I have to admit I’m a little fascinated by the drama going on with the new session of Congress, specifically the election of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. As of this writing the fifth election is taking place to elect McCarthy in the role, and it’s not looking good. The “Freedom Caucus” is holding out and 20 Republican members of the House are casting their votes for others.
Now, ideologically I’m not aligned with these folks on the “Freedom Caucus”. But I’ve long held the belief that the U.S. Government in general needs a shake up and away from the “same old, same old” approach that’s been going on for decades and these 20 folks holding their ground are certainly shaking things up.
It’ll be interesting to see how this falls out, especially since there was no “red wave” at the midterm elections and the Republicans BARELY hold a majority in the House. On one hand, the GOP not getting their stuff together to elect a speaker is damaging to their political capital (aww, so sad). But on the other hand, more of these shake ups may be just what this country needs to start things moving forward again.
We just need to keep moving things in the proper direction.
UPDATE 14:31 MST as I finished up this entry, Mr. McCarthy lost his fifth round of voting in his efforts to become speaker.
I have enjoyed the first three seasons of “For All Mankind”. There’s been a couple of hiccups in the story in the later seasons that bothered me a bit, but the series as a whole has been quite enjoyable. I’m looking forward to the release of season four this year.
I’ve wondered about the science behind the series; how close to a future reality is it? Well, YouTube suggested a series of videos from AppleTV showing the science behind the scenes of “For All Mankind” and how close it is to reality. I’m impressed by the amount of scientific investigation they are apparently doing as they formulate the storylines of the series. While it’s fun to think of Star Trek as being scientifically accurate, we all know we’re not going to see a transporter anytime soon. However, spaceships sailing on protons or nuclear fusion? We’re headed in that direction. And that gives me some hope.
Now, I know of the efforts to colonize Mars and get back to the moon and all that stuff. It’s these efforts that will ultimately make our lives better here on Earth. When folks ask, “why do we need to go to Mars?” I always reply it’s because it’s the impetus to make things better here on Earth.
And we really need to make things better here on Earth.
So tomorrow it’s back to work and we’re off and running in a New Year. I’m hopeful this year will not be as crazy as 2022 but we live in a crazy world. It’s all about how we manage the crazy. Sometimes I worry about these things too much.
It’s a quiet start to 2023 and it’s the perfect start to 2023. Earl is watching football, I’m relaxing by messing around with computers, making sure things are “just right” for the New Year. We are going to Target in a bit to pick up some odds and ends. Thunderstorms are in the forecast for later this afternoon. The rest of the family is relaxing as well.
It’s a great start to this latest trip around the sun.
If you’re still following along, or even if you just stumbled onto this corner of the Internet by accident, Happy New Year! May you find what you’re searching for this year.
Truman has been hanging out in the “public” spaces of our home a little more since our return from back east earlier this month. He’s getting along well with Lucky and Jinx these days. There has been nose-to-nose sniffing without hysterics, though once in a while the dogs will go tearing through the house when Truman decided to jump over the dog gate that separates our upstairs area from the rest of our home.
Here he’s posing in the kitchen, standing next to the shelf that has been deemed as “safe”. The dogs do not bother him when he’s on a cat on a shelf.
I’ve decided to re-read one of my favorite sci-fi novels, “The Demu Trilogy”. I believe this could be my 37th or 38th time reading this collection of stories by F.M. Busby and I’m very much looking forward to the experience.
I’ve written about this book a couple of times before, and you can see the entry from 2020 here, which leads to an entry from 2007 here_.
I just signed off of my work computer for hopefully the last time in 2022. I’m not expected to work until Tuesday morning and it’s a wonderful feeling. On Friday afternoons, even on quiet weeks like this, I usually run out of mental bandwidth by lunch time on Friday and getting through the rest of the workday can be a chore. I decided to let everyone on the team go a little early today to get a jump start on the weekend.
With the New Year rolling around, I’ve been thinking about resolutions and things I want to do better in 2023. Go back over the 21+ years of this blog and any mention of resolutions are the same, whether it be 2002, 2012, or 2022. I am who I am and that’s all there is to it.
I am making a couple of adjustments in my ways to try to make it in a healthy to 2032. Actually, I’m more selfish than that; I want weight and balance in the airplanes I fly to be easier to calculate, so I’ll be a little more focused on my health in the coming year. Solidly beyond the half-century mark, it’s not as easy as it used to be, so my expectations have been adjusted accordingly. I’m never going to climb Mount Vesuvius, but I’ll continue to hike around the top of Mount Lemmon.
Over the past couple of years I’ve finally accepted that my thought processes are not what one would consider “normal”, whatever that is in this day and age, and I’m no longer enduring an internal struggle because of this. When it comes to the numbers, I’ve finally accepted my whole spectrum of thought. Gone are the sixth grader worries of “I can’t play that game with John, he’s too weird”. I’m sorry if your eyes glaze over if I start talking about the history of all the cash register systems at a given coffee shop chain over the years if we meet up in person over a cup of coffee. Don’t worry, even though I can tell you that the license plate number on my dad’s 1971 muscle car (819-OST) and my grandparents’ 1973 Buick Electra 225 (510-OSB), I won’t, but please don’t ask me what I had for supper last night. No clue. However, I will instantly notice if you’ve changed hairstyles or modified your facial hair in any way.
In 2023 I’m going to make more of an effort to eschew the negative rhetoric so prevalent on social media. I’m going to punt the conversations from the pundits and stop using technology that folks in the industry keep telling is better when it’s really not. Sorry, Apple, you’re not who you used to be. Oh, I’ll keep using your products because I have them, but I’ll be weighing my options carefully when it comes time to make a new purchase. And gone are the days where I put all my apples in one crate. One step toward this is the deleting of tech oriented podcasts. My podcast selection is more focused on brighter things, and I’ll be sharing my listening list shortly.
I’m not ready for the 2024 Presidential Election. I don’t care about it at all and I’m really not going to care if it’s just a slate of a bunch of Baby Boomers that are WAY past their prime. I’ve barely recovered from the Trump years and I’m still not over the 2022 midterm elections, especially as an Arizona resident, since we have such sore losers when it comes to certain Republicans in this state.
And I’m finally going to give up my task management system of 13 years, which was designed by someone else, because earlier this month I discovered I was spending way too much time keeping that task management system organized. A text file with a list of my to-dos is just fine, thanks. And text files with to-do lists don’t need a $50 subscription or a $79 periodic upgrade fee.
At this moment I seek out the happiness and try even harder to spread it far and wide. With this mindset I feel like 2023 is going to be a good year in many respects. Just don’t read about La Niña or El Niño predictions for the year. If you do, pack a lifeboat and a seat belt.
I hope anyone that stumbles upon this blog finds peace, joy, and most importantly, happiness in this New Year. We all deserve to be who we were meant to be.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
