Tag Archives: Happy New Year

January 15, 2023

2023: Now What?

It’s hard to express how weird the year number 2023 seems. (I can go on about it a little because it’s Janus-uary, but I’ll try to not mention it again.) Honestly, I never expected to live this long. My lifestyle was never oriented towards longevity. I sought the brief exciting flight of the firework over the slowly dying coal ember.

Yet here I am, with 70 on the middle horizon, already outliving some of my peers, struggling to stay sane in a world that seems to have lost its way, and generally wondering WTF now.

I guess it’s like being permanently in recovery. One day at a time. Deal with today, let tomorrow come in its own time. And so, onto, into, and unto 2023.

13 Comments | tags: blog, blogging, Happy New Year, January, Janus | posted in Life

January 14, 2023

2022: I Hardly Knew Ya

By Wyrd Smythe

Well, it sure went by quickly! Time really does speed up as you age. I used to think it was due to the relative length of hours to your lifespan, but I’m forced to accept how much of it comes from the mind literally slowing down. Not a great feeling for someone who long placed much of their self-worth in their intellectual abilities.

But, looking back, that the year passed by so quickly and for the most part unremarkably, is what seems to stand out most to me. It was a year… that was.

It didn’t have much that struck me as notable, but I do have some charts…

7 Comments | tags: blog, blogger, blogging, Happy New Year, January, Janus | posted in Life

December 29, 2022

2022: It’s a Wrap

By Wyrd Smythe

This is my last post of 2022. I’ll be picking up my little pal, Bentley, tomorrow and dog-sitting over the New Year’s weekend and maybe a little into the week. So, my annual look back and look forward posts will be a little late.

In the meantime, remember New Year’s Eve is amateur night, so best to stay at home and off the roads. Have a safe and happy New Year’s! Go forth and spread beauty and light!

8 Comments | tags: Bentley, Happy New Year | posted in Life

January 6, 2022

Blog Stats 2021

By Wyrd Smythe

I hope everyone has been having a wonderful Chillaxmas. Yesterday was the last of the Twelve Days, so now it’s time to wash the dishes, take down the lights, and toss out the tree (or disassemble it, box it, and return it to the attic or basement, whichever applies).

Now it’s time to put on our two-way Janus hats to look backwards at Old Man 2021 as well as forwards at Infant 2022.

It’s also time to indulge (if not wallow) in my lust for data and charts.

39 Comments | tags: 2021, 2022, blog, blogger, blogging, Happy New Year, Janus | posted in Life

January 5, 2021

What About 2021?

By Wyrd Smythe

It’s a New Year, so it’s time for that Janus backward and forward State of the Blog Post. (I did plenty looking back in the previous post, so today I’m looking mostly in the other direction.)

As I’ve mentioned, I framed 2020 as a year for changes. Many of them got sidelined (or outright derailed) but the year did result in some decisions that matter here. I find I’ve gone beyond my rope when it comes to what I’m going to begin always referring to as “fantasy bullshit” (FBS).

That’s not to say fantasy bullshit is all bad (some is fun; some might even be necessary), but I am going to start calling it what it is.

18 Comments | tags: 2021, blog, blogger, blogging, Happy New Year, Janus, realism | posted in Life, Opinion, Rant

December 31, 2014

A half-life in three acts

By Wyrd Smythe

new years eve The end of the calendar year: a time for a rambling look back at what was and wiping the blackboard clean for the scribbles of a new year. It’s been thirty years (and some change) since I moved from Los Angeles to Minnesota. That was roughly half my life ago.

I realize the former is a city while the latter is an entire state, but L.A. is so much a place unto itself (call it a state of mind) that I really do think of the move that way. It took years to shed my West Coast cloak — that Los Angeles state of mind — but now I’m a full-on Minnesotan.

Looking back, those three decades form three distinct acts.

17 Comments | tags: 2014, blog, blogger, blogging, Champagne, Happy New Year, Minnesota, New Year's Eve, Samantha, three, trilogy | posted in Life