Wot was dee most pointless yr o' yr life?

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Even if u indulgd in brilliance.

― naked as sin (naked as sin), Saturday, 25 January 2003 00:58 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

tricky...just as periods of history never divide themselves neatly into the centuries we would like them to inhabit (I heard the term "greater 19th century" t'other day to refer to 1789-1914), so periods of one's life can rarely be slotted nicely into years. I will therefore be difficult and say 1992-3. And the time doesn't even fit neatly into an *academic* year, as I would say without a shadow of a doubt that the pointless time began on the day in late June 1992 when I left Bristol Uni and returned home to stay with my parents and ended on 30th October 1993 when I arrived in oxford to start a job. I sometimes refer (being too charitable to myself and the situation) to this period as my "unplanned year out". I was jobless. i was directionless. I was making what seem to me now to be the most ludicrous decisions. And I was blaming my situation far too much on external forces. Just as some years later, when working for a purchasing & supply division of the Health Service, I found that underfunding (a real problem, don't get me wrong) was made the scapegoat for EVERY SINGLE THING that went wrong, so I blamed the malaise of this time on the recession that the country was experiencing, and failed to take any repsonsibility for it. A bad time indeed.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 08:13 (twenty-three years ago)

1987-1997

― dave q, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 08:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Even "hey, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing!" doesn't account for the silly decisions I was making. Plenty of ppl were telling me I was doing the wrong thing...not applying for the right jobs, not making my CV look as good as it might, not saying the right things in interviews ect ect. Quite often I think I felt, deep down, that they were right, but I kept on doing things my own silly way regardless. And it was not even as if I was using the time constructively to travel, or further my education, or do voluntary work (I'm reminded of M Hanley's contribution to the ILX comp now of course!). Quite often I was just sat on my ass watching tv or something.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 08:27 (twenty-three years ago)

the ten years between the initial question on this thread and the first answer

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 09:27 (twenty-three years ago)

2003

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 09:38 (twenty-three years ago)

a kind of eurovision song contest of my life, with a particular year having zzzzzzzzzero points, non pointes, would probably see 1986 as having no hook, no style, plenty of alcoholic fumbling and a rendition of my favourite horse to usher in the new year.

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 09:52 (twenty-three years ago)

that would be me around '97, gaz.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 09:55 (twenty-three years ago)

i haven't done anything in 2003 yet :(

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 09:57 (twenty-three years ago)

98-99

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 09:58 (twenty-three years ago)

After the gains of 93 and 94, 1995 was just pointless backsliding.

Went from temping to fulltime job only to get sacked... Went from 4-tracking by myself to session work, only to get sacked from both bands I joined... Went from lonliness to dating only to get dumped by every boy I met...

That was really treading water!

― kate, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 10:05 (twenty-three years ago)

2002

I spent ten months of it sick or recovering from being sick. I don't remember from May to September at all - apparently I slept 20+ hours a day through those months (thereby missing the humidity and misery that is the Florida summer). Oddly enough, I did some freelance work during that time, according to my business records, but I have no idea what I actually did.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 17:16 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll answer this when I get through it, but I wonder if a 'year' has to merely be 12 months...

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 17:28 (twenty-three years ago)

no, as I said (and others hinted) upthread. I think I was still suffering the bad effects of 1992-3 for some years after that. Mainly it was a confidence thing - it deterred me from applying for jobs that I now know I could've got, coz I expected rejection. Oddly enough, i think it had the opposite effect on my personal life and I became more outgoing, principally because I'd been starved of much human contact during that time.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:43 (twenty-three years ago)

the last semester of high school is pretty amazingly pointless so far

― Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:44 (twenty-three years ago)

The year immediately following my birth. I didn't do much but eat and shit and cry a lot. And I don't even remember it.

― -M, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:24 (twenty-three years ago)

backsliding furiously from 10/98 through 2/01

― dan (dan), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:27 (twenty-three years ago)

This year is frigging useless so far.

― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 02:52 (twenty-three years ago)

... that would have to be the time i spent living in the usa.

― logjaman, Wednesday, 2 April 2003 02:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Shurely nominating 2003 is cheating? I mean come on people, writing off a year as useless and it's only April... pffft you guys.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 03:19 (twenty-three years ago)

the last semester of high school is pretty amazingly pointless so far

No! That's the best time! You can totally blow off your work!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 03:32 (twenty-three years ago)

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