Well, we’ve almost got another one on the books. 2022 was a year where work kept getting busier, which has had further suppressive effects on my blogging frequency. I also had some personal issues. One I alluded to with the security post in October, and with which I’m still dealing with some aftereffects. Another has been painful dental issues for the last couple of months. These and other matters have resulted in a pretty low posting frequency, particularly in the later part of the year.
And it shows in the site stats with only 48 posts (before this one), as compared to last year’s 68 or 2020’s 112. But at least the visitor counts are up a bit, so maybe there’s something to be said for less of the fluffier entertainment posts I used to keep volumes up last year. (Not that I’m about to stop doing those when the mood hits. See below.) And we’ve done 2331 comments together. Not as high as previous years, but still a lot of good conversations.
I’ve also been a bit distracted in the last couple of months with Mastodon, which I’ll admit is like a shiny new toy. I’ve been on Twitter since its early days, and those of you still there know I am too, but recent and upcoming changes seem to be exacerbating its exhibitionist culture. Mastodon is emerging as a better place for just talking. Hope to eventually see more of you there!
Anyway, as always, I remain grateful for my online friends and the deep and interesting conversations we have, wherever they happen. You make life much more bearable and interesting. Thank you!
Whatever Christmas means to you, I hope you and your friends and family are safe and having a wonderful holiday season. Here’s hoping for another great year of discussions on consciousness, space, quantum mechanics, sci-fi, and whatever else comes up.
Happy Holidays!
(Speaking of fluffy entertainment, something worth checking out if you haven’t already is The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, a name that seems designed to evoke another holiday special a long time ago on a network far far away. Lighthearted entertainment with surprisingly good production values for a holiday special. It even moves the canon forward a bit.)
SelfAwarePatterns 
Merry Christmas Mike! Your blogs and discussions continue to be a highlight of my living experience, and I’m looking forward to another year of more.
Hope everything gets better in the new year.
*
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Thanks James! I always enjoy your perspective and definitely looking forward to more in the next year.
Hope it’s a better year for you too!
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Merry Christmas, friend! I watched the Guardians Holiday Special the other day. Surprisingly good for what it is.
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Thanks my friend!
Yeah, I think the Holiday Special is helped by the fact that GotG has a baseline humor anyway, so working in a Christmas skit is natural.
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Festive felicitations 🙂
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Thank you!
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Thank you for being an interesting and philosophical blog that is also entertainingly fluffy at times 🎅
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Merry Christmas, Mike! I enjoy your illuminating and thought-provoking posts and comments. I also hope your medical/dental issues resolve themselves very quickly and to your satisfaction. Pain can be a major distraction from what our souls were meant to spend their time on.
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Thanks Mike!
Yeah, pain, along with anxiety about its implications, can often make it hard to do much more than exist with minimal effort.
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Merry Christmas!
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Yes another one down Mike. Hopefully decades more to come!
I don’t know if this applies to your dental situation, though it might. Like me I believe that people in general ought to get themselves addicted to flossing sticks. I like the Plackers Micro Mint, but whatever. My wife likes something with two strings. Anyway I can’t stand eating anything without following up with floss And in truth this isn’t too inconvenient for me since I only eat twice a day — no snacks. Just a big plate of sliced fruit at the end of each day and dinner later that night. (I do sometimes drink a bit of chocolate milk in the morning, which isn’t eating.) This also seems to help keep off some pounds. I simply do not get hungry during the day anymore.
My only true dental problem is that my bite is such that my top and bottom front teeth rub. Thus they can chip and seem to need filling every two years or so. I’ve been told all my life that I grind my teeth at night. Then the last person who was trying to convince me to wear a night guard also informed me that my bite is wrong making those teeth rub in general. Surely this problem was clear to various other dentists over the years, not that I was ever informed. At the age of 54 I don’t plan to try to fix my flawed bite line itself however. For now I’ll let them keep filling those teeth as needed since this does seem to protect them a bit.
In any case I do hope that you’ll be able to get your dental situation sorted out. Pain sucks!
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Thanks Eric.
Yeah, I definitely have my share of dental issues. I didn’t receive good dental hygiene education until I was an adult. (My parents only saw a dentist as someone who pulls teeth.) I’ve been paying the price ever since.
Without getting into details, a long standing issue resurfaced. Dealing with it led to me chewing more on one side, which flushed out other issues. Coupled with difficulties in localizing the cause of the pain, it’s made for a fairly miserable last several weeks.
Pain definitely sucks.
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For gingivitis sort of issues, I’ve found a dental probiotic and Biotene work really well with regular cleanings. The Biotene contains a sugar which the bad bacteria cannot use. With the probiotic it creates an environment inhospitable to anaerobic bacteria. Regular mouthwash will kill all the bacteria – not good. Of course, hygiene is essential but by itself it was never sufficient for me.
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I hadn’t heard that on mouthwash James. I use it in the evening and so might currently be killing off too much bacteria.
Anyway what gets me is that people leave tremendous amounts of food stuck in their teeth for long periods of time. All it should take to change this would be the sensible social norm that this is both gross and bad for you. I’d like there to be a law that any large enough restaurant chain be required to sell some sort of flossing instrument to potentially get their food out of their patron’s teeth after they eat. No required promotion, just legally mandated availability. I suspect it would then become a social norm for people to take care of their teeth, and socially even in public. I bet we’d need far fewer dentists than today.
In the morning I do a couple of strokes with a tongue scraper, quickly a manual tooth brush for every part of my mouth except my teeth, and then an oral B electric which is timed for 30 seconds for each quadrant of my teeth. Once a day seems plenty. I let the dentist clean my teeth when I’m in there for some true work, like my worn down front teeth, though otherwise I don’t even go in for checkups.
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