Well, if you were going to sleep through a year, 2011 was a really good one to do it in. And if you did, here are the twenty Whatever entries that I think best encapsulated the year around here. Presented in alphabetical rather than chronological order, they are:

• And Now, For No Particular Reason, A Rant About Facebook
• Bill James’ Pop Fly
• Dear Writer: I’m Sorry I Don’t Have Time to CRUSH YOU
• DeKloutifying
• The Electronic Publishing Bingo Card
• How to Know If You’re Cheating
• Lord of the Tweets
• Notes on Arguing
• Omelas State University
• Peak Gingrich
• Reader Request Week 2011 #1: Children and Faith
• Reader Request Week 2011 #6: Sociopathic Corporations
• Regarding Snobbery
• Revenue Streams 2010
• Shut Up and Listen
• The Sort of Crap I Don’t Get
• The Thanksgiving Advent Calendar, Day Three: Luck
• The Thanksgiving Advent Calendar, Day Twenty Four: Right Here, Right Now
• What It’s Like to Have Me For a Dad
• When to Ignore Criticism (and How to Get People to Take Your Critique Seriously)

There, now you’re all set for 2011. No need to read anything else anywhere else, ever. And look! Here comes 2012. Try not to flinch.

Two notes for you regarding Chicon 7, the 2012 Worldcon, at which, most of you know, I will be the Toastmaster. The first is related to me by Chicon 7 head Dave McCarty:

Chicon is having a “7 days of Chicon” sale, it is running now and ends on 12/26.

Adult memberships are reduced $15 (normally $195, now $180) and Young Adult memberships (aged 17-21 at the convention) are reduced $10 (normally $100, now $90).

This is the cheapest that YA memberships have ever been!

I added the exclamation mark, there. Chicon’s online membership form is here — go and save for the holidays.

The second relates to the Hugo Base Design Competition — every year the Worldcon has a contest to create a distinctive base for the year (the rocket stays the same). The competition for 2012 has been extended — you now have until January 15 to get your base design in for consideration. Here are the details on that.

It’s a family tradition here at the Scalzi household to awaken our daughter on her birthday with a flaming pastry, usually a birthday cake. This year, however, she turns thirteen, and to celebrate the initial transformation into a teen, we changed things up a bit and presented her with a pie. And yes, because I am a nerd, I did in fact say “the cake is a pie” to her. But never mind that now.

I could go on at this point about the fact that my daughter is now a teenager, and all the implications of that fact and how much I am proud of her for being such a remarkable person even at this young age, but at the moment I am content just to be happy with the fact my daughter exists in this world. I am going to leave it at that for right now.

But I would like to share something with you on my daughter’s thirteenth birthday: The song that was playing in the delivery room the moment she was born. I think it’s beautiful, as she is.

To my daughter: Happy birthday. I love you.

To everyone else: Happy Athenamas! Say “Happy Athenamas!” to everyone you meet today! Because why not.