about whether to have major surgery to fix minor symptoms (and prevent around a 30% lifetime risk that the minor symptoms will turn suddenly life-threatening) - but which may put me unable to breathe easily for up to 6 months (or permanently if the knife slips) and create worse symptoms than I started with.

I'll be glad to see 2009 go, and here's hoping for a better 2010.

to believe that human civilization has reached its limits and the earth had reached its carrying capacity. I also firmly know that this planet is changing as a result of human activity. I believe we have passed the point of peak oil production, which I further believe plays a huge part in the current economic and geopolitical situation, just as it was predicted it would. If this is true, there will be no further growth of the current civilization and it will, in fact, contract and eventually collapse, perhaps very soon. Hatred, greed, corruption, and war are already here and will remain here until there is not enough energy left to support it all.

BUT, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. It will be what each of us makes of it. Whatever is on the other side will make life richer for us, our children and our grandchildren. Family, then community, will be the center of life again as well as producing our own food, tools, and textiles. We will be healthier, stronger, and happier. We will have cleaner air and greener pastures and sparkling waters. Climate change will be stopped in its tracks before it can do irreversible damage. So, there is hope for the future.