Happy New Year, part one

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.  For my part, in 2013, I have hit the ground stumbling, having been sick as a dog (along with my wife, two sons, parents and grandmother) for the past week and a half now.  I'd say 'it serves me right' for not getting a flu shot this year, but 'patient zero' (my son, Michael) DID, as did my Parents and Grandmother. So a fat lot of good it did anyway!

I hope (resolve?) to get back to writing more, either here, or over on Utopia, on a regular basis. My lack of writing here over the past couple months certainly has NOT been a reflection of a lack of absurd things going on in the world, mostly perpetrated by Republicans and Right-Wingers, but rather a sort of burn-out that I suppose inevitably sets in when you've had your outrage-meter pinned in the red-zone for so long.  It just seems like I've reached a point that we are so saturated with such complete absurdity, that it seems almost inane to have to write about it.  I mean... the level of intellectual dishonestly and hypocrisy on the part of Republicans has reached a point, at least in my mind, of complete and utter self-evidence. So.. What the hell am I suppose to say about it?  I mean... for me it's become akin to predicting the sun will rise tomorrow (12/21/12 notwithstanding, LOL) and acting like this is some kind of profound thing! So I don't know where to even begin anymore.

One thing I will point out is that, very much like Congressional Republicans, I have a lot of unfinished business carrying over from 2012. (The last three(?) months worth of Hall of Fame posts, for example.) Unlike Congressional Republicans, I have only myself to blame.  Wait a 'sec... On second thought, that's EXACTLY like Congressional Republicans! But unlike Congressional Republicans, I won't actually TRY to blame anyone else, I'll just take responsibility for it, move on and try to do better.  So at some point, there's going to be a post or three getting my Hall of Fame caught up. And I really need to do it, because I've come across some REALLY strong sites in the past few months - outfits I REALLY want everyone to know about and get involved with. I've just be too lazy/busy to be bothered to post them.  My bad.

One bit of good news for readers of Utopia, is that despite that blog's (intentional) lack of updates (and the removal of most of the content) of late, I have now written up through Chapter Thirty-Nine, and plan to post a new chapter every week for the next three or four months or so, until the work is finally finished. So if you, like me, agree with Steeve that pretty much every one of our problems can be solved simply by getting rid of the Republicans, check out my exploration of that proposal in  Utopia! 

(And if  j.riddle happens to be reading this, I hope he's gotten his computer issues sorted out and look forward to getting back to working with him on a more regular basis.  Everyone else is welcome and encouraged to leave comments, questions or suggestions as well.)

I've got a handful of other things I want to touch on, mostly about my holiday, but I'm going to leave those for a moment, and try to post them later today. In the meantime, welcome back, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and had a fun, safe, happy and HEALTHY holiday.