Merry Christmas

Zeitgeist 1 Minute

2021 was not the dumpster fire of 2020, but it was a year with its own challenges. The pandemic continued in its second year, but at least many of us were vaccinated, so the ability to move around again in public was a nice change. But it also led to my employer bringing people back to the office in the summer, albeit in a hybrid mode. It was a transition that led me to ponder retirement. In the end, after some negotiation, I decided to keep working.

This roughly coincided with work becoming pretty busy, with some epic projects in flight. Similar to what happened in 2017 and 2018, it impinged on blogging, reducing the amount of time and energy I had for reading and contemplating the topics I typically write about. It didn’t help that I was also somewhat burnt out on consciousness as a topic.

But this year I was able to at least partially fill the gap with a lot of posts on entertainment. I know many of you don’t find these as interesting as the stuff on the mind, philosophy, quantum mechanics, etc, and a few of you expressed concern or frustration about it, but for significant chunks of the last six months, it was either posts on fiction, or radio silence.

Still, even with that, my site stats show this is only the 67th post this year. That compares with 112 in 2020 and 127 in 2019. It’s better than the 17 in 2018 (five of which were in the last month), but still a pretty big drop.

Hopefully 2022 will be a better year, both in blogging and life. I learned a long time ago not to predict what I’ll post on in the next year. But I do know I’m happier when I’m having deep conversations with you, my online friends.

Whatever this time of year means for you, I hope you and your family and friends are safe and having a wonderful holiday, or at least a good mid-winter week. I’m looking forward to our conversations in 2022.

Merry Christmas!

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24 thoughts on “Merry Christmas”

  3. Happy Christmas to you too. In a world fill all too often with violence and hate, it seems fitting to celebrate the birth of a man who was, by all accounts, a decent fellow with some bright ideas on how to behave. Your twitter posts make up for any lack of blogs – following science as you do, I find the references most interesting.
    Best wishes
    Anthony

    PS I don’t think it worth worrying about blogging. Do it (or do not do it) entirely for your own satisfaction and needs. At least that would be my advice.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Dear Mike,

      I concur with Anthony. Like you, I have just published a new and special post entitled “🎊 Season’s Greetings: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 🎄🎅☃️” to celebrate the festive season. The post combines art, graphics, poems, music and animations.

      Wishing you and Anthony a 🎄🎊 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ☃️🎅!

      Wishing you and your family a wonderfully productive weekend doing or enjoying whatever that satisfies you the most! Take care and prosper!

      Yours sincerely,
      SoundEagle

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        2. I would also like to inform you that when you visit my blog, it is preferrable to use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my blog, which could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately. Please enjoy your browsing!

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          2. Dear Mike,

            You are very welcome. There are even better posts on my blog than the one that you just visited. For example, in my post entitled “🎴 If My Name Were Moon Tonight… 🌛🌝🎑🈷 with Clair de Lune 🌕“, you get the chance to watch my dynamic animation produced in high resolution (1920 x 1280) synchronized perfectly to Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

            This animation-intensive post is the result of my dramatic attempt to bring the Full Moon alive, so to speak, in the form of Music Animation with Dynamic Visualization presented in high definition and imbued with a scintillating full moon surrounded by eye-catching astronomical phenomena and stellar activities!

            Moreover, the post contains twelve poetic stanzas constituting my rhyming poem entitled “If My Name Were Moon Tonight…“.

            There is also the opportunity to savour my own rendition of “Clair de Lune” recorded on the organ.

            The direct link to the post is:

            https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/10/10/if-my-name-were-moon-tonight-with-clair-de-lune/

            The animation starts calmly and will gradually climax. Please enjoy the animation on the big high-resolution screen of your desktop or laptop computer. I am certainly very keen and curious about what you will make of my said post.

            Yours sincerely,
            SoundEagle

            Liked by 1 person

    2. Thanks Anthony! Grateful for feedback on the Twitter feed. It ends up being a record of the articles I read. (Or at least many of them.)

      On blogging, I appreciate the sentiment. For me though, I have to worry about blogging at least a little bit, otherwise it won’t happen at all. But then, I’m the type of person who has to work themselves up to have fun.

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  6. Seems like a good time for me to thank you for what you do Mike. Your talents certainly add to my well being, as well as my discussions with others here who like to read what you write. And don’t worry on my account about posting less on weighty matters. Do whatever feels right. We find other outlets for those passions, though I think it’s clear that many of us consider science related posts from you to be important events.

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  7. Well, I just got two books for Christmas, both of which I learned about from your blog. One was science related (Helgoland), and one was fiction (Inhibitor Phase, you got me at “sublime”).

    Personally, I think that in these days of declining interest in long-form anything, the world has a need for you. You have a remarkable ability to keep abreast of issues and to get a discussion going on them, to bring in a variety of perspectives and so explore those issues with breadth.

    But I also recall what they teach you in lifeguard school. First of all, take care of yourself.

    I hope that the holidays are very good to you and yours.

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. Mike,

    Seasons greetings. I also wish to add my own expression of thankfulness during this season of giving. I’m happy to have discovered your site and your many interesting friends. Let me also compliment you on the blog “production value” as well. It is easy to find and read entries and navigate about, one may easily dip in and see what’s going on and who’s expressing the day’s interesting bon mots. Je vous tire mon chapeau!

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    1. Thanks Matti! Greeting to you as well!

      Thanks so much for the feedback. All I can really take credit for is the actual writing. The rest is really just WordPress magic. But I’m grateful for your kind words, and the conversation you bring.

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  9. Whenever you’re feeling guilty about your posting productivity, you can always compare yourself to me, and that should make you feel better.

    BTW, writing about entertainment sounds like a great idea if you ask me. I’d say you gave the consciousness debate a run for its money and I certainly can’t blame you for being burnt out on the topic. Happy New Year!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thanks for trying to make me feel better with the comparison. But it only works until I remember that you’re actually making progress on story writing, which I think makes you much more productive.

      I wouldn’t say I’m done with the subject of consciousness, but it’s reached the point that I’m just circling around the same conclusions. Surprises seem increasingly rare. My blog has always had it as a core topic, but I think I need to spend more time on the others, including entertainment. 🙂

      Happy New Year to you too Tina!

      Liked by 1 person

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