Your Personal 2016

[Timewalker]

I had a good year, writing-wise. I met and exceeded my goals in all three NaNoWriMo events in April, July, and November. Unfortunately, the exchange rate and shipping make it prohibitive to actually take advantage of those nice winner's discounts, but oh well... I've got some decent stories to edit now, and that's plenty all by itself.

 

[Leviathan]

Drama, betrayal, tragedy, poverty, and illness aplenty in 2016. Overall, 2016 can go fuck itself with an iron stick.

On the plus side: The Grand Tour.

...so I guess on on balance it kinda evened out then.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

This year had some high highs and low lows.

PROS:
-Another great year with my girlfriend. We've started talking about getting married.
-Moved to a new house. Rent dropped, space increased.
-Rescued a new cat. Her name is Udon Noodle.
-Changed careers. Doing something I enjoy, and doing it relatively well.
-One of the best things that happened to me this year was Mission New York -- my first Star Trek convention ever. My girlfriend made us TOS tunics by hand. Had a photo op with William Shatner, and met and got autographs with Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis. Great panels, lots of merchandise. Best weekend of the year.
-Star Trek Beyond was fucking great.
-Star Trek Online on consoles!
-Got my finances in order.
-Added a bunch of new birds to my life list.
-Celebrated my third anniversary without an ulcerative colitis flare. Thanks, Obamacare!

CONS:
-America elected a tyrannical, misogynistic, racist pile of steaming dogshit as the President. Could lose my healthcare, which I need for an incurable medical condition (see above). But, y'know, EMAILS.
-We had to put our cat Butter to sleep. That was horrible.
-Realized this year that I have some mental health issues that I have never considered before, and need to address. I probably need anger management and stress counseling.
-Realized that people in my extended family are racist, and they don't care very much about my physical well-being.

So, I guess judging by this list I had a good year, overall. But in a wider macro sense, 2016 was terrible.

 

[Velocity]

Lost 5 friends/acquaintances and one family member this year. One just yesterday. But other than that, not a bad year.

 

[Random_Spock]

Pros

Was able to get some nice games this year for my PS3, Vita, 3DS and PC
My mom is recovering ok from hip surgery
Was able to get my laptop's hard drive replaced

Cons

My uncle passed away , known him since I was a kid so it was a tough loss
Two words -- Orange Turd, @Balok's Eggnog -- you hit the nail on the head with it, it's pretty damn f'd up right now

 

[Smellincoffee]

I planned and executed my first vacation + flight + epic road trip. Spent a week going around New Mexico with a notebook of self-printed maps and local references, and nothing went wrong. Absolutely glorious week.

I read more this year than usual, including a series of books on the middle east. Next year I plan on a series of books about India and China. I also finished the Lord of the Rings series, finally.

Bought a new computer and...well, turns out most of my games aren't compatible with Windows 10.

 

[Rincewiend]

2016 was ok for me, definitely better than 2015 or 2014 though...

 

[Timewalker]

Bought a new computer and...well, turns out most of my games aren't compatible with Windows 10.

Hopefully you didn't throw out your other computer(s)?

I bought an XP earlier this year just so I could play Civ II and some other older games. I'm not willing to go through all the rigamarole with the patches to make it compatible with the newer ones.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Hopefully you didn't throw out your other computer(s)?
.

No, thankfully I still have a HP running Vista. It's Vista, sure, and 64bit means it's not compatable with ST Elite Force and ST Away Team, but as long as I have it, I can play Civ III. (I have CIV and CiV...never got into CiV, haven't even played a full game of CiV).

 

[Timewalker]

No, thankfully I still have a HP running Vista. It's Vista, sure, and 64bit means it's not compatable with ST Elite Force and ST Away Team, but as long as I have it, I can play Civ III. (I have CIV and CiV...never got into CiV, haven't even played a full game of CiV).

I've tried Civ III and SMAC, but even those are too much information/sensory overload for me. IV and onward are out of the question, though I do remember some rather... spirited discussions when IV came out, as to whether or not Canada has a civilization (looks pretty civilized to me; I have working indoor plumbing most days...).

 

[Smellincoffee]

I've tried Civ III and SMAC, but even those are too much information/sensory overload for me. .

One reason I stick with Civ3, I think, is that I learned the basics of it back when I had time for that, and these days can play a game at middling level (Monarch-Emp, depending on map) without having to think about it too much. There was a massive Star Trek mod for it over at CivFanatics. Personally, I'd replaced my advisors with Star Trek people, and even modified the diplomacy and text files to give the advisors character-appropriate language. ("The Egyptians declared war on us! I sense hostility!" I never tried SMAC, unfortunately...like Starcraft, by the time I discovered them their graphics were so outdated as to get in the way. (I don't even play the original Red Alert for that reason. Also, I hate having to build silos. )

 

[Timewalker]

One reason I stick with Civ3, I think, is that I learned the basics of it back when I had time for that, and these days can play a game at middling level (Monarch-Emp, depending on map) without having to think about it too much. There was a massive Star Trek mod for it over at CivFanatics. Personally, I'd replaced my advisors with Star Trek people, and even modified the diplomacy and text files to give the advisors character-appropriate language. ("The Egyptians declared war on us! I sense hostility!" I never tried SMAC, unfortunately...like Starcraft, by the time I discovered them their graphics were so outdated as to get in the way. (I don't even play the original Red Alert for that reason. Also, I hate having to build silos. )

Grain silos or missile silos?

 

[Smellincoffee]

Grain silos or missile silos?

Ore silos. Real-time strategy games were still ironing out "What is fun and what might get a software engineer beaten up" back then. As players collected "ore" from the ground, ore needed to build things, storage silos were needed -- and apparently they weren't emptied by building things with the ore, because the player is constantly required to build them. Fortunately they removed that mechanic in the games which followed.

 

[Australis]

(nearly over... nearly over...)

 

[RandyS]

(nearly over... nearly over...)

Yeah but Trump becomes president in 21 days.

This time next year people will be saying "2017 was shit. I miss 2016".

It'll happen. Just you wait.

 

[rahullak]

Things didn't go too well on the career front. I really need to switch lanes quickly if I am to have a better year.

 

[Finn]

Preparing for a job interview subbing. I should kill it. I mean I have a MS...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When I was young, a pimp tried very diligently to convince me (I was carrying a suitcase as I was traveling) to go and have coffee with him at the Mickey D's. It was very difficult to get him to take "no" for an answer, and even though I knew what he was about, I couldn't say so. It was a rather scary experience for me.

I saw that happen to a tour group that I was on a few years ago. We were in Los Angeles on a Sports Travel & Tours baseball trip (which I highly recommend, BTW) and we spent this particular day touring L.A. before the Dodger game that night. Anyhoo, when we were down Hollywood way, a pimp - I'm fairly sure he was one - approached our tour guide, right in the middle of our tour (in full view of all of us, not to mention the thousands of passersby who were in the area), and would not leave her alone. She would not submit, though, and eventually got him to go away.

I got the distinct impression, though, that if not for the fact that our whole tour group was there, she would have kicked his ass.

 

[The Katatonic]

This year was shit.

There were two positives for me: a really wonderful two week vacation I took in May, and a new niece was born.

Other than that, it was not an easy year. I have felt overwhelmed by negative stuff happening around the world on more than a few occasions. There were a lot of unexpected and heart-wrenching deaths and tragedies. The election happened, and even before that the lead-up in the months before the election was exhausting. There were few times I felt like the world was a positive place this year.

Personally, I dealt with two major ongoing health issues which have really affected me emotionally. One of them was hopefully resolved yesterday, so there is finally some relief there, but the other one (eyesight problems) continues to frustrate me, and the doctors don't take me seriously. There were a lot of smaller things that didn't go well either, things that in any other year I wouldn't be too concerned about, but with everything adding up this year I just kept feeling like "really, this now??"

There were also some unpleasant changes at work.

I can't wait for this year to be over.

I hope 2017 is better for you.

 

[The Katatonic]

For me, 2016 was a neutral year, and I am completely okay with that. Nothing exceptionally good or bad happened, and all things cancelled each other out. If anything, it made me understand that I need people a lot less than I had thought I did, and it also showed me that all relationships are cyclical. In many ways, it felt like the calm before the storm. I just hope the storm doesn't come for a while. I am neither dreading, nor excited about next year. It will be what it will be, and my only hope is that I can deal with the highs and lows with logic and grace.....because I occasionally am lacking in both and it is undignified when it happens.