Jan 01 2012

Happy arbitrary day in the time continuum, at an interval defined by the orbit of one small planet in the universe since the last similar arbitrary day!

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by PZ Myers

Celebrate something or other, I guess!

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51 comments

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1

Cosmic Snark

1 January 2012 at 7:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I don’t even drink. New Year’s is a complete waste for me. Oh well.
2

PZ Myers

1 January 2012 at 7:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You’re all hung over, aren’t you?

My New Year’s Eve was spent getting a nice hot stone massage, followed by going to bed early (around 10:30!) and getting a good night’s sleep. I feel pretty good this morning!
3

Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls

1 January 2012 at 7:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’m with PZ. Went to bed around 10:30, and got a good nights sleep. Feeling OK this morning.
4

Dick the Damned

1 January 2012 at 7:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Nerd, should you be telling everyone this on a public forum, & what did the Redhead & the Trophy Wife think about it anyway?
5

a3kr0n

1 January 2012 at 7:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I slept in front of the wood stove, and woke up at 3 AM when it got cold.
I think I’ll celebrate another “Why I am an atheist” submission now.
6

a_ray_in_dilbert_space

1 January 2012 at 7:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Our New Years repast was Scotch Barley soup and fresh-baked bread (alas with store-bought flour, as we have just ordered our flour mill). In bed by 11:00, as I don’t drink and my wife is now allergic to alcohol. And the furry folk let us sleep ’til 7:00.

I’ll take massage over alcohol any day. Incidentally, I checked out the website of the massage school I studied at in Thailand, and they are still operating. Studying massage there is still cheap as hell–$158/30-hour, 1-week course, with up to 5 weeks available.

If anyone is interested in learning massage, I strongly recommend this. You can live in Chiang Mai quite cheaply, the food is great, and the course has given me a skill I’ve used for over 20 years. Yeah, there’s woo involved, but the techniques involved are sound.
7

athorist

1 January 2012 at 7:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I guess PZ didn’t get us anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqo48paT-UA&t=6m41s

Firefly-related, I had an argument with a Christian on IRC who said he was like Book, I told him he was more like the operative.
8

carlie

1 January 2012 at 7:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy Monkey!
9

Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty

1 January 2012 at 8:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy Monkey all around
I’m not hung-over, I’m just underslept.
We didn’t even make it to the third bottle of mead and that’s with 5 people sharing the first two.
10

opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces

1 January 2012 at 8:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy day, PZ and Horde!
11

BaisBlackfingers

1 January 2012 at 8:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

See, this is where biologists have problems- always way more words than you need when a simplified notation makes everything easier: Happy θ(homeworld)= 2πn + C, everybody!
12

AussieMike

1 January 2012 at 8:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

There it is from the man himself.
PZ was stoned on New Years Eve. Well done PZ!
13

thomasvos

1 January 2012 at 8:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You’ve been reading Dilbert, haven’t you?
14

Lou Doench

1 January 2012 at 8:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’ll be a little hung over for all of you teetotalers. Some yummy pomegranate champagne, some rye whiskey, some red wine with the wife, and pride and prejudice on the tube.
15

gorunnova

1 January 2012 at 8:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Here’s to the virtues of arbitrariness!

*drinks*

… or would, had I not arbitrarily decided that 10 in the morning is too early for beer. Who knows? I might arbitrarily change it back! :D
16

peterh

1 January 2012 at 9:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The wife & I actually stayed up till just past midnight for the first time on New Year’s Eve in 6-7 years. We were well-fed (well, seasonally overfed), abstemious, and watched The Help on the new Blue Ray player the oldest grandson gave us for Loot Day.
17

johnmarley

1 January 2012 at 9:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“You’ve been reading Dilbert, haven’t you?”

or Foxtrot.
18

Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel

1 January 2012 at 9:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

PZ:

You’re all hung over, aren’t you?

Just a tad.
19

KG

1 January 2012 at 9:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy 2012!

What are they calling the new year elsewhere than the UK? Here, “Twenty-twelve” seems to be winning out in the broadcast media over “Two thousand and twelve”, while last year I think there was still more “Two thousand and eleven” than “Twenty-eleven”. I know in the US it would be “Two thousand twelve” (without the “and”) if it’s not “Twenty-twelve”, but which is it?
20

pilot22a

1 January 2012 at 9:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My wife and I watched the panel clock tick over to the new year in Central Oregon as we circled the Three Sisters in our Cessna 120.

Thank you Big Bang, for lining up our molecules in such a manner that we were able to enjoy this.
21

Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel

1 January 2012 at 9:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Anyway, Happy New Year everybody! There’s cake and some beers for breakfast, if anyone’s interested.
22

DLC

1 January 2012 at 9:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy renewed orbital journey, one and all!
23

Irene Delse

1 January 2012 at 9:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hung over? Nah. Spent New Year’s Eve with the brother and sister at an Indian restaurant, where we talked at length about politics, history and science while tasting lots of delicious stuff. Yes, we are a bunch of geeks ^.^
24

carbonbasedlifeform

1 January 2012 at 9:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My wife and I shared a bottle of Prosecco with dinner and were in bed at 10:30, as she had to be at her store early this morning to do some things she did not do yesterday.

We slept soundly until the idiots in the street behind us had to set off fireworks at midnight. (On the Fourth of July, they set off fireworks from just after dark until 1 or 2 in the morning. Apparently the thought, “some of our neighbors have to go to work in the morning” does not occur to them.)
25

myeck waters

1 January 2012 at 9:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

As the default designated driver, I am never hung over. I am, however, pretty tired, as I got to bed well after 3am and shortly afterward teh dog started asking to be let out, fed, let out again, fed, no you didn’t feed me yet, no you didn’t, see the empty bowl?
26

shouldbeworking

1 January 2012 at 10:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Not hungover, just under slept. Supreme ruler and thing 2, aka the cats, wanted their usual morning feed, the twits in the neighbourhood decided to load up the snowmobile onto the truck and blast their “music” while doing that.

My wife, daughter 1 and I spent a few hours at the neighbours talking, drinking and generally not acting our ages. Heck, my wife can’t remember the last time she saw me overindulge with booze. Cheesecake on the other hand, is a different story.
27

ChasCPeterson

1 January 2012 at 10:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Yeah, I drank. At a bar. I was on foot so no harm done.
Let’s see:
Lagunitas “Sucks” holiday ale, draught…several pints; an insanely tasty IPA that hits almost like pineapple juice and then stays bitter longtime; yumyumyum (holy shit, 8%? no wonder…)
Couple Guinesses for dessert
Jameson…more than one of those, I seem to recall, but probably only 2.
Glass of champagne at midnight

so, yeah. Hungover just a wee bit, nothing a hot shower and a giant mug of espresso roast couldn’t handle.

Happy Newt Year! (no, not that Newt!)
28

Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan

1 January 2012 at 11:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’m not sure what it was that did it, but at around 2 am I got out of bed with an upset stomach. All I had to celebrate the New Year was some Irish creme and a piece of apple pie. I wonder if that was too much richness so late at night (well that and I was curious to see how half-and-half poured over the pie would taste. Not bad, but again, a bit rich).

Yeah there were fireworks in my neck of the woods, too. I don’t remember people doing that before. Fucking hell, I wonder if the sirens were because someone burned their face getting too close to a Roman candle.
29

'Tis Himself, OM.

1 January 2012 at 11:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You’re all hung over, aren’t you?

No. I didn’t do any drinking last night and went to bed around 10:30. That’s because I’m at work.
30

robro

1 January 2012 at 11:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

wow! i’m in good company. i thought the wife and i were the only people in the universe who stayed home and went to bed early on NYE. unfortunately, the simulated war zone excitement overly arouses the 80 pound gun-shy coon hound into a “bugling” and “chopping” lather, so we were up until 1:00 getting her quiet. my toast to celebrate this was 2oz of merlot early in the evening. as the jeweler Tom Shane once said, “We’re dull, but we’re brilliant.”
31

baryogenesis

1 January 2012 at 12:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Slept in til noon because I could, so not too hung over.
32

mikelaing

1 January 2012 at 12:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Today is also the start of a new month, a new week, and a new day!
Happy New Day’s Day, everybody! Oh, wait, it’s New Day’s Eve!
33

Brownian

1 January 2012 at 1:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You’re all hung over, aren’t you?

New Year’s Eve is the one night out of the year during which I traditionally don’t drink.

It’s idiotic, I know, but I still harbour a bit of a childish “I’m not doing something just because everyone else is” attitude. (Practically, NYE is usually a pretty cold one here as well. It’d have to be one hell of a party to induce me to go, knowing that my get home options are to wait 2-3 hours for an available cab or risk frostbite.)

In lieu of going out, the GF™ and I finished painting and snuggled with snacks in front of the TV. We paused Netflix to ring in the new year and hit the hay. This AM she and I are kick-starting the year with a freshly painted bedroom and bathroom.
34

chigau (私も)

1 January 2012 at 2:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Brownian
Sniffing paint fumes doesn’t count?
35

crocswsocks

1 January 2012 at 3:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Favorable Additional Orbital Cycle to you too, PZ!
36

Brownian

1 January 2012 at 3:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Sniffing paint fumes doesn’t count?

Not modern latex paints. They’re pretty mild. Then again, just because we can’t smell the fumes as much doesn’t mean they’re not there.

You know what smells awesome? Stucco paint. I’m not sure if all brands smell that way, but the one I worked with when I spent half a summer with a college painting company smelled awesome. Sorta latex-ey, sorta artificial fruit flavour-ey.
37

unclefrogy

1 January 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

celebrating something or other.

I got to thinking the other day about that.
There are more than a few celebrating days this time of the year. I would say that this new years celebration would be the political calendar new year, is comes one week after an ecclesiastical new years celebration which is after the celestial (solar) new years. not to long from now will be the lunar new year I can not keep track of all of them. I’m just glad this is the last one the people around me bother with and we can get back to the ordinary pattern. the next big thing would be tax season. happy happy what ever!!
I think I may do a little charcoal grilling later.

uncle frogy
38

thewhollynone

1 January 2012 at 3:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy New Year, y’all! It’s 71 degrees here and 55% humidity and the sun in shining in a cloudless sky. Guess global warming has its uses! No, no, I deny that; it’s just the usual beautiful weather on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, thanks to the blessings of Apollo.
39

David Marjanović

1 January 2012 at 3:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I know in the US it would be “Two thousand twelve” (without the “and”) if it’s not “Twenty-twelve”, but which is it?

It already was “twenty-twelve” when Al Gore gave a campaign speech in 2000 on what he hoped to have accomplished “bw thw ywr twny-twlv”.
40

Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls

1 January 2012 at 3:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Then again, just because we can’t smell the fumes as much doesn’t mean they’re not there.

There is very little in the way of organic volatiles in modern latex paint. Not enough to affect Brownian and GF™ in a tightly enclosed room/house, unless they are supersensitive.
41

davem

1 January 2012 at 3:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@KG Twenty-twelve seems to be finally winning out. It’s only taken 12 years for people to finally get that 20-something is the natural replacement for 19-something. The ‘thousand and’ thing always felt wrong to me.

Anyway, Happy Monkey! and may 2012 bring us loads of laughter at the expense of the 2012 end-of-the-World fruitcakes.
42

Markita Lynda----Happy New Year, everyone!

1 January 2012 at 3:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

New Years’ has always struck me as the most arbitrary holiday of the year. So for years I’ve been going to bed on time and waking up rested on the first day of the new year.

Happy New Year, PZ and Hordizens!
43

edwardseedhouse

1 January 2012 at 4:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Shouldn’t it be an arbitrary point in the space/time continuum?

After all the sun is orbiting our galaxy and dragging it’s planets with it, so it’s nowhere even remotely near where it was exactly one year ago. And the Galaxy itself is moving relative to other galaxies while all the while the size of space itself is expanding ever more quickly and dragging us all along with it.
44

Alethea H. Claw

1 January 2012 at 5:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy January 2nd to you all :)
45

John Morales

1 January 2012 at 5:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happiness is relative, and I’m quite happy right now.

I spent new year’s eve by taking my wife to hospital for an emergency appendectomy, and (happily) she is now home and recovering.

(Guess she wasn’t perfectly designed)

–

But yeah — best wishes to everyone who deserves them!
46

Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls

1 January 2012 at 5:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

John, best wishes to you and your wife. And to all the regulars and would be regulars.

The Redhead had a recent breathing problem brought on by yarn, wool yarn to be exact. Too much browsing in the knit shops, causing an asthma type attack.
47

chigau (私も)

1 January 2012 at 5:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

John Morales
*hugs* to Mrs.John and to you.
48

Stacy

1 January 2012 at 7:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy New Year, PZ and Horde!

Attention, Scientists, Engineers: I’m still waiting for my hovercar and robot housekeeper, kthx.

Twenty-twelve seems to be finally winning out. It’s only taken 12 years for people to finally get that 20-something is the natural replacement for 19-something. The ‘thousand and’ thing always felt wrong to me

Well, “twenty eight” (for example) sounds like 28, not 2008. And “twenty oh eight” sounds like a secret agent.
49

tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach

1 January 2012 at 7:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

as we circled the Three Sisters in our Cessna 120.

Right – well Lady Haderach & I spent *our* evening circling the Cat’s Eye Nebula in our FTL hyper-capable battlestar. Cessna 120 indeed. Humph.
50

NovaC

1 January 2012 at 9:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Happy Monkey! New year has started off great! I got nine (nine!!!!) hours of uninterrupted, pain free sleep (combo of pain medication, exhaustion, and finding the one position that was comfortable). My new issue of Rue Morgue magazine arrived. Brewed an excellent pot of coffee and got to spend some quality time with my husband. Not too shabby!
51

jasonmcdonald

3 January 2012 at 7:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I spent the 1st in Berlin with fireworks legalized for one night and traditional Berliners (cream filled doughnuts). Freaking awesome.