CORRECTION: This post title was originally "It a new year." Yes, I started the new year of blogging with an error. The very first word, too. Glad I got that out of the way. What was your first mistake?
That was your first mistake/You took your lucky break and broke it in two/Now what can be done for you?/You broke it in two....
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Lots more meditation, indoor rowing commitment, no drugs (including psychedelics) or alcohol, hiking as opposed to running, and more silence.
I have a picture of myself asleep last night with a sleeping cat on my lap. I appear to be dead.
Imagine that I posted that here. There's your answer. Happy New Year to all.
Endure it
Go fishing in about 15 minutes.
Happy New Year Althousians. I am cinching down my seat belt…
John Cochrane has moved to Substack and has a good post on how to not be like Tom Freidman in the new year.
…my first mistake- clinching instead of cinching? I was going to say optimism…
Happy New Year!
I’m going to continue to thank God that, at age 74, I’m still a working musician. I played 110 church gigs, and performed both as accompanist and singer in half a dozen choral concerts. I’m still out 3 to 4 days or nights a week rehearsing and performing, and getting paid.
I’m going to play with my young grandchildren and close out the political ranting as much as possible by being physically active.
I’ll be recording two albums of original Gospel tunes, a few of which my client congregations are already singing.
I need to run out and replace my dog eared copy of Schrödinger’s Dictionary for 2024…
Forgot to brush my teeth. Now I have to go back upstairs again.
Everything's going to it.
Damn it. I thought "Ann's black as fuck now." Oh well.
I suspect 2024 will be remembered as an error.
My favorite song from my favorite McCartney album.
No mistakes yet, but it's still early
I'm going to aim for the Quality of time but also of its Quantity. Living in the Internet Moment that flashes past you is nonsense. But an entire year....probably not a double digit percentage of my Time Allotted, but you never know. Looking back '23 was a good one. Hopefully '24 will be as well.
More exercise will take care of itself, as I've acquired a sidekick dog. I'm thinking more alcohol but only in the form of pints with friends.
" What was your first mistake?"
I said, "I do."
Tried -- and failed -- to program a new thermostat. Maybe after some more coffee...
Try to improve on 2023 - a craptacular year.
Interesting song selection. Paul taking a shot at John. This gave John the impetus to write “How Do Sleep”:
So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mother's eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
The one mistake you made was in your head
How do you sleep?
How do you sleep at night?
You live with straights who tell you, you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
And since you've gone you're just another day
How do you sleep?
How do you sleep at night?
How do you sleep?
How do you sleep at night?
A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they'll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years
How do you sleep?
How do you sleep at night?
I always thought Paul got the better of that exchange. He came at John with a stiletto while John came back with a nuke. Only John got Paul’s dig while the world saw John’s. It made him seem bitter and jealous.
"In 2023, the radical left surrendered the moral high ground once and for all. For whether we like it or not, this is what the radical left is now. The conspiratorial Israelophobes and the woke racists run the show. "
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/30/2023-has-exposed-the-moral-depravity-of-the-radical-left/
To be an Error & to be Cast out is a part of God's design.
William Blake
Aren't truly meaningful New Years resolutions like birthday candle wishes, they only become real if kept secret?
I have to say, Mid Life Lawyer has a great road map for 2024. Good Luck 👍
When I saw the title of the song, I assumed it was about depopulation. That was my first mistake of the new year. I’m glad I was a mistake. Still, the song was mediocre. Not bad, but nothing to get excited about.
It vs It's. Haha. You can edit. I, aka Mr. Typo, must delete and re-post. But then I can see why no editing is permitted.
The local sporting goods store has treadmills on sale. They are a versatile machine - they will turn into a clothing rack by March.
Thinking: Is the contraction of two words a word? I suppose so, what else could it be? Words are separated by spaces.
The only Paul McCartney solo album I liked.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
My comment did not show up here either./
Forgot to buy the stewed tomatoes for making Hopping John. It (Hopping John) is a Southern new years thingy.
"I have to say, Mid Life Lawyer has a great road map for 2024. Good Luck 👍"
Thank you, Howard. I'm going to the gym now which is not something unusual for me. The rowing commitment is new. Meditation is something I already do quite a bit, but I'm wanting to go longer and deeper this year.
"I always thought Paul got the better of that exchange. He came at John with a stiletto while John came back with a nuke. Only John got Paul’s dig while the world saw John’s. It made him seem bitter and jealous."
Absolutely right -- "Jealous Guy" indeed. Going after Paul based on the quality of his work was so stupid and petulant. But also, the track itself ("Too Many People") runs circles around "How Can You Sleep."
Post-Beatles McCartney still had a lot left in his tank. People disparage his 70s-era hits, but there are an awful lot of his album cuts from that time that are very interesting and very strong. Lennon focused his early solo career on getting a lot of personal baggage off his chest; but once he did that, he was basically tapped out, creatively. He did the 50s covers album and then retired for five years. Even after marinating all that time, what he came back with (Double Fantasy) was kind of a letdown.
Not doing anything new or different. Lose the six pounds I gained between Thanksgiving and New Years, continue daily trip to the gym, pick up the pace on the rower, head to the Caribbean for two weeks, go skiing if or when we get snow same for snow shoeing, get out on the boat when it warms up, visit family in Illinois, water ski in Wisconsin, plant some flowers, stuff like that.
Ann:
Considering how many blog posts you have written in nearly 20 years, it’s amazing how few typos.
"Considering how many blog posts you have written in nearly 20 years, it’s amazing how few typos."
Thanks. I care a lot and always fix typos when I find them, even in old posts deep in the archive.
Part of the success in the fight against typos (and other word editing problems) is thanks to my sons and my husband, all of whom care about these things and tend to text me about things I don't catch first. I do have a habit of hitting the "publish" button as soon as I have a draft I like. Then I do my rereading and have to edit what's already gone up. I still might miss things, because I have a way of seeing what I want to see — I think of it as basic optimism — and then one of my family members might take up the slack.
Happy New Year to AA, the Cal Ripkin of bloggers.
I plan not to pay too much attention to what certain people on this blog say this year, because watching them flip on Oct 7 proved their principles are moving targets, and I don't play that game. On Dec 6, Bob Boyd said:
"Crack is willing to watch this movie even though it's difficult to do so and even though it challenges some strongly held opinions he holds. Be like Crack."
But flash forward to today and I have to deal with the indignity of pacwest describing me this way:
"It's pretty obvious Crack is clinging to his own oppressed minority status by backing Hamas. You're beating a dead horse."
And that posing as the "good guy," to tell the others to stop fucking with me. Not only that, but my pal Tina Trent suggests I'm for putting women in slavery, too.
How I went from being a man of integrity, who challenges himself, to a tool of Hamas out to enslave women has been documented by Matt Taibbi, Tucker Carlson, and Glenn Greenwald, but these fools ain't listening to them no more, either, lest their cognitive dissonance get triggered by the recognition they're the baddies now. They won't even acknowledge they're on the side that already lied to me - and is now celebrating killing kids while emphasizing how much they don't care - so I have every reason not to trust the bloodthirsty, immoral likes of them. Just like American racists of old, Zionists just don't get how repulsive they are.
I won't dignify the racist liars, who continue to act like disagreeing means I'm too dumb to understand the Middle East, by mentioning their names. They're just as dead to me this year as Gahrie was in the last. No one's listening to GOP tyrants - or any other kind - anymore.
Happy New Year.
Humperdink said...
The local sporting goods store has treadmills on sale. They are a versatile machine - they will turn into a clothing rack by March.
Yep, free on Craigslist in April or May.
So far, no mistakes. It's 10:46 am now. This could be a very good year.
I don't think I've made any recognizable mistakes, yet, this year. I'll keep my eye open.
There are things that must be done this year, or they will not ever be done. I must get to them. At 66 years old, a broken leg from dirt biking in October has pointed out my mortality, and potential lack of longevity.
Let's get to it!
I just corrected a mistake I made last year.
Geez, I haven't heard that song in years, lost the LP a long time ago just after Student Daze.
But: Rather than dig through the mulch to find my First Mistake, I'd much rather hold up my Best Ones and admire their shiny perfection.
All aboard for 2024! Thank you, Ms. Althouse for all you and your family do.
SFSG at 1018CT.
I'll have to start reporting -all- the Prof's typos I spot, but I won't go back looking for any. I've pointed out a few, but always felt a bit pedantic doing so.
OTOH I've sent in plenty of faulty comments myself and am just glad that they aren't screened and returned for correction before posting. (Oooh, an AI project!)
Anyway, HNY and long may Prof post.
SFSG at 1018CT.
I'll have to start reporting -all- the Prof's typos I spot, but I won't go back looking for any. I've pointed out a few, but always felt a bit pedantic doing so.
OTOH I've sent in plenty of faulty comments myself and am just glad that they aren't screened and returned for correction before posting. (Oooh, an AI project!)
Anyway, HNY and long may Prof post.
I don’t think it’s my mistake but it’s either a fitting end to a rotten year or a bad harbinger for 2024. When I opened our bottle of champagne last night the foil was intact and the top of the cork looked fine, but the cork slid right out of the bottle and the bottom was hard. The “bubbly” was flat and terrible-tasting. I dumped it down the drain and we toasted the year with a nice Pinot Grigio.
Probably a bad harbinger, since I woke up this morning with a sore throat and runny nose.
I wish I had the Apple TV Beatles documentary to binge watch like I did last year. That was a great way to start the year.
I’ll end with the hopeful blessing all receive every year at the Mass of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:
The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!
I thought I made a mistake once but I was wrong (wink wink)
Happy New Year to our hostess and to you all.
May optimism reign for at least a few hours.
My first mistake this year? Has to be that second glass of champagne. I don't even like champagne. It wasn't that it was A Bridge Too Far; it's just that I didn't actually want it and my taking it might have prevented someone else who did want it from having more.
So, not to terrible a start. But the day is young!
'Damn it. I thought "Ann's black as fuck now." Oh well.'
It's all an elaborate hoax.
She lifts sunrise pix from some anonymous woman in WI she's never met.
In reality her name is Shaniqua.
She smokes Kools and lives in East St. Louis.
Don't feel bad, she's fooled all of us...
Shouting Thomas thank you for sharing that inspirational tidbit for the new year. I am curious. Did your songs change in any substantial way, writing or arrangement, after being performed live by you or choirs?
“What was your first mistake?“
The new year surge was so strong $ in the Athens GA area, I stayed out not listening to my body’s nudge to go home.
The first time that happened, it was also around the end of year holidays (2019) a woman thought I was drunk driving, when in reality I was just tired 🥱. This may sound like a Norm joke but my last 3 passengers happened to be women. 😬
Sixteen month old granddaughter just realized that her Daddy is packing up to go home. Anyone driving past within a mile of the house would assume were torturing babies. Makes me feel good that she loved this place, but I feel very bad for her.
2024 just gets worse.
@Caroline (10:41), Amen.
Did your songs change in any substantial way, writing or arrangement, after being performed live by you or choirs?
Yes, I do re-write after working with singers, but it is mostly the structural demands of the hymn format that guide me. Simplicity is fundamental, and that requires repetition and rhyme. I’ve played through the Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic hymnals over the decades, literally hundreds of hymns. Like the blues or country, the struggle is to be extremely brief and simple within a well established form.
What am I going to do about it?
Kick into high gear with garden/landscape planning and implementation. We moved into our newly constructed home in April 2023. Blank slate back yard. In October, we had a landscaping contractor install a decomposed granite surface, gravel pad for a shed, two landscape beds (one on each side of the porch), and my partner constructed seven 12'x4' raised beds.
Also have to start job hunting, as I quit my prior job when my 87 year old father broke his hip and demanded much of my attention. Things have settled into a new normal. God, I hate job hunting - I seriously hope this is my last one at age 62.
getting married
Thank you Thomas. Looking forward to downloading some when you release them.
It's not a typo, if you believe it.
Here is my once in a blue moon detailed response to Crack MC. He wrote:
They won't even acknowledge they're on the side that already lied to me - and is now celebrating killing kids while emphasizing how much they don't care...
I don't understand who Crack says lied to him, but I can emphatically deny that I or anyone I agree with on this blog has celebrated "killing kids" ever. I said I don't care because it is 100% up to Hamas if the Palestinian kids die or not. Hamas could quit hiding behind schools, but they won't. Hamas could stop building their HQ under "refugee camps" but they won't. Hamas could surrender but they won't. Hamas started a war that unfortunately means some kids will die as collateral damage. That hurts my heart, but it's not my war. I am more sickened by Hamas purposely targeting women and children while I see the IDF taking every prudent precaution to minimize death to non-combatants. "War is hell" is a famous saying because it is true. I'm glad I don't have to be part of it.
...so I have every reason not to trust the bloodthirsty, immoral likes of them. Just like American racists of old, Zionists just don't get how repulsive they are.
Right back at you. Jew haters who deny Israel's existence, which predates modern Palestine, often voice repulsive thoughts. That is generally isolated to you and rcocean on this blog. But we understand what you are saying. We don't know why you reject archeology and history. But I don't believe anyone here, you included, is really bloodthirsty like you say. Callous? Maybe. But I tried an experiment yesterday asking for sympathy for the 300,000 dead Syrian civilians killed by their government and Russian mercenaries. All you did was attack me. I still do not see why 20,000 civilians in Gaza are important in the Grand Scheme of Things but 300,000 in Syria are not. Any way you slice it, Israel has killed far fewer Arabs and Semitic tribes than Arabs and Persians have. Why is it only deaths that can be attributed to Israel that triggers you, Crack? Many have asked and none of us ever get an answer.
[END PART 1 continued below]
[begin PART 2]
I won't dignify the racist liars, who continue to act like disagreeing means I'm too dumb to understand the Middle East, by mentioning their names.
Don't put me in the group who say you are too dumb. I am comfortable in my knowledge and opinions and in the life I've led which is demonstrably not racist. I explicitly do not believe that you don't "understand the Middle East." Your understanding of it is vastly different than mine and conventional wisdom both (which are not the same obviously). But there are two important points at play in your last statement excerpted by me.
1. You use disagreement as a personal slight against you. Maybe that's fair because certainly some here are quick to call you names. I try to stick to analysis, like saying "you sound fascist" when you say some things. But really, you are quick to scoff at disagreement and then label others as shorthand, rather than engage in defending your POV. As I've said in other contexts, I rarely "click for more" whether it's Althouse's link, or someone else including you. I'm just link-phobic like that. So if you are relying on us to do homework by reading your blog, clearly that approach ain't working.
2. When it comes to your unique POV, I've noticed a pattern that repeats. You accuse us of rejecting the "reality" of an ongoing "genocide" or whatever (that is an example that has been sued more than once). Someone here takes issue and says "what about fact X or Y?" To which you start quoting other thinkers, writers or pundits, as if to cite their authority for what you have said is "true." Often they are only tangentially related. Some of us, certainly I have, will provide what we believe to be solid facts, especially historical realities or scientific discoveries (like the archeology I mentioned earlier) the support our position that the Jews have as much claim to that land as anyone else. Maybe you have reasons for rejecting it, maybe not. But many on here, me included, would be willing to engage with you if you would acknowledge there are things we both agree on and disagree on. I believe there's a lot more behind your point of view that could be better elucidated by you, rather than by you coming back with "Tucker Carlson agrees with me."
As stated in my opening line, this is my once in a blue moon detailed engagement with you on the facts and the process of argument. I believe 100% that you could tell us more about why you think the way you do. I've started reading you again because you said some interesting things instead of just saying "y'all racist" in drive-by comment. I don't think I'm the only one who believes a more structured argument from you would be persuasive. Hell, we can all do better. Look how fucking long this is!
Happy New Year. Peace. I don't want anyone to spread more hate in this world. That's why I taught my children and grandchildren to love everyone like a brother and showed them how its done. I try to do my part. No matter what anyone else does I will try. Peace All!
Stick to my morning walk regimen and make each year of married life - 48 years at the end of this month - better than the one before for my wife… the mother of our children and my best friend.
I stopped making resolutions 25 or more years ago. But this year I made about eight. And I made some effort on two or three of them already. 364 glorious days to go-go.
--- As stated in my opening line, this is my once in a blue moon detailed engagement with you on the facts
I can't believe you did this. Hey Mr. Naivete! Stop feeding the ___________
--troll
--attention whore
--crackpot
--time-wasting bore
IMO, Shouting Thomas already covered this subject with perfect accuracy some time not too far back.
Kai Akker:
365 glorious days to go - it's a leap year.
@mjb wolf— my hat’s off to you. I just don’t have your patience.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
I'm not going to take anybody seriously who says "Hamas could quit hiding behind schools, but they won't" when they know Hamas is fighting A) a nuclear power B) the world's tenth largest arms seller C) a premier manufacturer of the world's spywear D) the most powerful group in the region E) an ally of the U.S., and F) Israel has trapped them in a small space, and G) Hamas has no army and nowhere to go but amongst the people they're defending.
Yeah - leave all that out and they look like cowards and heartless bastards. Add all that in, and YOU look like dishonest Nazi liars who think unfairness is your birthright.
Caroline said...
"@mjb wolf— my hat’s off to you. I just don’t have your patience."
Or the facts, either. Literally every country in the world is voting against us now, but y'all keep that fire burning.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
"I don't understand who Crack says lied to him"
You wrote this, even though I included a link. How silly are you? I was considering addressing you but, seriously, you're too dishonest to be believed.
Of course.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
"Of course."
"Of course." what? Do you understand who I was referring to now - did you check the link? - or are you still playing dumb, and trying to pretend I'm the one being dishonest and evasive, instead of yourself?
Did you figure out why Hamas hides yet? Why they don't stand out to be slaughtered? Do you get that fighting a rabid nuclear powered weapons manufacturer - with US backing - makes them some of the bravest people on the planet? Then why do you talk about them like they're cowards? Why can't you admit Zionists are cowards, using a shotgun to kill a bumble bee? Really - why do you lie?
The lies are not only what destroys the narrative but really makes people dislike Zionists. They're simply NOT good people.
@ MJB
Well, that worked out better than expected.
Now, follow the links and watch several hours of youtube vids, and you will become a believer.
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