The saddest part of 2016 was watching my friends and family lose their minds and not being able to do much to help them. Then there was that other thing.

One of the advantages of living overseas during a year like 2016, especially when you lack faith in government, is you don’t understand what the fuss is about. This is partly because you aren’t subject to the masterful emotional manipulation of the US press. Because of this, to me, 2016 wasn’t that bad of a year.

Granted, some celebrities I liked died, but that happens every year, especially as I get older, but they were hardly saints and the world will move on without them whilst their work remains available. I started getting worried, though, when a friend fretted that two singers had died but a politician he didn’t like was still living. (Note: not the president-elect. At that time.) That was the first time I got mad about it. At another point I had to defend one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons—who’s had movies made about him—after a colleague called him an idiot. I didn’t even support him; I just don’t like the name calling and snark that masquerades as political discussion now.

In fact, I’ve had more productive debates with Christian fundamentalists than I’ve had with political extremists of all stripes because the Christian fundamentalists never threatened to send me to hell and never called me names. They were more interested in winning recovering fundamentalist, agnostic me over to their side.

Then, the US election became a battle between, in my mind, two questionable Democrats, one disguised as a Republican and one with dozens of psychologists helping manipulate voter emotions, and things got really sad.

Because I’m both agnostic nationally and a “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” kind of guy at all times—every president since, and including, Ronald Reagan has expanded government, engaged in questionable wars and, with one exception, either signed or promised to sign anti-firearms legislation—I found the entire spectacle both amusing and disturbing.

The most interesting part was watching the so-called mainstream media collapse and desperately grasp at “fake news” accusations whilst praising self-identifying fake news purveyors such as John Stewart and John Oliver. It was sad to see emotion trump, er, um, dominate reason, on all sides. The hypocrisy was strong on all sides, too.

As always, we got the leaders we deserve, regardless of what we think we want. (Note the Second: I didn’t vote this year, as there were no suitable candidates, even in the Libertarian party, and I was pretty sure how my home state was going to vote. I was right, of course.)

As for me, it was a strange year. Turning 50 left more marks than I expected and I’m still feeling a bit rudderless. I’ve been distracted of late and have been caught in the “planning but not doing” phase of many projects (aka the Old Normal). I’ve also been stuck in the phase of knowing what to do but not doing it.

Our oldest turns sixteen in a couple weeks and chose physics as her general course which means the most help I can offer is “study harder”, “learn math gooder”, and “put your damned phone away”. Our youngest is a tween and almost as tall as She Who Must Be Obeyed and is working on improving her teen attitude/brain damage. I’m currently working four jobs, including one I can do at home. (This is a lucrative distraction, but is still a distraction.)

That said, I feel in pretty good shape as 2017 starts. I still floss regularly, and I’m still out of debt. The ink business is stagnant during the winter because of freezing temperatures and physics, but a friend has challenged me to pull the trigger on things I’ve been postponing. Not sure I will, but the challenge is there.

I’m still writing stuff. More or less. This bit of blather will face a few changes in the future, but more on that in a future post. I’m also going to be seeking out a few dependable beta readers.

All the best to everyone on 2017. Happy new year from Japan.