I am probably not the first to say this and I certainly won’t be the last
All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace
Happy New Year everyone!!
2.
LM
I came to say thanks for the first laugh of 2010, but because of MattR, I’m saying thanks for the first two laughs.
3.
LM
I came to say thanks for the first laugh of 2010, but because of MattR, I’m saying thanks for the first two laughs.
4.
Midnight Marauder
Way to shit on the west coast, Cole.
Sorry. I need to get my dickishness out of the way for the rest of the decade.
/O-Bot…AWWWWAAAAAYYYYYYY!
5.
demkat620
Happy New Year Juicers!
God bless us everyone!
Er, that’s right isn’t it?
6.
Steeplejack
Awesome, Cole. Perfect way to start the new year. The helicopters are laughing.
Edit: The float tag is great too.
7.
CaseyL
HNY, y’all!
(Actually, a shade less than 3 hours for us on the West Coast to be officially rid of 2009, but it was *such* an awful year*, one can’t say “GTFO” too often or too early)
*Not, I know, for everyone. To all those for whom 2009 was a very good year (I’m looking at you, Lily Cole): May 2010 be even better.
8.
General Winfield Stuck
From one O-bot, to another- Happy New Year.
I are an O-bot, and proud of it. Just getting started but the best (not perfect) president we have had in a long time in the most polarized political atmosphere in my lifetime. IMHO.
Goodbye past decade, and good riddance. Here’s to a better one to come. :-)
9.
Foggy Bottom Breakdown
People keep complaining about the 00s as the worst decade ever, but I will say this: ubiquitous camera phones and broadband Internet made it like 1000 times easier to get women to send me photographs of their boobies. As a female-boobies enthusiast, I have to say that that makes up for a lot of problems.
10.
shoutingattherain
Farewell to The Mean Decade.
Hello to The Hopefully-Not-As-Bad Decade. Is Rush still breathing?
11.
Stroszek
Well, that decade sucked.
12.
wag
Yo tambien un O-bot. Let’s kick some GOP ass this year
Bowling Alleys will have wi-fi, but still play shitty, cliched country music.
20.
mai naem
Yeah, sure he’s got this playing twelve dimensional chess with flying queens and floating bishops. Well, it’s not New Years here yet and I can still diss Obama, the commie pinko secret musleem from Mombassa with the whitey hating wife. My New Year’s resolution is not to diss the all powerful Olympics game bid losing , fake birth certificate, native of foreign state Hawaii president of the US.
Happy New Year everyone. No denying that it was a sucky decade but it could have been worse, so we have to count our blessings that we do not have President McCain and VP Palin.
24.
MichaelR
Sloppy Gnu Beer, everyone.
Dogs have owners, cats have staff. Thanks to Lily’s owner, and all of Tunch’s staff here at BJ (Tunch has lots of staff).
Onward to 2010+!!
25.
Joshua Norton
So has any weird Y2K shit kicked in yet? I’m still waiting from 1999.
26.
Annie
Happy Happy New Year everyone — and a special Happy New Year to Lily, Tunch, Raven, Shadow, Smudge, Charlie, Chompers and all of the BJ darlings…..Looking forward to lots more pictures in 2010….
I logged into an online yarn sale 5 minutes after it started and discovered that my first three preferred colors had already sold out so, yes, 2010 already sucks ass.
34.
donnah
This is just the beginning. I hate to use the battle-scarred word “Hope” but I do have hope for better times for all of us. I’m glad we have Obama as our President and I am willing to be patient for things to change.
Peace to all!
35.
Anne Laurie
Happy New Year to all, and farewell to the Low Dishonest Decade!
May all our lives improve as much in 2010 as Lily Cole’s improved in 2009!
CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE BACKSIDE OF 2009. My wee NYE plan w/3 friends is on hold for a few hours, waiting to hear: how my dad is in hospital in Chicago, how friend’s sister is in hospital in San Fran, and for the hostess to return from the hospital from checking in her visiting houseguest, who decided to see in the new year with ambien and bourbon shots instead of stopping by.
I also am strangely hopeful that the new decade is going to be better, in spite of all. Two and a half hours left, here in LA: a toast to all-y’all for the future!
When I lived on the east coast my neighbors never set off fireworks for new years in Paris. Why do my west coast neighbors set them off for new years in new york?
42.
Ash Can
Farewell to the George W. Bush decade, which, let’s face it, sucked the farts out of dead pigeons. Here’s to a new year and a new decade. Like I said in the previous thread, there’s nowhere to go but up in 2010.
Happy New Year, one and all!
43.
ChristianPinko
Fuck you, Mr. East Coast time zone! It is NOT a new decade! The old decade still has 22 minutes left!
I resist your temperoperialist East Coast master narratives.
Philippians 2:1-11, unless this is offensive somehow.
XianPinko +4
44.
Yutsano
Well I have officially committed my last D’OH for this decade. Left my phone at work. BBIAF unless I get T-boned by someone in the icy streets.
45.
Emo Pantload (fka Studly)
I’m just here to read all the posts that end with “+ eleventy”
Just 2 hours and 10 minutes to go. I’m not sure I can take the excitement.
49.
Emo Pantload (fka Studly)
I see my previous post is in moderation purgatory. 2010 isn’t proving to be a very trusting year, is it?
50.
Jean
May 2010 bring us threads as hilarious as the credenzas and laughing helicopters of M. Gass, and the infamous “internet traditions,” which led me to Balloon Juice. Happy New Year, John and all the Juicers!
Your phone was in the car, doofus. Mockity mock mock.
Ok, that was lame. Sorry, dude, but it’s just not on the same level as crashing the economy, stirring up racist rage, or fighting against programs that’ll help pay for your own health care.
If you really wanna be well-mocked, yer gonna have to up yer game.
Happy New Year in Real Murka! Good riddance to the OO’s. I’m hoping 2010 is a big improvement on last year.
64.
inkadu
Happy New Year everybody, especially all the people I got into heated arguments with despite agreeing with.
Worst. Decade. Ever.
65.
Genine
Less than an hour until New Year’s MST. But Happy New Year everyone!
66.
soonergrunt
I hate to shit in everyone’s wheaties* but the decade isn’t over yet. It will be over in 365 days. Then it will be the second decade of the new millenium/century.
This is the last year of the first decade, just like 2000 was the last year of the previous millenium, and not the first year of the new one.
*I don’t really hate doing that. Sometimes I do it just to see the look on the guy’s face when he realizes why I’m squatting over his breakfast cereal.
67.
jacy
Happy New Year, all balloon-juicers.
Let’s run our emopants up the flagpole and see who salutes.
Cheers to all!
68.
John S.
Goodbye to the Zeros…Hello to the Teens!
Happy New Year/Decade to one and all.
69.
Yutsano
@JGabriel: On the scale of dumbass things yeah that’s pretty mild. Worst thing I think I could do is wreck the Dawg’s career and yeah that ain’t happening if I can help it. Great, now I have the creative juices flowing.
I hate to shit in everyone’s wheaties* but the decade isn’t over yet. It will be over in 365 days.
Decades begin with the zeroth year of that decade. So do millenia. The only problem is that the first decade/century/millenia didn’t have a year 0.
So that decade only had 9 years, that century only 99 years, and that millenia only 999 years.
I’m so sick of people acting like they know some deep mathemematical secret that, in fact, everyone knows and thinks is idiotic. It’s smug, without even a good reason.
While it is true that the first decade of the 21st century ends next year, the decade of the “aughts” ended tonight, just like the decade of the ’90s ended in at the end of 1999 and not at the end of 2000.
When people talk about “the ’90s,” they are talking specifically about 1990-1999, not the “tenth decade of the 20th century, which goes from 1991 to 2000.” Same for this decade just ended.
Also wrong, wrong, wrong, but for different reasons.
__
Christ, I give up.
What? You’re saying that the first century goes from year 1 to year 100. And that every following century must follow the same pattern.
It’s not that I don’t understand the argument. Like almost everyone (conservatives excepted), I understand it perfectly.
My counter-argument is that people consistently think of decades, centuries, and millenia as beginning with the zeroth year, such that the second century would be the years 100-199, and so forth. And mathematically that intuition is correct — it’s the Gregorian calendar that’s wrong:
There is no “zeroth century” in between the first century BC and the first century AD. Also, there is no 0 A.D. The Gregorian calendar “jumps” from 1B.C. to 1 A.D. The first century BC includes the years 100 BC to 1 BC. Other centuries BC follow the same pattern.
If Gregory, or whoever his calendar maven/guru was, had simply remembered to include a year 0, we wouldn’t keep having these idiotic discussions. It’s far easier, and makes far more sense, to grant precedence to people’s mathematical intuition rather than Gregory’s mathematical error (no year 0? what a moron!) and rectify the error by concluding that the first decade merely had 9 years.
At worst, we disagree. But I am certainly NOT wrong.
Did Gregory even have a zero to use as part of a date?
It was in the 16th century, so the concept of zero was available. Fibonacci had popularized it in Italy during the 13th century, circa 1202 according to wikipedia.
I think the Church just thought that ‘zero’ — as a number in and of itself rather than a decimal placeholder — was conceptually Satanic or something like that, if I remember correctly.
.
87.
Misha
PROPER.
88.
Tappen
45 Minutes for this West Coast Canadian O-Bot! I love this website. And you guys. I don’t comment often, but I read the threads, and you guys are awesome. Love +7
Happy New Year all you BJers! Let’s hope that 2010 and the new decade are better than that which preceded. Thanks for all your snark, which kept me laughing and sane.
90.
auntieeminaz
@General Winfield Stuck: I couldn’t agree with you more.
Happy new decade to everyone here.
91.
Yutsano
@Tappen: Ya gotta love this bar, even if we are a little bit meschugnah around here.
92.
Cookie Monster
Another lurker who reads but doesn’t really comment. A Happy New Year to all, and may it be a much better year than 2009.
. . Gregory’s mathematical error (no year 0? what a moron!) and rectify the error by concluding that the first decade merely had 9 years.
So maybe this would be a good time to fix it, since nobody liked the first 2009.
I say we call Year 1 Year 0, carry it through to calling Year 2010 Year 2009, and we get a do-over.
Happy 2009 everyone!
/I just come here for the arguments.
94.
Tappen
See I don’t even remember what Meschuggah means. But I was a Rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof, so I probably should. Sigh, the Aughts fuckin’ sucked. But I grew up in them, so I sort of have to like them. So agreed. Here’s to a better new decade. I have my real friends five feet away. And the BJ commenters whom I lurk no feet away on the interwebs. Here’s hoping a kung-fu ninja don’t get you in the Teens. And that we finally smarten the fuck up. More Love +8
CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE BACKSIDE OF 2009. My wee NYE plan w/3 friends is on hold for a few hours, waiting to hear: how my dad is in hospital in Chicago, how friend’s sister is in hospital in San Fran, and for the hostess to return from the hospital from checking in her visiting houseguest, who decided to see in the new year with ambien and bourbon shots instead of stopping by.
Ow! You win the Misery Sweeps… at least until tomorrow’s hangovers show up. Hope things have improved (and that everyone recovers in due course).
When I lived on the east coast my neighbors never set off fireworks for new years in Paris. Why do my west coast neighbors set them off for new years in new york?
Ever since the late 1970s, the city of Boston has mounted a big professional fireworks display over the harbor to discourage this. Starting sometime in the 1990s, there’s also been a second, smaller “family” display on the Common around 7pm, so that parents who came for the First Night parade would have a reason to get the kids off the street before the drunks took over the roads. Both displays are televised on the local news, where they’re always careful to explain that the earlier show falls at midnight in Europe…
96.
Tappen
Edit (since my time elapsed): Kung-fu terrorist. Not ninja. Terrorists are the new ninjas.
97.
AnotherBruce
I guess I’m an Obamabot, but quit kicking the Hippies so hard. They’ve be right more often than not, and I guess that’s what makes people hate them. Dirty Fucking Righteous Hippies. Fuck them and their green Hippotopian sustainable bullsheet.
Hell yes I would. North Shore born and raised. In fact, at one point JC posted a pic of a dog sign in Deep Cove. I work at the Deep Cove Kayak Shop. Live like 10 mins from both Deep Cove and the 2nd Narrow Bridge.
604 pride
105.
Yutsano
@Tappen: Beauty! I have a couple of good friends I’ve lost touch with in the Burnaby area. I’m not hugely far south of you only about 350km or thereabouts.
Sweet. So does that mean Olympia? Can’t tell. Either way, if you saw the King 5 Seattle New Years that anchor was trashed. Kinda hilarious.
107.
Yutsano
@Tappen: You do have to go over the mountains and a bit further east. I’m sure there’s a good YouTube video of the anchor if I know Seattleites like I do. :)
108.
Tappen
And so how does rural Washington compare to Vancouver then? (Ellensburg? Wenatchee?) And yeah, the main two anchors, white guy and asian girl were fine, but the man on the street anchor (crowd guy) was smashed at the space needle. he could barely do his report. happy new year!
109.
Yutsano
@Tappen: It’s drier, colder, browner, and a helluva lot more conservative. But it’s also economically stable (at least where I live, Tri-Cities) so I have an okay job here. Plus my family is here. I do want to move to the Seattle area some time in the near future. Starting to make some moves in that direction although most likely won’t happen until the spring time.
110.
Tappen
I’ve thought about moving to the states just for the politics. Then I read another story about the justice system, shudder and resolve to stay here. Good luck finding a job in Seattle. Gotta be much better than Eastern Washington.
I say we call Year 1 Year 0, carry it through to calling Year 2010 Year 2009, and we get a do-over. Happy 2009 everyone!
I like it! It gives Obama a five year first term, that much more time to clean up Bush-Cheney’s mess. And he’ll need it, so it’s only fair.
If anyone complains, we answer, “We make our own reality.”
112.
Yutsano
@Tappen: Only if you’re a political scientist and want to study a hybrid republican system (please note the small R) otherwise I’d stay up there. My ex got offered a great job at Boeing but ended up not getting a US work visa. He wouldn’t really tell me what happened there so he’s back working for Air Canada.
113.
Tappen
Oh Air Canada. Scourge of the skies.
And yeah, I pretty much decided I can study the American system from abroad without the risks. Plus we’ve got plenty of intrigue here. Harper’s favourite food? Prorogies. Sigh. Prorogation: It solves all the problems, also too.
114.
Tim F
To be an o-bot does one have to be a communist? Or can you just be realistic about what can be done in one fell swoop?
I used to feel in place at Daily Kos, now I feel as though I am a right-wing freak because I don’t think that Obama can lift DADT and slow health care costs at the same time.
115.
Yutsano
@Tappen: Yeah I saw that little joke. Who knew hosting the Olympics means no political decisions for three months? We’ve hosted them a few times down here and we still kept everything running. My guess is he’s trying to prolong an election as long as possible even though the Conservatives are leading polls right now.
116.
Tappen
Really it’s about the Afghanistan committees. If he prorogues Parliament now they can’t meet and ask all those awkward questions and demand the documents. I guess the positive side is Canada’s actually upset that we handed prisoners over ot be tortured, let alone tortured them ourselves. Progress? I guess.
And where did you see the prorogie joke? I thought I made that up.
I wish I could be optimistic about 2010, but it is likely it will be even nuttier than 2009 as the Republicans react with insensate rage to HCR and the realization they may be finished as a serious Party, and the elections approach. It is going to be kooky.
119.
Leelee for Obama
This photoshop is my favorite-thanks for putting it up John. And the floating caption made me giggle ridiculously.
I wandered over to DKos, and there’s a Doonesbury Cartoon in a diary that just made my morning. Go see it, it’s classic Trudeau, and should be memorialized everywhere. There’s also a Molly Ivins related post that is “inspiriting”, a Mollyism if ever there was one!
Went to sleep early, so missed all the NYE wishes, so belated Happy New Year to all. I am cautiously optimistic about this coming year, and while I believe it will be challenging, I have decided to be “hope-filled”, as I really have to get the hell out of the doldrums.
I really appreciate you people more than I can say. You have made a difficult year bearable, and, for that, may the FSM make me truly thankful.
Start counting to any arbitrary number of at least two digits.
Do you start with zero? Unless you’re a hardcore mathematician, you don’t.
I rest my case.
It is not a question of counting, it is a question of naming–putting a label on a period of time that hangs together thematically or in the popular imagination, e.g., the Gay ’90s, the Roaring ’20s. The Aughts. That decade just ended.
There’s nothing in that to prevent your maintaining your (correct) insistence that the first decade of the 21st century ends next year. But that’s not what we’re talking about. Take off the literalist blinders.
And I am by no means agreeing with JGabriel. He crazy.
@soonergrunt (#121): (Third time; after shutting down the browser. Not that I got anything worth the effort, I am now just interested in testing out the blog; f*ckin’ WordPress. Or did I piss someone off ?) Okay, so my original brilliant riposte to sooner when into some bitbucket hell hole. I’ll give it another try…
Do you start with zero? Unless you’re a hardcore mathematician, you don’t.
If you are at all involved in anything software, you start counting at 0.
@Steeplejack (#127):
Was trying to enter the angle brackets, for something silly, as plain text; three entries went into never-never land.
I’ll try again: <noise>.
132.
henqiguai
@Steeplejack (#127):
Yeah, obviously it’s me. Just tried putting simple angle bracket entities into a reply to you and it went into that same bit bucket hell. I’m blaming Mr. Cole, ’cause, why would I hold myself responsible ?
Do you start with zero? Unless you’re a hardcore mathematician, you don’t.
Depends on the situation. If I’m counting objects, no; if abstractions, yes.
Also if negative numbers are involved. Kind of hard to get from 1 to -1 without going through 0 — the fact that the idiot who designed the Gregorian calendar managed to do so doesn’t make it right.
Finally, given the state of the economy, and the fact that dollars are what people count most often, I’d guess a lot more people now start counting with zero more frequently than you think.
.
138.
JGabriel
And I am by no means agreeing with JGabriel. He crazy.
Astronomical year numbering, used by astronomers, includes a year zero (0). Consequently, the first century in these calendars may designate the years 0 to 99 as the first century, years 100 to 199 as the second etc.
So there.
.
139.
JAHILL10
Happy New Year, J.C., A.L., D.J. and T.F.!!!!!
Thanks for providing a patch of funny, sarcastic sanity in the largely self-important sturm und drang of the liberal blogosphere. I look forward to more of the same in the coming year. Fellow O-bots Unite!
Hi everyone — I never comment, and I’m very late to this thread, but this place always makes me happy so I wanted to say HNY. And since both my kids were born in the aughties — in both years George Bush was elected, by the way! — I unbelievably have to say, Dickensianly, that it was the best of times and worst of times at the jamfan household.
@Tappen: Ha, sorry, I think the whole proroguing thing is a joke. Though that is a tasty morsel right there. You should try selling it to CTV and see if they buy your copyright off it.
144.
Ruemara
Happy New BJ Year for everyone! Getting up late enough to eat nachos and beer for breakfast is my sign of a good start. May all be having a good start.
145.
JGabriel
soonergrunt: Heh. It’s doubtful that anyone is still checking in on this mundanely silly argument, but …
MattR
I am probably not the first to say this and I certainly won’t be the last
Happy New Year everyone!!
LM
I came to say thanks for the first laugh of 2010, but because of MattR, I’m saying thanks for the first two laughs.
LM
I came to say thanks for the first laugh of 2010, but because of MattR, I’m saying thanks for the first two laughs.
Midnight Marauder
Way to shit on the west coast, Cole.
Sorry. I need to get my dickishness out of the way for the rest of the decade.
/O-Bot…AWWWWAAAAAYYYYYYY!
demkat620
Happy New Year Juicers!
God bless us everyone!
Er, that’s right isn’t it?
Steeplejack
Awesome, Cole. Perfect way to start the new year. The helicopters are laughing.
Edit: The float tag is great too.
CaseyL
HNY, y’all!
(Actually, a shade less than 3 hours for us on the West Coast to be officially rid of 2009, but it was *such* an awful year*, one can’t say “GTFO” too often or too early)
*Not, I know, for everyone. To all those for whom 2009 was a very good year (I’m looking at you, Lily Cole): May 2010 be even better.
General Winfield Stuck
I are an O-bot, and proud of it. Just getting started but the best (not perfect) president we have had in a long time in the most polarized political atmosphere in my lifetime. IMHO.
Goodbye past decade, and good riddance. Here’s to a better one to come. :-)
Foggy Bottom Breakdown
People keep complaining about the 00s as the worst decade ever, but I will say this: ubiquitous camera phones and broadband Internet made it like 1000 times easier to get women to send me photographs of their boobies. As a female-boobies enthusiast, I have to say that that makes up for a lot of problems.
shoutingattherain
Farewell to The Mean Decade.
Hello to The Hopefully-Not-As-Bad Decade. Is Rush still breathing?
Stroszek
Well, that decade sucked.
wag
Yo tambien un O-bot. Let’s kick some GOP ass this year
rob!
Happy New Year, Balloon Juicers!
freelancer (itouch)
HNY! Oh, to be white and drunk (and bowling) in America.
FSM bless everyone!
freelancer +9
robertdsc
Happy new year to you, John, and to all the Juicers here. May 2010 be the best year yet!
Morbo
Happy 11-dimensional chess to you, too, JC. Friggin’ A, that phrase needs a bullet in its head. But it doesn’t have a head!
cgp
Wooohooo!! Great pic to ring in the new year!
Joshua Norton
Talk about a spoiler alert. I’m just getting ready to go out in San Francisco.
freelancer (itouch)
@Morbo:
Lol, Happy “Optics” to you!
In the year 2000…in the year 2000!
Bowling Alleys will have wi-fi, but still play shitty, cliched country music.
mai naem
Yeah, sure he’s got this playing twelve dimensional chess with flying queens and floating bishops. Well, it’s not New Years here yet and I can still diss Obama, the commie pinko secret musleem from Mombassa with the whitey hating wife. My New Year’s resolution is not to diss the all powerful Olympics game bid losing , fake birth certificate, native of foreign state Hawaii president of the US.
mr. whipple
Move on UP!
Notorious P.A.T.
You can say that again.
Anya
Happy New Year everyone. No denying that it was a sucky decade but it could have been worse, so we have to count our blessings that we do not have President McCain and VP Palin.
MichaelR
Sloppy Gnu Beer, everyone.
Dogs have owners, cats have staff. Thanks to Lily’s owner, and all of Tunch’s staff here at BJ (Tunch has lots of staff).
Onward to 2010+!!
Joshua Norton
So has any weird Y2K shit kicked in yet? I’m still waiting from 1999.
Annie
Happy Happy New Year everyone — and a special Happy New Year to Lily, Tunch, Raven, Shadow, Smudge, Charlie, Chompers and all of the BJ darlings…..Looking forward to lots more pictures in 2010….
Steeplejack
@mr. whipple:
Excellent song!
Notorious P.A.T.
@MattR:
Thumbs up )
mr. whipple
@Steeplejack:
Thanks, it keeps my spirits UP!
Joshua Norton
Has 2010 started to suck yet?
Steeplejack
@mr. whipple:
There’s never a bad time for the old-school inspiration.
MikeJ
@Joshua Norton:
Rahm has fucked it up in advance.
That’s how I show I’m a loyal dem.
Mnemosyne
@Joshua Norton:
I logged into an online yarn sale 5 minutes after it started and discovered that my first three preferred colors had already sold out so, yes, 2010 already sucks ass.
donnah
This is just the beginning. I hate to use the battle-scarred word “Hope” but I do have hope for better times for all of us. I’m glad we have Obama as our President and I am willing to be patient for things to change.
Peace to all!
Anne Laurie
Happy New Year to all, and farewell to the Low Dishonest Decade!
May all our lives improve as much in 2010 as Lily Cole’s improved in 2009!
shoutingattherain
@Joshua Norton:
Not yet, but there’s still plenty of residual suck from last year:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/28/illegal.slaughter.farms/
Really sad. What’s wrong with us?
mr. whipple
@Steeplejack:
Awesome!
Tell me something good!
JGabriel
Stroszek:
It sure fucking did, and good fucking riddance.
A Happy New BJ Decade to everyone! May the new decade be better than the last — ‘cuz I don’t think we can take any worse.
.
Midnight Marauder
A toast for the new (ballerific) year and decade.
Something Fabulous
CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE BACKSIDE OF 2009. My wee NYE plan w/3 friends is on hold for a few hours, waiting to hear: how my dad is in hospital in Chicago, how friend’s sister is in hospital in San Fran, and for the hostess to return from the hospital from checking in her visiting houseguest, who decided to see in the new year with ambien and bourbon shots instead of stopping by.
I also am strangely hopeful that the new decade is going to be better, in spite of all. Two and a half hours left, here in LA: a toast to all-y’all for the future!
SomeFab +2.
[reposted from waning thred, for xtra pathos]
MikeJ
When I lived on the east coast my neighbors never set off fireworks for new years in Paris. Why do my west coast neighbors set them off for new years in new york?
Ash Can
Farewell to the George W. Bush decade, which, let’s face it, sucked the farts out of dead pigeons. Here’s to a new year and a new decade. Like I said in the previous thread, there’s nowhere to go but up in 2010.
Happy New Year, one and all!
ChristianPinko
Fuck you, Mr. East Coast time zone! It is NOT a new decade! The old decade still has 22 minutes left!
I resist your temperoperialist East Coast master narratives.
Philippians 2:1-11, unless this is offensive somehow.
XianPinko +4
Yutsano
Well I have officially committed my last D’OH for this decade. Left my phone at work. BBIAF unless I get T-boned by someone in the icy streets.
Emo Pantload (fka Studly)
I’m just here to read all the posts that end with “+ eleventy”
Linkmeister
I’ve still got 4 1/2 hours of annoying fireworks until the clock ticks over out here, but Hau’oli Makahiki Hou to the whole crowd anyway.
JGabriel
@mr. whipple:
And a Float On right back atchya.
.
CaseyL
Just 2 hours and 10 minutes to go. I’m not sure I can take the excitement.
Emo Pantload (fka Studly)
I see my previous post is in moderation purgatory. 2010 isn’t proving to be a very trusting year, is it?
Jean
May 2010 bring us threads as hilarious as the credenzas and laughing helicopters of M. Gass, and the infamous “internet traditions,” which led me to Balloon Juice. Happy New Year, John and all the Juicers!
mr. whipple
@JGabriel:
Nice!!
Floating? I’ll take you there!
gnomedad
Happy Midwest New Year! ‘Night, Juicers.
Yutsano
Okay I feel slightly less dumb. Phone was just in the car. But y’all can feel free to mock me as necessary.
Jules
Happy New Year from Arkansas!!!
pantherq
Happy New Year!
Steeplejack
@mr. whipple:
For me, for Chaka, it’s got to be “You Got the Love.”
Okay, I’ve got to get to bed before I start pulling out the Gil Scott-Heron. (Sort of inspirational in a cautionary, negative way.)
Betsy
Happy Yew Nears, every one!
Betsy + half bottle of prosecco
JGabriel
Yutsano:
Your phone was in the car, doofus. Mockity mock mock.
Ok, that was lame. Sorry, dude, but it’s just not on the same level as crashing the economy, stirring up racist rage, or fighting against programs that’ll help pay for your own health care.
If you really wanna be well-mocked, yer gonna have to up yer game.
.
freelancer (itouch)
Okay we poppin champagne like we won tha championship game! Lookit I got on tha championship ring!
kwAwk
Well Happy New Years from the idiot wing of the party.
mr. whipple
@Steeplejack:
Thank you!
Yes.
Gotta be off to bed, but in the morning wake up with some black coffee!
JGabriel
Farewell to the aughties. Joy.
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Violet
Happy New Year in Real Murka! Good riddance to the OO’s. I’m hoping 2010 is a big improvement on last year.
inkadu
Happy New Year everybody, especially all the people I got into heated arguments with despite agreeing with.
Worst. Decade. Ever.
Genine
Less than an hour until New Year’s MST. But Happy New Year everyone!
soonergrunt
I hate to shit in everyone’s wheaties* but the decade isn’t over yet. It will be over in 365 days. Then it will be the second decade of the new millenium/century.
This is the last year of the first decade, just like 2000 was the last year of the previous millenium, and not the first year of the new one.
*I don’t really hate doing that. Sometimes I do it just to see the look on the guy’s face when he realizes why I’m squatting over his breakfast cereal.
jacy
Happy New Year, all balloon-juicers.
Let’s run our emopants up the flagpole and see who salutes.
Cheers to all!
John S.
Goodbye to the Zeros…Hello to the Teens!
Happy New Year/Decade to one and all.
Yutsano
@JGabriel: On the scale of dumbass things yeah that’s pretty mild. Worst thing I think I could do is wreck the Dawg’s career and yeah that ain’t happening if I can help it. Great, now I have the creative juices flowing.
Jason Bylinowski
HNY, peeps.
HNY.
Yutsano
@Jason Bylinowski: Same to thee sir.
JGabriel
soonergrunt:
Decades begin with the zeroth year of that decade. So do millenia. The only problem is that the first decade/century/millenia didn’t have a year 0.
So that decade only had 9 years, that century only 99 years, and that millenia only 999 years.
I’m so sick of people acting like they know some deep mathemematical secret that, in fact, everyone knows and thinks is idiotic. It’s smug, without even a good reason.
/rant
.
Steeplejack
@soonergrunt:
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
While it is true that the first decade of the 21st century ends next year, the decade of the “aughts” ended tonight, just like the decade of the ’90s ended in at the end of 1999 and not at the end of 2000.
When people talk about “the ’90s,” they are talking specifically about 1990-1999, not the “tenth decade of the 20th century, which goes from 1991 to 2000.” Same for this decade just ended.
So please shit in your own Wheaties.
Steeplejack
@JGabriel:
Also wrong, wrong, wrong, but for different reasons.
Christ, I give up.
Polish the Guillotines
Ringing in the new year with an unopened bottle of champagne and a frakkin’ head cold.
This does not bode well for 2010.
Then again, it’s probably good news for John McCain.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@MikeJ:
Because we like to blow up shit and will use any excuse to do so. Now to get set up for Mountain Time…
Yutsano
@Polish the Guillotines: Look at it this way: you can go uphill from here.
JGabriel
Steeplejack:
What? You’re saying that the first century goes from year 1 to year 100. And that every following century must follow the same pattern.
It’s not that I don’t understand the argument. Like almost everyone (conservatives excepted), I understand it perfectly.
My counter-argument is that people consistently think of decades, centuries, and millenia as beginning with the zeroth year, such that the second century would be the years 100-199, and so forth. And mathematically that intuition is correct — it’s the Gregorian calendar that’s wrong:
If Gregory, or whoever his calendar maven/guru was, had simply remembered to include a year 0, we wouldn’t keep having these idiotic discussions. It’s far easier, and makes far more sense, to grant precedence to people’s mathematical intuition rather than Gregory’s mathematical error (no year 0? what a moron!) and rectify the error by concluding that the first decade merely had 9 years.
At worst, we disagree. But I am certainly NOT wrong.
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Midnight Marauder
@JGabriel:
You don’t sound drunk enough.
+8
The Dangerman
In a little over an hour (West Coaster here), will write 2000 through 2009 on 10 sheets of toilet paper and will flush.
Repeatedly.
I have to wait until midnight; if I did it now, I’d probably have to dig out the plunger.
Chuck Butcher
Since I’m still stuck in the ‘aughts’ for and an hour and… I’ll just continue watching the re-run of Barrett Jackson auto auction.
JGabriel
@Midnight Marauder:
Sadly, I’m dead sober.
I’m far more amiable drunk.
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rachel
@JGabriel: Did Gregory even have a zero to use as part of a date? I think they were still using Roman numerals in Europe at the time.
(Goes to check) Nope. It looks like they had “zero” by then.
MelodyMaker
This O-bot had a pretty good year, but yeah.. that decade sucked! “The Mean Decade” sounds right.
I’m hitting up that Rufus again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auIoYypGibA
Have a good one, everybody.
+2 (two?!!) I just got home from work.
ETA: fuck you, GWB. I like that.
Comrade Kevin
Any of you fellow west coasters just watch The Mentalist?
JGabriel
rachel:
It was in the 16th century, so the concept of zero was available. Fibonacci had popularized it in Italy during the 13th century, circa 1202 according to wikipedia.
I think the Church just thought that ‘zero’ — as a number in and of itself rather than a decimal placeholder — was conceptually Satanic or something like that, if I remember correctly.
.
Misha
PROPER.
Tappen
45 Minutes for this West Coast Canadian O-Bot! I love this website. And you guys. I don’t comment often, but I read the threads, and you guys are awesome. Love +7
moe99
Happy New Year all you BJers! Let’s hope that 2010 and the new decade are better than that which preceded. Thanks for all your snark, which kept me laughing and sane.
auntieeminaz
@General Winfield Stuck: I couldn’t agree with you more.
Happy new decade to everyone here.
Yutsano
@Tappen: Ya gotta love this bar, even if we are a little bit meschugnah around here.
Cookie Monster
Another lurker who reads but doesn’t really comment. A Happy New Year to all, and may it be a much better year than 2009.
CM+2.
Platonicspoof
@JGabriel:
So maybe this would be a good time to fix it, since nobody liked the first 2009.
I say we call Year 1 Year 0, carry it through to calling Year 2010 Year 2009, and we get a do-over.
Happy 2009 everyone!
/I just come here for the arguments.
Tappen
See I don’t even remember what Meschuggah means. But I was a Rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof, so I probably should. Sigh, the Aughts fuckin’ sucked. But I grew up in them, so I sort of have to like them. So agreed. Here’s to a better new decade. I have my real friends five feet away. And the BJ commenters whom I lurk no feet away on the interwebs. Here’s hoping a kung-fu ninja don’t get you in the Teens. And that we finally smarten the fuck up. More Love +8
Anne Laurie
@Something Fabulous:
Ow! You win the Misery Sweeps… at least until tomorrow’s hangovers show up. Hope things have improved (and that everyone recovers in due course).
@MikeJ:
Ever since the late 1970s, the city of Boston has mounted a big professional fireworks display over the harbor to discourage this. Starting sometime in the 1990s, there’s also been a second, smaller “family” display on the Common around 7pm, so that parents who came for the First Night parade would have a reason to get the kids off the street before the drunks took over the roads. Both displays are televised on the local news, where they’re always careful to explain that the earlier show falls at midnight in Europe…
Tappen
Edit (since my time elapsed): Kung-fu terrorist. Not ninja. Terrorists are the new ninjas.
AnotherBruce
I guess I’m an Obamabot, but quit kicking the Hippies so hard. They’ve be right more often than not, and I guess that’s what makes people hate them. Dirty Fucking Righteous Hippies. Fuck them and their green Hippotopian sustainable bullsheet.
Tappen
8 Minutes! Cannnnot wait.
JGabriel
@Platonicspoof:
Making the decade another year longer?
Please, God, NOOOoooooo…
.
Emo Pantload (fka Studly)
Happy New Year, all you Balloon-Juicing people.
Ya, you know who you are.
An’ stuff.
Emo, +a buncha sparkly wine
Platonicspoof
@JGabriel:
Plus it would give us Mayans one extra year before 2012.
It makes more and more sense.
Tappen
Happy New Years, and keep on snarkin’. It’s what gets me through the day.
Yutsano
@Tappen: You wouldn’t happen to be in the YVR area would you?
Tappen
@Yutsano:
Hell yes I would. North Shore born and raised. In fact, at one point JC posted a pic of a dog sign in Deep Cove. I work at the Deep Cove Kayak Shop. Live like 10 mins from both Deep Cove and the 2nd Narrow Bridge.
604 pride
Yutsano
@Tappen: Beauty! I have a couple of good friends I’ve lost touch with in the Burnaby area. I’m not hugely far south of you only about 350km or thereabouts.
Tappen
@Yutsano:
Sweet. So does that mean Olympia? Can’t tell. Either way, if you saw the King 5 Seattle New Years that anchor was trashed. Kinda hilarious.
Yutsano
@Tappen: You do have to go over the mountains and a bit further east. I’m sure there’s a good YouTube video of the anchor if I know Seattleites like I do. :)
Tappen
And so how does rural Washington compare to Vancouver then? (Ellensburg? Wenatchee?) And yeah, the main two anchors, white guy and asian girl were fine, but the man on the street anchor (crowd guy) was smashed at the space needle. he could barely do his report. happy new year!
Yutsano
@Tappen: It’s drier, colder, browner, and a helluva lot more conservative. But it’s also economically stable (at least where I live, Tri-Cities) so I have an okay job here. Plus my family is here. I do want to move to the Seattle area some time in the near future. Starting to make some moves in that direction although most likely won’t happen until the spring time.
Tappen
I’ve thought about moving to the states just for the politics. Then I read another story about the justice system, shudder and resolve to stay here. Good luck finding a job in Seattle. Gotta be much better than Eastern Washington.
JoyceH
@Platonicspoof:
I like it! It gives Obama a five year first term, that much more time to clean up Bush-Cheney’s mess. And he’ll need it, so it’s only fair.
If anyone complains, we answer, “We make our own reality.”
Yutsano
@Tappen: Only if you’re a political scientist and want to study a hybrid republican system (please note the small R) otherwise I’d stay up there. My ex got offered a great job at Boeing but ended up not getting a US work visa. He wouldn’t really tell me what happened there so he’s back working for Air Canada.
Tappen
Oh Air Canada. Scourge of the skies.
And yeah, I pretty much decided I can study the American system from abroad without the risks. Plus we’ve got plenty of intrigue here. Harper’s favourite food? Prorogies. Sigh. Prorogation: It solves all the problems, also too.
Tim F
To be an o-bot does one have to be a communist? Or can you just be realistic about what can be done in one fell swoop?
I used to feel in place at Daily Kos, now I feel as though I am a right-wing freak because I don’t think that Obama can lift DADT and slow health care costs at the same time.
Yutsano
@Tappen: Yeah I saw that little joke. Who knew hosting the Olympics means no political decisions for three months? We’ve hosted them a few times down here and we still kept everything running. My guess is he’s trying to prolong an election as long as possible even though the Conservatives are leading polls right now.
Tappen
Really it’s about the Afghanistan committees. If he prorogues Parliament now they can’t meet and ask all those awkward questions and demand the documents. I guess the positive side is Canada’s actually upset that we handed prisoners over ot be tortured, let alone tortured them ourselves. Progress? I guess.
And where did you see the prorogie joke? I thought I made that up.
Royston Vasey
@Tim F: More photo blogging, Tim!
Cheers from NZ
bob h
I wish I could be optimistic about 2010, but it is likely it will be even nuttier than 2009 as the Republicans react with insensate rage to HCR and the realization they may be finished as a serious Party, and the elections approach. It is going to be kooky.
Leelee for Obama
This photoshop is my favorite-thanks for putting it up John. And the floating caption made me giggle ridiculously.
I wandered over to DKos, and there’s a Doonesbury Cartoon in a diary that just made my morning. Go see it, it’s classic Trudeau, and should be memorialized everywhere. There’s also a Molly Ivins related post that is “inspiriting”, a Mollyism if ever there was one!
Went to sleep early, so missed all the NYE wishes, so belated Happy New Year to all. I am cautiously optimistic about this coming year, and while I believe it will be challenging, I have decided to be “hope-filled”, as I really have to get the hell out of the doldrums.
I really appreciate you people more than I can say. You have made a difficult year bearable, and, for that, may the FSM make me truly thankful.
JenJen
Happy New Year, John, and my extended Balloon-Juice family!
soonergrunt
@Steeplejack: @JGabriel:
Start counting to any arbitrary number of at least two digits.
Do you start with zero? Unless you’re a hardcore mathematician, you don’t.
I rest my case.
gnomedad
@JGabriel:
Regrettably, C-style array indexing had not yet been invented.
Steeplejack
@soonergrunt:
Yeah, rest your case, because it is so tired.
It is not a question of counting, it is a question of naming–putting a label on a period of time that hangs together thematically or in the popular imagination, e.g., the Gay ’90s, the Roaring ’20s. The Aughts. That decade just ended.
There’s nothing in that to prevent your maintaining your (correct) insistence that the first decade of the 21st century ends next year. But that’s not what we’re talking about. Take off the literalist blinders.
And I am by no means agreeing with JGabriel. He crazy.
henqiguai
@soonergrunt (#121):
Dude. If you are at all involved in anything software, you start at 0. <insert>childishly silly raspberry</insert>.
Chat Noir
Happy New Years from this O-bot. David Plouffe said that Obama liked the picture that John Cole posted at the top of the thread.
Glad we’re into a new (and hopefully improved) decade. Don’t forget to fill out your census form.
henqiguai
@soonergrunt (#121):
Okay, so my original brilliant riposte to sooner when into some bitbucket hell hole. I’ll give it another try…
If you are at all involved in anything software, you start counting at 0.
<insert>childishly silly-assed raspberry sound</insert>
henqiguai
@soonergrunt (#121): (Third time; after shutting down the browser. Not that I got anything worth the effort, I am now just interested in testing out the blog; f*ckin’ WordPress. Or did I piss someone off ?) Okay, so my original brilliant riposte to sooner when into some bitbucket hell hole. I’ll give it another try…
If you are at all involved in anything software, you start counting at 0.
<insert>childishly silly-assed raspberry sound</insert>
henqiguai
Crap. Is it me, or does Word Press no longer accept some standard HTML code that was working not too long ago ?
On edit: Apparently Word Press don’t like character entity strings (stuff like “&” + “#” + 060 + “;”). DamnYWP !
valdivia
very very late to the thread, but this O-bot wishes all of you a very happy new year and to the new decade.
I still love that picture.
Steeplejack
@henqiguai:
The “character entity strings” were working for me yesterday (Win XP, Opera). * * *
Edit: Yep, working now, too.
henqiguai
@Steeplejack (#127):
Was trying to enter the angle brackets, for something silly, as plain text; three entries went into never-never land.
I’ll try again: <noise>.
henqiguai
@Steeplejack (#127):
Yeah, obviously it’s me. Just tried putting simple angle bracket entities into a reply to you and it went into that same bit bucket hell. I’m blaming Mr. Cole, ’cause, why would I hold myself responsible ?
Sanka
Just words….just speeches…
Steeplejack
@henqiguai:
That’s probably the best approach.
gbear
Another happy Obot says happy new year to all.
soonergrunt
I agree with Gnomedad. It’s all Gregory’s fault. He was probably a fcuking republican.
JGabriel
@soonergrunt:
Depends on the situation. If I’m counting objects, no; if abstractions, yes.
Also if negative numbers are involved. Kind of hard to get from 1 to -1 without going through 0 — the fact that the idiot who designed the Gregorian calendar managed to do so doesn’t make it right.
Finally, given the state of the economy, and the fact that dollars are what people count most often, I’d guess a lot more people now start counting with zero more frequently than you think.
.
JGabriel
Yeah, but not about this. I’m just using Astronomical Year Numbering to count the Centuries:
So there.
.
JAHILL10
Happy New Year, J.C., A.L., D.J. and T.F.!!!!!
Thanks for providing a patch of funny, sarcastic sanity in the largely self-important sturm und drang of the liberal blogosphere. I look forward to more of the same in the coming year. Fellow O-bots Unite!
JGabriel
gnomedad:
Yes. My point exactly.
.
jamfan
Hi everyone — I never comment, and I’m very late to this thread, but this place always makes me happy so I wanted to say HNY. And since both my kids were born in the aughties — in both years George Bush was elected, by the way! — I unbelievably have to say, Dickensianly, that it was the best of times and worst of times at the jamfan household.
soonergrunt
@JGabriel:
Well. OK, then.
Yutsano
@Tappen: Ha, sorry, I think the whole proroguing thing is a joke. Though that is a tasty morsel right there. You should try selling it to CTV and see if they buy your copyright off it.
Ruemara
Happy New BJ Year for everyone! Getting up late enough to eat nachos and beer for breakfast is my sign of a good start. May all be having a good start.
JGabriel
soonergrunt: Heh. It’s doubtful that anyone is still checking in on this mundanely silly argument, but …
Meteor Blades at GOS has an informative essay on the whole “when does a decade/century/millenia begin” controversy, for anyone who’s interested.
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