New Year's Evil

Funny how short-lived my enthusiasm for a new year is. I think we went wrong by celebrating an arbitrary point in our collective orbit (good band name), and then by getting drunk about it, and again by making a big deal about how and where we get drunk for it. This is the classic loser's offensive remark: "I go to sleep at 10:00 PM because, you know, what's the point?"

It's a weak position and would not get you voted into office, and complements the life of anyone over a certain age living in warm places, or anyone who works New Year's Day and isn't extreme enough to make it through a shift hungover. I mean entirely to brag by saying that  I worked an entire shift in a retail store with no backup, one day, while I was hung over enough to be sickened by rosewater. Fun fact: since referencing hangovers and New Year's, this article has gotten 300% more predictable.

I've more or less given up on holidays, myself. I still participate, but the illusion has failed me. And, really, the best perspective on the so-called "holiday season" is a cynical one, because it means you won't be disappointed in anything, from the tacky advertising to the annoying advertising to the repetitive advertising to the heartrending advertising for charities or even the edgy advertising for cars. Cynical people also don't act surprised when the mall is busy, because the mall is always busy anyways, and only an idiot would think otherwise.

It really does seem that this arbitrary point in the orbit was picked by the northern elite to ensure that their subjects have something to look forward to, whilst they sip 500 year-old cognac out of opulent vessels and bask in the warmth of a paper-money fire. I actually understand this behavior, because Christmas is the great time of retail up-trickle economics, when the midwealthy get their yearly bonuses. When the midwealthy go out to buy luxury products on boxing day, that money trickles up again to the elite, who sometimes have to make the heartbreaking decision to burn older stacks of money in order to be able to store the new. Some of them even have to deal with the stress of renovating their overlarge money safes.

For regular little people, a bit of stress arises from the hope that gifts given are either appreciated for their inherent value or useful to whomever they are gifted to. Also I see that my decision not to slavishly post on this blog was a mistake, because my whole readership evaporated. I just checked the stats, and am impressed that the numbers held out as long as they did.

Yeah, I've got peanuts for material on this blog, but I've explained that I am a shoddy blogger. I'll do a lot better this year, I promise.