WYFP (which stands for "What's Your Fucking Problem?") is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
It's a new year, and almost a new decade. It would be nice to think that nobody had any FPs yet, but regulars here know that life rarely treats us that nicely.
WYFP (qui signifie "Qu'est-ce que c'est ton problème foutu?") est notre veillée communale du samedi soir pour parler de nos problèmes, compatir les uns les autres, et partager des conseils, des images des pooties, les boissons préférées adultes, et tout ce que nous pensons pouvoir aider. Tout le monde et toutes sortes de peines sont bienvenus ici. Que nous trouvons de la paix et guérison ici. Pouvez-vous partager la joie de WYFP en recommandant, s'il vous plaît?
(Just because I felt like doing it in French.)
I'm enjoying the last few days of my long winter break from work and school, so I'm actually fortunate enough not to have very many FPs right now. The climate outside (temperature hovering right around 0 °F, with winds out of the northwest making it feel about ten degrees colder) would certainly be one cause for complaint in my world.
I am feeling a little conflicted about whether or not I actually want to head back to the grad-school grind. I took a semester off this fall because I was seriously close to blowing a gasket...and I find that I rather like being able to come home at the end of the workday and not having to crank out five hundred pages' worth of reading by the end of the week, or write up thirty to fifty pages of analysis thereof. (Or, more realistically, of the fifty to sixty books and articles in one of my major fields, since that's what I've been working on lately--the start of my field exams, sometimes also referred to as qualifiers.) On the flip side of that, I've come this far, and there aren't that many hurdles left to clear before the Ph.D. (one of which involves at least one more research trip to France), so there's weight on both sides of the scale on this question.
The perennially screwed-up finances and politics in my home state of Illinois are certainly high on the list of problems--for me and my 12,999,999 fellow Illinoisans. Nor am I enthusiastic about the possibility that we'll be in a position to solve any of those problems once the election season gets rolling next month with our ridiculously early primary election. I would very much like to be proven wrong on that score, however.
So: What's on folks' minds this cold winter's night (at least here in the Midwest)?