Category Archives: Life
I think we all agree 2020 has been, as the curse puts it, an “interesting” year. Going into it, I had intentions about making changes. Most fell by the wayside due to COVID-19; I still haven’t taken the bus to watch the St. Paul Saints play. Or the bus-light rail combo to Target Field.
As a life long hard-core introvert, “social isolation” mostly meant I shopped for groceries less often but stocked up more when I did. The pain was fewer occasions of meeting a friend for tasty food, drink, and chat. I’m really looking forward to dining out again.
All-in-all, the last four years, this year… It’s been exhausting.
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21 Comments | tags: 2020, BOOL, library, mystery books, quantum computing, quantum mechanics, science fiction books, Twins 2020 | posted in Life
Versions of this post lived in my Drafts folder a long time. Writing about one’s childhood crushes is multiply fraught. The topic of sexual attraction is challenging, especially these days as we try to evolve our attitudes about it. Getting personal skates the line between recording my scrawl and TMI. The risk of objectification is also a problem.
But those childhood crushes were formative and abiding in my youth. They began at an early age, a long bridge to when I started dating (real beats imaginary every time). Honesty to my past seems to demand I include some mention of them in any account of my life.
So this is to toast those early loves (real and imagined).
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19 Comments | tags: Angie Harmon, Bewitched, Doctor Crusher, Judy Robinson, Kate Jackson, Lost in Space, love, Margaret Houlihan, Samantha Stephens, Supergirl, The Man Who Loved Women, women | posted in Life
A while back I wrote about a Canadian fly-in fishing trip my buddy and I took back in 1996. The lake we went to was an old friend by then — it was a trip we took nearly every year for over twenty years (starting in 1985 or so). We’d bring people with if they were interested, but many years it was just the two of us.
This is the tale of a very different trip from the 1990s, although I don’t recall the exact year. I was in that work group in The Company (TC) from 1992 to 1997, so it could be any of the later years in that range. We supported the CAD/CAM system used by company engineers for facilities and manufacturing design.
The trip was to an annual CAD/CAM user convention in Boston.
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7 Comments | tags: Boston, city of Boston, travel | posted in Life
A Very Merry Christmas (or Seasonal Equivalent) to One and All! My wish for everyone is a peaceful and joyful day of good food, good friends, good relaxation, or whatever you wish this season. Ideally you aren’t traveling today, but if you are I hope your journey is swift, easy, and safe.
My wish to see the “Christmas Star” came true, and I also got a white Christmas (in the nick of time). There was also a wish about an election that came true.
The year is ending nicely, I think, worthy of some celebration.
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13 Comments | tags: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Chillaxmas, Christmas, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, craft beer | posted in Life, Movies
It has been doubly depressingly cloudy for a while now. “Doubly” because I like sunshine and because I’ve been wanting to see the Great Conjunction.
Tuesday evening it was finally clear enough that I could. (I missed the date of closest approach, Monday (12/21), by only one day, so I was very happy.)
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12 Comments | tags: astronomy, conjunction, Great Conjunction, Jupiter, Redshift app, Saturn | posted in Life
As I write this, it’s been almost eight hours since the Winter Solstice passed. (It was at 10:03 UTC.) Here we are, the first official day of winter, and it’s not looking good for a White Christmas:
Not only no snow, but it friggin’ rained this morning!
Not good at all. Unless you hate winter and shoveling!
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15 Comments | tags: hail stone, Winter Solstice | posted in Life
It has been quite a year, but very many of us are very thankful about our Presidential election. We’re grateful for a return to sanity, decency, and our espoused American values and political traditions. (As much as possible under the circumstances, anyway.)
Sadly, we’re far from the idealized image of Norman Rockwell’s Freedom from Want. (And weren’t we always, really?) We’ve long upheld those ideal values as our goals, the change we’re trying to be, but we’ve been tested and been found wanting these last years. Maybe 2020 can be a turning point — we skated awfully close to the Abyss this time.
Meanwhile, in local weather news…
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5 Comments | tags: snow, snow storm, Thanksgiving | posted in Life, Society
There is real joy and happiness in the world.
Ten Years
Whatever else is going on, however dark it seems, this is something to smile about. Something to be truly thankful for.
Stay safe, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.
∇
4 Comments | tags: Randall Munroe, xkcd | posted in Life
It’s official: Based on available data, the resolution to the Fermi Paradox is simply that intelligent life does not exist in the universe at this time.
Life that thinks it’s intelligent does, though. But based on our observations, it has a long way to go. The universe can relax; Earthlings aren’t likely to be a problem to anyone but themselves.
13 Comments | tags: election 2020, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Never Trump | posted in Life, Politics
I wanted to call this post “Instant Winter” but used that title eight years ago. Pity given that, as of yesterday morning we had no snow, and by 5 pm it looked like the picture above.
It would have been a good title.
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11 Comments | tags: shoveling snow, snow, snow storm, winter, winter storm | posted in Books, Life
Logos con carne 