Your Personal 2016

[Australis]

So, as often said, 2016 has been an ongoing fuckup for a year, and it may do us good to get off our chest what it has meant/done to us.

Obvious things like Brexit and the US election should be included, especially as to how it affects you directly.

Also, celebrity deaths - some of us feel these deeply.

So first, my year:

A grandchild born to older child and spouse (Jan), with 2 trips to Queensland to see them (Feb and Aug)

Family pet passed away, cancer, Apr.

A new grandchild, from younger child and spouse, announced in August (due Apr-May 17)

Fractured my leg in 2 places, in a cast Jul-Sept. Slipped over outside a shop, it's been distressing in more ways than one.

Lost my job (along with ~20 others), Sept.
Got a new job (very similar to what I had, so okay), October.

Crashed/wrote off my car (not all that bad really, but the insurer didn't want to pay for repairs.)
Got a new car, it's good... but not the same.

Younger child had a surprise transplant, October (first week of my new job) - kidney became available out of the blue. A bit traumatic but he's come through fine. Feeling much better, and the timing is good for the 2nd child.

Had my eye (cataract) operation, can see much better. Practically blind in my right eye, to be honest. New glasses soon.

So, as you can see, some bad, some good. What I've struggled with is the intensity of it all, it's been full tilt. And that's just what's happening to me - along with all the news events, it's been "what the hell is happening next?!"

The following affected me, there are others that will have affected you (eg Florence Henderson, Ron Glass, suicide bombers). Show your feelings.

Events:
Brexit (wtf?!), US election wtf??!!), ISIS in Palmyra, no nudes in Playboy (hey, I'm a guy, and it's iconic - mind you, haven't seen an issue in well over a decade), Mein Kampf became public domain, Great Barrier Reef heavily polluted and likely to get worse, Terry Jones's illness, Nice attack.

And deaths that affected me:
Lemmy (I know, late last year but close enough), Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Pierre Boulez, David Bowie, Alan Rickman (man, Galaxy Quest...), Glenn Frey, Jimmy Bain, Black, Terry Wogan (always the voice of the Eurovision Song Contest for me), Umberto Eco, George Martin, Prince, Anton Yelchin, Gene Wilder, Pete Burns (Dead Or Alive), Leonard Cohen, Robert Vaughan, Leon Russell, Andrew Sachs, Fidel, John Glenn, Jin English (Aussie muso), Ross Hannaford and Wayne Duncan (Aussie band Daddy Cool), (Jack Chick (fuck that guy), Richard Neville (bit of a wanker but a force for change), Anthony Jay (Yes Minister creator).

Have at it!

 

[tomalak301]

For me personally, 2016 was a very interesting year. I bought a new car after my old one broke down in Reno and I decided not to get it fixed. I ended up getting a Honda Accord EX 2017, in a greyish color. I'm loving it so far and I'm half way to a thousand miles so far. My old car was kind of inharited, so this one is almost like celebrating the milestones as they happen (Not overdoing it, of course, but more being excitable)

I also got to experience some things I've never done before. I got to go to a game for the Stanley Cup Final and see the Sharks score a game winning OT goal and I got to go to the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.

I'm expecting 2017 to be another year of change.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Probably the weirdest thing that has happened to me all year was this September when I was in San Francisco, I was approached by a hooker on my way back to my hotel after a Giants game. I kept walking. Away. Rapidly.

Fortunately that was pretty harmless, in the grand scheme of things. Other times, not so harmless...Earlier this summer my dad and I were at a game in KC and he got hit by a foul ball.

 

[{ Emilia }]

Probably the weirdest thing that has happened to me all year was this September when I was in San Francisco, I was approached by a hooker on my way back to my hotel after a Giants game. I kept walking. Away. Rapidly.

What's so weird about it? It's what they do.
And why so rude? Instead of just walking away rapidly you could've smiled and said "No, thanks". They're human beings, too.

 

[RandyS]

This is the first year since 2003 that life has been pretty good.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What's so weird about it? It's what they do.
And why so rude? Instead of just walking away rapidly you could've smiled and said "No, thanks". They're human beings, too.

I did not intend to be rude (although, looking back, I can understand how it could be interpreted that way, and I am sorry for that). I was just taken aback by it - I mean, I love to vacation in big cities, but never encountered this situation before. Guess I'm more isolated than I thought!

 

[FPAlpha]

What's so weird about it? It's what they do.
And why so rude? Instead of just walking away rapidly you could've smiled and said "No, thanks". They're human beings, too.

I once got my ass slapped by an older hooker in Paris when friends and me were walking through Montmartre on the way to the Sacre Coeur church. She laughed, i laughed and we both went our way.

2016 was a mixed bag.. got passed over for a promotion (where everybody thought i should get it), my parents got finally divorced after 40+ years of marriage (good thing because my dad has turned into an emotional terrorist and i don't have contact with him for years because of it) and finding Mrs. Right is still a tricky thing.

All considered it could have been worse but also better.. standing still and living in a status quo might be ok for some but for others it may be a bad thing. I'm somewhat in the middle.

 

[T'Bonz]

I once got my ass slapped by an older hooker in Paris when friends and me were walking through Montmartre on the way to the Sacre Coeur church. She laughed, i laughed and we both went our way.

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.

* *

This was a pretty good year. Some highs: vacation, husband's new job, family meet-up and some lows: husband laid off (before he got the new job) and a bit of a family fight.

I'm pretty upbeat and minus some really horrible things (like death), most of my years seem to be good. I'm very grateful.

 

[Finn]

It has been a long year. We did a lot of gambles this year, especially with the big move. If all goes well, I'll be on the verge of being employed again and taking classes at UT by next month. It has been nearly two years since I left my last teaching job... I really despise that school.

The HR drags their feet when processing applications and new hires at the school. And there's talk of how favoritism plays a big role in hiring new people there regardless of their qualifications and/or credentials. I don't give a damn...still better that that old school back in Massachusetts.

Here's to a wonderful 2017

 

[Robert Maxwell]

This year has been up and down, but I suppose never boring!

I saw two cities I'd not been to before: New Orleans and Atlantic City. (One guess as to which one I liked better.) I also went to Salem, Massachusetts, which was interesting.

A friendship I relied on came to an abrupt and sad end, but something better arose from that.

The only coworker I liked moved on to another job, though we still stay in touch.

The company I work for was bought by another and I have taken on tremendously more responsibility.

I had set a goal last year of writing a blog, making a post every day for a whole year, which I completed in October.

My uncle died of cancer, and another aunt was diagnosed with it. Not sure what will happen with her but it's not looking good. The past few years have not been great for my family--people keep dying or becoming gravely ill.

One of my girlfriends got a dog, a sweet rat terrier. Great dog.

I had a house I was renting out, which the previous tenants left in terrible shape. Finally got that all cleaned up, which was a big relief.

Putting aside things that don't directly affect me, like the election results and all the dead celebrities, all in all 2016 was pretty good. I hope for a better 2017, though.

 

[Greysun]

Started the year off with a great vacation in February, but it went downhill from there. There were things like cutbacks at work and damage to our property due to storms, but the worst was losing our dog at age 14 to lung cancer.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

This isn't personal but a lot of what she says in the video, I agree with. Also I just really like the song but didn't feel it was worth making a thread.

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[Gryffindorian]

I prefer not to look at a given time period as either good or bad because there's always a combination of both. Although I struggled more with anxiety this year, I'm grateful for my health, my job, the basic necessities in life, and the love and support of friends and family. I enjoyed the local travels to Monterey and parts of Sonoma County. Oh, and #mindfulness #meditation

 

[sbk1234]

Strangely, other than political stuff and some celebrity deaths, the year has actually been pretty good. If it wasn't for my clinical depression I'd be feeling much better than I do.

 

[Spot's Meow]

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.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Well, my personal highlight was going to my first convention, Comic Con Germany. That was a blast, and it's connected by time with DC Rebirth, which means a lot to me as a fan.

A nice thing that just kinda happened in retrospect, there was consistency at work. The last two to three years there were a lot of co-workers coming and going, but we've been a consistent team for more a good year now.

For the personal negatives, one of my brother who's an alcoholic had a relapse this year which cost him his job, and he's in clinical therapy now. He's getting better, but we've been through this a couple of times now, so I have some doubts that he'll stay away from booze from now on.
And I myself have been suffering from a heel spur for a couple of months now. Got heel cushions which help, but I hope it's gone by the time the next Comic Con Germany comes around.

And, of course, shit is going on in the larger world which affect you. And it's been mostly shit this year. Yeah, there were a few movies that I liked, as well as some dope TV shows, as mentioned DC Rebirth is really a big positive thing for me.

But the bad stuff that everybody's already mentioned. Not even that much the celebrity deaths, though there've been a lot and a lot of emotional ones among them, ultimately my life isn't changed that much by any of them. It's the frustration breaking out into blind hatred all over the world.

I've noticed some American liberals declaring their hope in Angela Merkel as new leader of the free world, which is beyond bizarre to me. And even there I have to disappoint those American liberals, Merkel is not as secure as you might think, we have our own alt-right movement here with its own political party which has gotten some scary high results in regional elections in the last two years, and we have a federal election in 2017.

So, yeah, I'm pretty scared for the future.

 

[Amaris]

This year has been awful. More awful in a long, continuous line of awful years. My past is becoming blurry, my present is unstable due to constant stress and added responsibility, and my future is so uncertain that it's terrifying. Honestly, and this isn't drama or doomsaying, I will be surprised if I make it through 2017 unless things change. It's just too much for my nervous system to handle.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Just learned that Alan Thicke has died. That isn't helping this year seem any better.

 

[urbandefault]

So far this year I've woke up every day. The rest is gravy.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Sorry to hear a few of you are going through a rough time. I've been there and continue to experience daily challenges presented by my own anxiety, health concerns, and other worries. May we all be free from suffering, and may we experience happiness, gratitude, and compassion for ourselves and others.