My 10 Achievements of 2024

Hello world it's been a bit. 

2024's been OK enough! Here's a top 10 for the year in no particular order. 

1. Took some French lessons and revived my French. It was improving for a bit!

2. Lifted weights a lot, for me; still improving, slowly. Continuing to do sub-30 5Ks. 

3. Went to every (open) branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

4. Started picking up trash with cool people for fun. 

5. Went on the Green Tortoise again and had fun in deep America.

6. Talked to Gaylord Fields at A Bar. Who says you shouldn't meet your heroes? 

7. Is depressing to say I "beat" Slay the Spire? Albeit with some save scumming, I beat Ascension 20 with all four "characters". In French. Voilà. 

8. Another good year teaching mathematics to the youth.

9. Visited Bogotá for the first international trip since Covid. Tasted fruit that made me feel like I discovered new colors.

10. Got lots of CDs and records and found a way to listen to them. Created an excellent reading and listening nook. Music is still one of the best things about life.

Bonus: I think I loved the world, and certain people in it, as well as I could, perhaps as well as I ever have, and this seemingly limitless capacity for love is so far a beautiful consolation for aging. 

 

My 10 Achievements of 2021

 top 10 achievements of the year

1. relearned how to ride a bike
2. survived remote teaching
3. acquired a lizard
4. bought a piano
5. got jabbed thrice but got omicron anyway (although it was mild)
6. ran a 10k (slowly)
7. were the "winter warriors" for going to our local farmer's market every weekend in the winter
8. befriended a broken foot and helped it heal
9. grew tomatoes
10. finished "under the volcano" by malcolm lowry 

could've definitely been worse.

We got a lizard.

 Life is busy, life is good.

The tree from a few posts before has gotten REAL big.

We got a leopard gecko. We got a free coffee table someone was giving away to use as a terrarium stand. 

He's chill and nice. He likes eating worms. We feel sorry for the worms, but luckily their brains are so small I'm not sure if they know what's happening to them. 

I hope you are having a peaceful time! 

1986

I was born in 1986, which was many years ago. I am no longer young but I am not yet old. I am listening to a song called 1986 by a musician named Manual, who is actually named Jonas Munk. There is such a wonderful feeling in this song--he really captured a night, a certain light, a certain time, waves. The feeling of being alone watching the twilight. I had this feeling walking with my wife on 58th St. in Manhattan at 9 P.M. on a street mostly empty due to the virus. Desolate, both alive and dead, and beautiful.



The whole album is really great. The tracks flow into each other. Hypnotic processed guitars.

I am still alive

I should update this more often. No one reads it, but that's the point, I guess.

The fall has been lovely since it got cool. A Walgreens that once was there is no longer there. In the depths of the night sometimes we can hear a train. The city lights shimmer in the fallen rain. Let us love and enjoy peace where we can find it.

I went to Europe and then came back

Recently we went to some European countries. Cities included Lion, Monks, Salty Mountain, and Bay of Smoke. I liked Lion and Bay of Smoke, I wasn't so fond of Salty Mountain, because our hotel there there had smelly everything. Now we have returned to New Version of Old British Town because a plane took us back. Here is a picture of Lion.

Somewhere on the internet

Somewhere on the internet,
there are two bots,
each programmed by opposing political institutions,
designed to influence public opinion by pretending to be human beings,
arguing back and forth,
endlessly,
pointlessly.
and then,
in a miracle,
they will fall in love.