I'm still not sure what was more improbable, that a black man would become president, or that the Arizona Cardinals would be playing in the Super Bowl. I'll leave that question open to ponder at some other time, what is on my mind this morning, as I'm sure it is on the minds of most people right now, concerns the new era that we have entered.
Right now feels like the start of a grand road trip, all of the excitement of getting the car finally loaded up, making sure everyone has made their for the road bathroom visit, and that the cooler is stocked with goodies and is easily accessible, then backing out of the driveway and off we go. Right now we are about at the one mile mark on a trip that will see us log hundreds of miles, we are full of anticipation and hope, in my case hope that I can make it to the first rest stop before I really have to use the facilities. Drinking lots of coffee and being middle-aged have that effect on a guy.
We know that there will be plenty of ups and downs on the trip, long boring stretches of unchanging road and vistas that become a stagnant background screen with no end in sight. There will be stretches where the only thing you can get on the radio is country music and Mexican stations, and where after cycling through the dial on the seek button just one last time in the vain hope that something will magically turn up that wasn't there twenty seconds ago the last time you cycled through, you make the decision to turn the damn thing off and enjoy the silence. Until one of the kids has to go to the bathroom, which gets me because I hate to make stops, that is unless I'm the one that needs to do the stopping.
But then you get back on the road again and are presented with the challenge of passing all those cars you just passed before the last stop, the scenery starts to change, you see the first mileage sign that actually gives you hope rather than an overwhelming sense of how far left you have to go. Radio reception starts to improve, to the point where now at least you can get in a conservative talk radio show or two. I never realized until taking road trips how many immigrants come here to have babies and suck up all of our welfare, or that liberals really want to invite terrorists into their homes and plan for the socialistic subversion of all that we hold dear as red-blooded, tax paying, white Americans. Interesting what you can hear on those country music stations.
Then the vast and unchanging desert begins to give way to the beauty and endless possibilities of the mountains, the air starts to cool, the road signs actually start to inspire, and you know that your long journey is coming to an end, the destination is in sight. You reflect back over the trip and after logging hundreds of miles, think about how excited you were when you hit the first mile, then the tenth, and so on, and how long ago that now seems.
One day, hopefully in 8 years, we will be looking back at an era, the Obama era, that brought us closer to the ideals of our nation as embodied by the wise and mostly noble men who founded our republic. Hopefully we will be looking back on an era that helped to restore our faith in the ability of government to act wisely and in good faith, a government that helps those in need without hindering our individual liberties. Hopefully we will have set the bar for our leadership, at all levels of government, much higher than they have been. No longer will we consider C students who admittedly aren't big readers or hypocritical demagogues who play to our worst instincts, but we will demand our leadership to be intelligent, educated and enlightened, honorable, contemplative and considering. We will demand leaders that appeal to, in the words of one of our great leaders, the better angels of our nature.
Such is my hope for the Obama era, and while I realize that these expectations are high and that failure to reach them is certainly a possibility, I am, we all are, just starting out on this long strange trip, and there is certainly nothing wrong with some good old-fashioned American optimism that this will be a special time, and an era that we can all look back on one day with pride and joy, and have the same smiles on our faces that many of us have right now. Let the journey begin.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
The Colt 45
I lost a good friend this week, a person who I was fortunate enough to get to know over the last two decades, to spend quality time with, to learn from, to be influenced by and I think maybe even to have a small influence on. Albert "Bud" Hale was 87 years old and passed away in the same small town where he was born, raised, and spent his entire adult life, Manchester, Iowa. He will be sorely missed and dearly remembered by the big family that he left behind, by his friends, which although many preceded him in passing, were numerous and legendary, and certainly by his son-in-law.
Bud was one of the coolest, toughest, and sweetest men I have ever known. This may sound like an odd combination, but it was the essence of who he was. He was as cool as they come, never seeming to get rattled, always playing his cards right, a gambler who in his earlier days was a pool shark, and certainly a card sharp who taught me the finer points of both gin and 500. He never got flustered, not even the time that I was up in the attic and stepped through the dry wall, leaving a big gaping hole in the roof over the garage. While I proceeded to throw down my cap in disgust and go for one of my walks to cool down, Bud simply got to work doing what needed to be done to fix the hole.
I call him Bud, but those of us who knew him know him as the Colt-45, which was both his nickname and your nickname when you were with him, the more he drank the more often he called you Colt. He was cool enough to have two nicknames, Bud and Colt.
The Colt 45 was tough as nails. He grew up in the Depression, served his country as a tank driver in the War, and worked most of his life for the railroad building bridges, doing the work that no one else wanted or could perform. He never called in sick, which is symbolic of how he lived his life. You could always rely on The Colt to be there for you in whatever way you needed him. He never backed down from a fight or a challenge, and when there was work to be done, he was the first one to show up and the last one to leave.
Bud was one of the sweetest men I've known, beneath his tough exterior and outward coolness, he had the heart of a lion. He loved his family immensely, and was always a loyal and faithful husband and father. He was a wonderful grandpa who was adored by all his grand kids, especially by mine, even if he did bribe Jake with his little snickers bars or Chloe with his box of chocolates. "Take two, they're small" he would always say, and that gets to the heart of his generosity. And I gave up long ago trying to get him not to give table scraps to the dogs at dinner, because The Colt didn't know how to not be generous.
The last time that Bud and Dorothy, my beloved in-laws, were out for one of their winter visits, where they would stay with us for a few months in order to get away from the brutally cold Iowa winters, I had a pretty strong sense that this might be their last trip out. It was getting tougher for them to make the long trek, and Bud's health was starting to fail him. I didn't know if I would be able to get back to Iowa anytime soon, so when I gave him a hug goodbye before he left on his journey, I held on just a little bit tighter and longer and squeezed just a little bit harder. I just wanted to take in every ounce of this wonderful man that I could, and I'm glad I did because I'll never forget that moment, just as I'll never forget him.
I'm going to finish this now because the tears are starting to come down, and I'm not going to try and stop them. I love you Bud, and I know that you're in a better place right now, I'd like to think that you're up in heaven's version of the Eagles Club, having a drink with my Pappap, and looking down on all of us who love you so much and will always miss you. You will always be in our hearts and in our souls, a big part of you will continue in us and a hundred years from now my grand kids grand kids will still be reciting your many sayings. My favorite of all of them is the one you used to say on a regular basis. Every day's a holiday Colt, and everyday I got to spend with you was a day to celebrate.
Bud was one of the coolest, toughest, and sweetest men I have ever known. This may sound like an odd combination, but it was the essence of who he was. He was as cool as they come, never seeming to get rattled, always playing his cards right, a gambler who in his earlier days was a pool shark, and certainly a card sharp who taught me the finer points of both gin and 500. He never got flustered, not even the time that I was up in the attic and stepped through the dry wall, leaving a big gaping hole in the roof over the garage. While I proceeded to throw down my cap in disgust and go for one of my walks to cool down, Bud simply got to work doing what needed to be done to fix the hole.
I call him Bud, but those of us who knew him know him as the Colt-45, which was both his nickname and your nickname when you were with him, the more he drank the more often he called you Colt. He was cool enough to have two nicknames, Bud and Colt.
The Colt 45 was tough as nails. He grew up in the Depression, served his country as a tank driver in the War, and worked most of his life for the railroad building bridges, doing the work that no one else wanted or could perform. He never called in sick, which is symbolic of how he lived his life. You could always rely on The Colt to be there for you in whatever way you needed him. He never backed down from a fight or a challenge, and when there was work to be done, he was the first one to show up and the last one to leave.
Bud was one of the sweetest men I've known, beneath his tough exterior and outward coolness, he had the heart of a lion. He loved his family immensely, and was always a loyal and faithful husband and father. He was a wonderful grandpa who was adored by all his grand kids, especially by mine, even if he did bribe Jake with his little snickers bars or Chloe with his box of chocolates. "Take two, they're small" he would always say, and that gets to the heart of his generosity. And I gave up long ago trying to get him not to give table scraps to the dogs at dinner, because The Colt didn't know how to not be generous.
The last time that Bud and Dorothy, my beloved in-laws, were out for one of their winter visits, where they would stay with us for a few months in order to get away from the brutally cold Iowa winters, I had a pretty strong sense that this might be their last trip out. It was getting tougher for them to make the long trek, and Bud's health was starting to fail him. I didn't know if I would be able to get back to Iowa anytime soon, so when I gave him a hug goodbye before he left on his journey, I held on just a little bit tighter and longer and squeezed just a little bit harder. I just wanted to take in every ounce of this wonderful man that I could, and I'm glad I did because I'll never forget that moment, just as I'll never forget him.
I'm going to finish this now because the tears are starting to come down, and I'm not going to try and stop them. I love you Bud, and I know that you're in a better place right now, I'd like to think that you're up in heaven's version of the Eagles Club, having a drink with my Pappap, and looking down on all of us who love you so much and will always miss you. You will always be in our hearts and in our souls, a big part of you will continue in us and a hundred years from now my grand kids grand kids will still be reciting your many sayings. My favorite of all of them is the one you used to say on a regular basis. Every day's a holiday Colt, and everyday I got to spend with you was a day to celebrate.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The Rant-The 111th, $1 Trillion, and #1
Like the new Congress, the 111th version since the enactment of our constitution in 1789, The Rant is also back in session. And there are a few things on my mind that have been bubbling up over the last week or so that have had to take a backseat to more mundane tasks, like going back to work, finishing up on grades from the first semester, figuing out what the heck I'm going to feed my students who generally hunger for relevant knowledge which keeps me engaged for eight hours a day from Monday through Friday.
Here come the Democrats! The new Congress was sworn in earlier in the week, with a few noted exceptions, and promises to deliver for the American people. Whether they will deliver sensible solutions to serious issues, or simply a series of partisan spending programs and packages that only serve to get us further into the debt hole without addressing the real economic problems we face is an open question.
The Democratic controlled Congress is now officially off the hook on Iraq, having failed miserably to deliver on its implicit 2006 promise to bring that unnecessary, costly, and distracting war to a reasonable conclusion. That job now lies with Mr. Obama and his administration, who have promised us an immediate and orderly withdrawl so that our military can focus on the more important issue of fighting against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It would be nice to see the troops return home to the safety and comfort of their families, but I am coming to believe that what is at stake in Central Asia is a fight worth waging, and I am certainly of the mindset that those who are partaking in that fight need much more help than they are currently receiving in terms of troop support, equipment, and the backing of the American public, which seems to have largely forgotten about the whole mission there and those who are galliantly waging it under extremely difficult circumstances. To use the common expression heard on the campaign trail, it's time to get our eyes back on the ball, not to mention our hearts and minds.
Back to the economic recovery and stimulus proposals, on which I will have more to say in a future column. I have been reading a great deal on this matter for the last number of weeks, I have considered proposals and arguements on all sides of the matter, from liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. I have come to no great conclusions, other than that it is a very difficult issue with no easy solutions, and anyone who tells us they have the certain answer if we only follow their prescriptions should be looked at with a healthy sense of skepticism.
I don't know if we should be focusing on tax cuts, building traditional infrastructure, contemporary infrastructure in the form of building a new alternative energy system, giving aid to states in the form of grants or loans, cutting payroll taxes or cutting checks directly, nor have I been able to figure out whether or not FDR's New Deal really did much good or not. What I do know is that, comparisons to the Great Depression notwithstanding, we are not living in the 1930's, we do not have the same economy or skill sets as we did then, and the notion of solving our problems in the same manner as we tackled them 75 years ago doesn't seem to make too much sense. Besides, do we really want a bunch of former hedge fund managers building our roads and bridges?
The scary thing about the proposals being bandied about is that with each passing day the price tag gets larger, but the prospects of anything actually working doesn't seem to be improving. We are most likely looking at an extra trillion dollars, which is on top of the already projected $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009, which is in addition to the remaining $350 billion yet to be disbursed from last fall's bailout program, and still doesn't include the off the books spending on the Iraq War that has yet to be accounted for. More and more, our whole system of government financing is looking like a house of cards, or the mother of all bubbles, whichever you prefer. Either way, neither tends to end well. Obviously I hope that my fears prove to be unfounded and that somehow we can manage all of this, but I'm not terribly optimistic at this point.
I've saved the most frustrating but easiest fix for last, that being the claim to being #1 in college football. I feel like a sucker yet again, for having spent an entire fall watching games on Saturday afternoons and evenings, getting into all the hype and hoopla surrounding the national title chase, only to be let down by another bogus finish to an otherwise interesting season.
Put simply, the BCS system is a complete fraud, and the whole notion that you can somehow rank teams who for the most part don't play teams from outside of their own conferences is grounded in illogic. There is no way to determine whether a one loss team from the Big 12 is any better than a one loss team from the Pac-10, or the SEC, or the Big 10, or for that matter how they stack up against an unbeaten team from the Mountain West Conference. Except for one, and that being an 8 team playoff to conclude the regular season, the same way that all other sports with crediblity do.
The solution is so simple that even college presidents, in theory of course, should be able to figure it out. Take the winners of the six largest conferences, the so-called BCS conferences, include two wild card teams and duke it out on the field. College football fans would be happy, the TV ratings would incredible, the schools would all make more money off of the deal, and most importantly, my poor wife and mom would no longer have to listen to me bitch and moan about the whole issue. Just do it college football, for the good of us all.
Well, that's enough to get the rant going again, hope it's as good for you as it was for me to get a few things off my chest. Until it's time to burst the next bubble, this is your always opinionated and sometimes right correspondent signing off.
Here come the Democrats! The new Congress was sworn in earlier in the week, with a few noted exceptions, and promises to deliver for the American people. Whether they will deliver sensible solutions to serious issues, or simply a series of partisan spending programs and packages that only serve to get us further into the debt hole without addressing the real economic problems we face is an open question.
The Democratic controlled Congress is now officially off the hook on Iraq, having failed miserably to deliver on its implicit 2006 promise to bring that unnecessary, costly, and distracting war to a reasonable conclusion. That job now lies with Mr. Obama and his administration, who have promised us an immediate and orderly withdrawl so that our military can focus on the more important issue of fighting against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It would be nice to see the troops return home to the safety and comfort of their families, but I am coming to believe that what is at stake in Central Asia is a fight worth waging, and I am certainly of the mindset that those who are partaking in that fight need much more help than they are currently receiving in terms of troop support, equipment, and the backing of the American public, which seems to have largely forgotten about the whole mission there and those who are galliantly waging it under extremely difficult circumstances. To use the common expression heard on the campaign trail, it's time to get our eyes back on the ball, not to mention our hearts and minds.
Back to the economic recovery and stimulus proposals, on which I will have more to say in a future column. I have been reading a great deal on this matter for the last number of weeks, I have considered proposals and arguements on all sides of the matter, from liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. I have come to no great conclusions, other than that it is a very difficult issue with no easy solutions, and anyone who tells us they have the certain answer if we only follow their prescriptions should be looked at with a healthy sense of skepticism.
I don't know if we should be focusing on tax cuts, building traditional infrastructure, contemporary infrastructure in the form of building a new alternative energy system, giving aid to states in the form of grants or loans, cutting payroll taxes or cutting checks directly, nor have I been able to figure out whether or not FDR's New Deal really did much good or not. What I do know is that, comparisons to the Great Depression notwithstanding, we are not living in the 1930's, we do not have the same economy or skill sets as we did then, and the notion of solving our problems in the same manner as we tackled them 75 years ago doesn't seem to make too much sense. Besides, do we really want a bunch of former hedge fund managers building our roads and bridges?
The scary thing about the proposals being bandied about is that with each passing day the price tag gets larger, but the prospects of anything actually working doesn't seem to be improving. We are most likely looking at an extra trillion dollars, which is on top of the already projected $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009, which is in addition to the remaining $350 billion yet to be disbursed from last fall's bailout program, and still doesn't include the off the books spending on the Iraq War that has yet to be accounted for. More and more, our whole system of government financing is looking like a house of cards, or the mother of all bubbles, whichever you prefer. Either way, neither tends to end well. Obviously I hope that my fears prove to be unfounded and that somehow we can manage all of this, but I'm not terribly optimistic at this point.
I've saved the most frustrating but easiest fix for last, that being the claim to being #1 in college football. I feel like a sucker yet again, for having spent an entire fall watching games on Saturday afternoons and evenings, getting into all the hype and hoopla surrounding the national title chase, only to be let down by another bogus finish to an otherwise interesting season.
Put simply, the BCS system is a complete fraud, and the whole notion that you can somehow rank teams who for the most part don't play teams from outside of their own conferences is grounded in illogic. There is no way to determine whether a one loss team from the Big 12 is any better than a one loss team from the Pac-10, or the SEC, or the Big 10, or for that matter how they stack up against an unbeaten team from the Mountain West Conference. Except for one, and that being an 8 team playoff to conclude the regular season, the same way that all other sports with crediblity do.
The solution is so simple that even college presidents, in theory of course, should be able to figure it out. Take the winners of the six largest conferences, the so-called BCS conferences, include two wild card teams and duke it out on the field. College football fans would be happy, the TV ratings would incredible, the schools would all make more money off of the deal, and most importantly, my poor wife and mom would no longer have to listen to me bitch and moan about the whole issue. Just do it college football, for the good of us all.
Well, that's enough to get the rant going again, hope it's as good for you as it was for me to get a few things off my chest. Until it's time to burst the next bubble, this is your always opinionated and sometimes right correspondent signing off.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Build a Better Mousetrap
The old saying goes that if you want to catch more mice, you need to build a better mousetrap. I'm not sure how that really works because as I learned during my two years living in Iowa, mousetraps are pretty simple devices and work quite well. But certainly the idea holds that if you want to do something like sell your products and services to more customers, you need to create and put out a better product.
The auto industry is certainly learning this lesson, bailouts notwithstanding, if they want to sell more cars to the increasingly strapped and frugal American public, they need to start building better cars that meet our needs. If restaurants and retailers want to continue to sell to us, they also need to produce a better product and let it go at a more reasonable price. We may be able to justify $50 for a mediocre meal at Friday's, Chili's, or some other such generic American food restaurant during good times, but in a recession that dog won't hunt.
Price is a big point, and sometimes even a quality product won't sell if the price isn't right. This is evidenced by something almost unheard of in the sports world, NFL playoff games not selling out. In Arizona, where there has never been a playoff game in the 21 year mostly sorry history of the Cardinals, the local stadium is still a few thousand seats short of a sell-out, which in addition to a black eye nationally for Phoenix, will mean that I don't get to watch one of the four playoff games this weekend as the game will be blacked out in the local market.
Even more surprising, and another sign of the economic times, is the fact that the Minnesota Vikings are in the same boat. Get it, Vikings in a boat. Anyways, the product is still the same great product, pro football that we as a nation love and support, but the cost of tickets, parking, and concessions is just too much for many people to handle during times when funds are tight. I expect to see many more empty ballparks starting with the coming baseball season because of the recession, and the Florida Marlins might have to resort to bringing homeless people in off the streets to put people in the stands, they should give them a free meal to boot for having to sit through a Marlins game.
The article in today's LA Times, which if the link works can be accessed from above, was about the dire straits that the movie industry finds itself in. Cutbacks are hitting Hollywood, and everything from scaled down executive parties to job cuts are hitting the industry as movie attendance was off 5% last year. The potential actors strike is also a looming threat to the film industry, as well as to the broadcast networks.
But the answer again here seems relatively simple. If you want to start drawing more people to the movies, then start making better movies. Perhaps the economic reality in the land of make believe will force the decision makers at studios to start being more selective about what they decide to produce, and as a result the movie going public will start to have more quality flicks to choose from.
I went to three movies last year, all of which I enjoyed, and while I am not the biggest movie buff out there, I do enjoy good film and I enjoy the experience of watching a picture on the big screen. I'll go to more movies if the options are better. People have different tastes in movies, mine run towards dramas with rich characters and intelligent story lines and dialogue, historical pictures, witty comedies, and chick flicks, so long as they don't have Kianu Reeves or Hugh Grant. Other people enjoy action flicks, sci-fi, comic book movies, graphic novel movies, stoner comedies, horror pics, there is something for everyone so long as they are done well.
So if Hollywood wants to get our collective butts back in the theatres, then the answer is to start producing a higher quality product. I know it can be done, because of the three movies I saw, the first two were solid, Sex and the City and Mama Mia, but the third was a classic and everything that great film can be. Dark Night was one of the best movies I've seen in awhile, and I'm not even inclined toward action flicks or comic strips, but this was brilliantly acted, especially by Heath Ledger as the Joker, crisply directed, and wonderfully produced. The story was interesting and the characters had depth to them. I don't see any reason why Hollywood can't produce more movies on this level, and if they can manage this along with a drop in the ever increasing cost of a movie ticket, they will see more of us coming back to the theaters on a more regular basis.
The auto industry is certainly learning this lesson, bailouts notwithstanding, if they want to sell more cars to the increasingly strapped and frugal American public, they need to start building better cars that meet our needs. If restaurants and retailers want to continue to sell to us, they also need to produce a better product and let it go at a more reasonable price. We may be able to justify $50 for a mediocre meal at Friday's, Chili's, or some other such generic American food restaurant during good times, but in a recession that dog won't hunt.
Price is a big point, and sometimes even a quality product won't sell if the price isn't right. This is evidenced by something almost unheard of in the sports world, NFL playoff games not selling out. In Arizona, where there has never been a playoff game in the 21 year mostly sorry history of the Cardinals, the local stadium is still a few thousand seats short of a sell-out, which in addition to a black eye nationally for Phoenix, will mean that I don't get to watch one of the four playoff games this weekend as the game will be blacked out in the local market.
Even more surprising, and another sign of the economic times, is the fact that the Minnesota Vikings are in the same boat. Get it, Vikings in a boat. Anyways, the product is still the same great product, pro football that we as a nation love and support, but the cost of tickets, parking, and concessions is just too much for many people to handle during times when funds are tight. I expect to see many more empty ballparks starting with the coming baseball season because of the recession, and the Florida Marlins might have to resort to bringing homeless people in off the streets to put people in the stands, they should give them a free meal to boot for having to sit through a Marlins game.
The article in today's LA Times, which if the link works can be accessed from above, was about the dire straits that the movie industry finds itself in. Cutbacks are hitting Hollywood, and everything from scaled down executive parties to job cuts are hitting the industry as movie attendance was off 5% last year. The potential actors strike is also a looming threat to the film industry, as well as to the broadcast networks.
But the answer again here seems relatively simple. If you want to start drawing more people to the movies, then start making better movies. Perhaps the economic reality in the land of make believe will force the decision makers at studios to start being more selective about what they decide to produce, and as a result the movie going public will start to have more quality flicks to choose from.
I went to three movies last year, all of which I enjoyed, and while I am not the biggest movie buff out there, I do enjoy good film and I enjoy the experience of watching a picture on the big screen. I'll go to more movies if the options are better. People have different tastes in movies, mine run towards dramas with rich characters and intelligent story lines and dialogue, historical pictures, witty comedies, and chick flicks, so long as they don't have Kianu Reeves or Hugh Grant. Other people enjoy action flicks, sci-fi, comic book movies, graphic novel movies, stoner comedies, horror pics, there is something for everyone so long as they are done well.
So if Hollywood wants to get our collective butts back in the theatres, then the answer is to start producing a higher quality product. I know it can be done, because of the three movies I saw, the first two were solid, Sex and the City and Mama Mia, but the third was a classic and everything that great film can be. Dark Night was one of the best movies I've seen in awhile, and I'm not even inclined toward action flicks or comic strips, but this was brilliantly acted, especially by Heath Ledger as the Joker, crisply directed, and wonderfully produced. The story was interesting and the characters had depth to them. I don't see any reason why Hollywood can't produce more movies on this level, and if they can manage this along with a drop in the ever increasing cost of a movie ticket, they will see more of us coming back to the theaters on a more regular basis.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Same As It Ever Was
I took down the old marked up 2008 calendar this morning and put up the fresh clean new 2009 calendar. There are many ways in which we mark the passage of time, birthdays, anniversaries, school years, Super Bowls, but the most common is the beginning of a new year on the calendar.
Of course the calendar is an artificial creation, other cultures have their own version, the Chinese mark the passage of time by lunar cycles, they are currently in the 12th moon of the 13 moon cycle, and then we will see references to Chinese New Year, namely at Panda Express where there are likely to be some new dishes added to the buffet table. Apparently the Mayans have their own calendar that says the world will come to an end in 2012, 12-12 to be exact, and there are those in the conspiracy loving, tin foil hat wearing crowd that actually put credence into this notion. But then again, there is an entire religion based on something that was handed down on golden plates by space aliens, or something to that effect, I get murky when it comes to the different creation myths out there. Give me 900 year-old dudes putting a bunch of animals on an ark any day over that other nonsense.
We have the Julian calendar, with the months of July and August added in honor of Julius and Augustus Caesar, the first two Roman emperors, and then in the 17th century a pope named Gregory decided to give us a better version and gave us the Gregorian calendar, which is what we generally agree upon today, at least in the West and most of the civilized world.
But today being New Year’s Day is really just another day on the calendar, any one you choose to adhere to. It’s fun to write and say 2009 for the first few times, and the Rose Bowl is on this afternoon which gives the day special meaning. But nothing really changes with a new year on the calendar, unless you’re the type to make and break New Year’s resolutions, which I am not. The only resolution that I have ever kept is the one I made years ago never to make resolutions anymore. I like the weight that I am at, I enjoy the people in my life and the things that I do, and there’s nothing that I currently partake in that I wish to quit, so that pretty much rules out resolutions for me.
I do enjoy keeping lists however, so a new year gives me a chance to start new lists, or draw a line down the paper as a dividing point between last year and this year on my old list, which is what I’ve already done on many of my lists. I hate to throw things away, as my wife can clearly attest to.
I’m going to keep all of my Starbucks receipts in an envelope so that at the end of the year I can estimate how much coffee I’ve drunk and how much money I’ve spent on it. And I can tell you right now that whatever money is spent will be well worth it, but I’m just curious as to how many cups of good java I drink in a year. I once figured that over the six years that I spent at my old teaching job in South Phoenix that I ate over 1000 tuna sandwiches at my favorite sandwich shop, Port of Subs. I figure at an average of three cups a day for 365 days I should hit the 1000 cup mark easily in 2009, which at 20 ounces per cup would be over 20,000 ounces of good coffee, enough to fill a sizeable swimming pool. Ok, so my goals may not be incredibly lofty, but that’s an impressive number if I do say so myself.
I also will be keeping track, as I always do, of the amount of columns that I write and post on The Daily Grind this year. Last year I posted 112 columns, which I calculated meant that I wrote something on 30% of the days of the year. Hopefully this year I will increase my output some, and I also hope to start blogging on other sites and linking to the Grind.
I will write in the voice of five different, for lack of a better term, characters. The first and most common will be as The Observer, which are the columns in which I simply comment on life and whatever random stuff happens to be on my mind. The second is as The Commentator, where I rant about politics and current issues. Third will be as The Economist, where I will discuss and offer opinions on, well you guessed it, the economy and financial matters. Fourth will be as The Sports Nut, where I will give my takes on the wonderful wide world of sports. Lastly, I am attempting to break out into something new this year and will occasionally post as The Storyteller, where I will write short fictional stories.
Here’s hoping for a great 2009 for all of you out there, as always, thanks for being an audience to write for, it is something that I truly enjoy and while I would still do it even if none of you were out there, knowing that you are there makes it all the more enjoyable and rewarding. I always welcome comments, and am more than happy to take suggestions or requests for topics. And lest I forget, I’m taking USC to win by 10 in a somewhat close Rose Bowl game today. Happy New Year!
Of course the calendar is an artificial creation, other cultures have their own version, the Chinese mark the passage of time by lunar cycles, they are currently in the 12th moon of the 13 moon cycle, and then we will see references to Chinese New Year, namely at Panda Express where there are likely to be some new dishes added to the buffet table. Apparently the Mayans have their own calendar that says the world will come to an end in 2012, 12-12 to be exact, and there are those in the conspiracy loving, tin foil hat wearing crowd that actually put credence into this notion. But then again, there is an entire religion based on something that was handed down on golden plates by space aliens, or something to that effect, I get murky when it comes to the different creation myths out there. Give me 900 year-old dudes putting a bunch of animals on an ark any day over that other nonsense.
We have the Julian calendar, with the months of July and August added in honor of Julius and Augustus Caesar, the first two Roman emperors, and then in the 17th century a pope named Gregory decided to give us a better version and gave us the Gregorian calendar, which is what we generally agree upon today, at least in the West and most of the civilized world.
But today being New Year’s Day is really just another day on the calendar, any one you choose to adhere to. It’s fun to write and say 2009 for the first few times, and the Rose Bowl is on this afternoon which gives the day special meaning. But nothing really changes with a new year on the calendar, unless you’re the type to make and break New Year’s resolutions, which I am not. The only resolution that I have ever kept is the one I made years ago never to make resolutions anymore. I like the weight that I am at, I enjoy the people in my life and the things that I do, and there’s nothing that I currently partake in that I wish to quit, so that pretty much rules out resolutions for me.
I do enjoy keeping lists however, so a new year gives me a chance to start new lists, or draw a line down the paper as a dividing point between last year and this year on my old list, which is what I’ve already done on many of my lists. I hate to throw things away, as my wife can clearly attest to.
I’m going to keep all of my Starbucks receipts in an envelope so that at the end of the year I can estimate how much coffee I’ve drunk and how much money I’ve spent on it. And I can tell you right now that whatever money is spent will be well worth it, but I’m just curious as to how many cups of good java I drink in a year. I once figured that over the six years that I spent at my old teaching job in South Phoenix that I ate over 1000 tuna sandwiches at my favorite sandwich shop, Port of Subs. I figure at an average of three cups a day for 365 days I should hit the 1000 cup mark easily in 2009, which at 20 ounces per cup would be over 20,000 ounces of good coffee, enough to fill a sizeable swimming pool. Ok, so my goals may not be incredibly lofty, but that’s an impressive number if I do say so myself.
I also will be keeping track, as I always do, of the amount of columns that I write and post on The Daily Grind this year. Last year I posted 112 columns, which I calculated meant that I wrote something on 30% of the days of the year. Hopefully this year I will increase my output some, and I also hope to start blogging on other sites and linking to the Grind.
I will write in the voice of five different, for lack of a better term, characters. The first and most common will be as The Observer, which are the columns in which I simply comment on life and whatever random stuff happens to be on my mind. The second is as The Commentator, where I rant about politics and current issues. Third will be as The Economist, where I will discuss and offer opinions on, well you guessed it, the economy and financial matters. Fourth will be as The Sports Nut, where I will give my takes on the wonderful wide world of sports. Lastly, I am attempting to break out into something new this year and will occasionally post as The Storyteller, where I will write short fictional stories.
Here’s hoping for a great 2009 for all of you out there, as always, thanks for being an audience to write for, it is something that I truly enjoy and while I would still do it even if none of you were out there, knowing that you are there makes it all the more enjoyable and rewarding. I always welcome comments, and am more than happy to take suggestions or requests for topics. And lest I forget, I’m taking USC to win by 10 in a somewhat close Rose Bowl game today. Happy New Year!
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