Everywhere I turn, all the news outlets are wrapped up in their Best of 2009 lists right now. I’m starting to think that end of year “best of” lists are starting to take on the same characteristics of Christmas music in the stores: they start too early, they seem cool at first, eventually they become overpoweringly annoying and, by the time the actual end of the year rolls around, you just want them to go away.
Of course, *bonus*, it’s also the end of the decade. Hence the additional wave of “best of the 00’s!” lists. Best films, best T.V. shows, most significant news events, long lists of those who have departed this Earth… the list of lists just goes on and on. Maybe we’ve just become a list-based culture. After all, aren’t we all encouraged to make a, yep, LIST of New Year’s Resolutions?
Luckily for you, I shall spare you any and all lists. You can thank me in the comments. Or send money. 😉
Personally, I think it’s too soon to look back and judge 2009 so far as my little slice of existence goes. The entire damn decade? Doubly-so.
Heck, I haven’t even gotten around to writing up my holiday trip yet.
Still, I do find one simple, overriding three-word thought comes to my mind as I write this an hour before the last day of the year starts. I hesitate to share it, though. I don’t know if you, as a reader, will interpret it as good or bad. Hell, I don’t even know if its meaning to me is a positive or negative thought (or philosophy (or whatever)). Perhaps that will become clear only in the benefit of hindsight.
So let me say that I wish all who read my small chunk of the internet a Happy New Year, and that I hope that 2010 brings you all that you hope for, desire, and deserve as a fellow human being.
Because: 2009?
Good fucking riddance!
The GeekHiker 
I can remember exactly where I was when this awful decade came into being. Believe it or not, when I rang in the new year on January 1, 2000, I was not only stone-cold sober – I was at church! My then-girlfriend and I attended a special midnight mass at the local Catholic church to welcome in, not only a new decade, but a new century and a new millennium. I remember feeling filled with optimism. By entering this new era, I felt, we could wipe the slate clean. Maybe this would be a new age of peace, love, brother and sisterhood. EVERYBODY SING!
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius!
Age of Aquarius!
Aquariusuuuuus!
How utterly naive on my part, huh? By year’s end, all of that hope was out the window and into the toilet. In December of 2000, an ideologically perverted Supreme Court would assist in a stolen election by stopping the vote count in the state of Florida, installing a corrupt little frat boy with the I.Q. of a half-eaten box of Milk Duds as president of the United States. It was all downhill from that moment on. From the birth of “Reality Television” to the worst attack on American soil since the Civil War, it was quite a strange ten years to say the least. Thankfully this awful decade is a mere three days away from being forever consigned to history’s scrap heap. Hallelujah.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
By: Tom Degan on December 31, 2009
at 1:40 am
Lol, I liked 2009 but it’s always nice to feel that fresh start come Jan. 1st… Here’s hoping you have a very fabulous 2010! 🙂
By: Little Miss Obsessive on December 31, 2009
at 9:21 am
OK, you’ld better not read my last post of the year since it’s … a list. Sorry.
As for those three words – No Sh!T
Hope 2010 is better for you and all of us.
By: Homer-Dog on December 31, 2009
at 10:47 am
Ha! I agree about 2009, it wasn’t terrible, but certainly not great.
Yeah, the lists get repetitive and annoying for sure.
By: s'dizzle on December 31, 2009
at 11:03 am
i think you’re right about our list-based society. probably to do with our ever-shorter attention spans. as for 2009, it was a bit of a crazy ride but mostly in a good way for me. here’s to 2010. cheers!
By: blakspring on December 31, 2009
at 5:29 pm
I double that “F” and raise you two sh!ts!!
By: dobegil on January 1, 2010
at 5:26 pm
I got to meet some cool folks in 2009 (wink), but I could easily do that again in 2010 so eff it!
By: thecoconutdiaries on January 3, 2010
at 12:32 am
I share that sentiment, Geekhiker. Happy New Year 🙂
By: missmccracken on January 3, 2010
at 11:29 am
Tom – Welcome to the site. I don’t know that I was referring to the world as a whole, or simply to my own life. Either way, I’m always hesitant to look back on a decade so soon, without the benefit of time to give perspective…
Little Miss Obsessive – Well, you did have many, many reasons to like 2009, didn’t you? 😉
Homer-Dog – Oh, no, not a list! LOL And I think you used the right word in your agreement!
S’Dizzle – Yeah, it could have been worse, but could’a been better too. I actually like lists, there’s just so many silly ones now!
BlakSpring – Yeah, your 2009 was very busy!
Dobegil – *laughing*
TheCoconutDiaries – Aw, shucks.
MissMcCracken – Happy New Year to you too!
By: geekhiker on January 4, 2010
at 9:11 pm