How was your Christmas? How were your holidays in general? Ready for the New Year?
Like I said recently, I haven’t exactly been overwhelmed with the Christmas Spirit this year for some reason. I’m not the only one, either. Several Facebook friends mentioned it, as did at least one family member. No one seemed to have a good reason for feeling that way, either. Odd, that.
I didn’t even take many pictures this year. I didn’t take any at all of the Honor Heights Christmas Lights, though there were several new displays.
The gift-giving was fun to watch, especially the sibling exchange. For the last several years, they’ve drawn names so they each only “have” to buy for one person (even though they usually buy for several of their sibs). Honestly, that part made my day, watching how they found just the right thing for their brother or sister. We put some thought into what we get them, but we also pay attention to their Amazon Wish List, too.
My father-in-law got me a leaf blower I had on my list (yes, I’m getting old), along with a duplicate Saints shirt (my sis-in-law also got me the same shirt). Number Three Son got me a Michigan cooking apron which dovetails nicely with the Michigan BBQ utensils Middle Son gave me for my birthday. Youngest Daughter gave me a couple of BBQ rubs and some cooking oil. I also got a vegetable grilling basket, and Diana got me a package of grill gasket. You attach it to the edges of the cook chamber to seal it and keep more of the heat and smoke inside. I’ll probably wait for some warmer weather to put that on to make sure it sticks properly.
Football
I was a little bummed to see aO$U lose so badly to Missouri, especially because Middle Son gathered the funds to drive down for the game. It was his first time to see the Buckeyes play in person, and it was a bowl game, so I wasn’t necessarily rooting for the Buckeyes, but I did want to see the B1G win. I’ll be curious to see what changes they make in Columbus during the off-season.
Florida State did not live up to any of the hype and complaining about not making the playoffs. That had to be a little embarrassing after all the posturing that went on. 60 points? Wow. Granted, they lost more than a couple of players to the transfer portal, but that’s still pretty bad.
I’m hopeful Michigan will do well against Alabama. I’m not going to pretend it’s not going to be a tough game. But we kept just about everyone from the regular season, and these guys are more than a little psyched to be in the College Football Playoffs. Let’s see what they can do. Go Blue!
Top 5 Posts of 2023
Okay, it’s not like I get a whole lot of traffic here. This year I ended up right around 1,300 visitors and 2,500 or so views. That’s not that impressive, but to be honest, I never expected to have huge numbers. I get decent traffic for the amount of promotion and interaction I do though, which isn’t much.
At any rate, here are my Top 5 Posts for 2023.
- In Review: 5.11 Tactical Rush Delivery Lima Messenger Bag
- Thirty Years On, The Ghosts of Fort McClellan Still Beckon
- One Week Down
- From Nostalgia to New Beginnings: Faith, Change, and Controversy
- Save The Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus
Reading
Speaking of those posts, here’s a follow-up to #4. Pastor Dee Kelley of San Diego First Church of the Nazarene is facing his final appeal to the Church of the Nazarene and he’s not hopeful. I’m curious to know if the denomination is disciplining all the of the clergy members who wrote pieces for the book or endorsed it. Somehow I’m doubtful. Read Ousted San Diego Nazarene pastor who asked for dialogue on same-sex marriage files final appeal at the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Writing After Death
Over on /r/books, a Redditor posted this:
After crime writer Robert B. Parker died in 2010, his estate hired several writers to continue the multiple series Parker wrote in his lifetime.
I’ve read six of the Spenser novels by Ace Atkins. They’re enjoyable but frustrating, like seeing a cover band of your favorite group. Beatlemania rather than the Beatles.
A good writer will occasionally surprise you—write something completely unlike them. But a writer hired to write like someone else will, if they do a good job, never surprise you. They always write just like the writer they’ve been hired to write like.
I don’t mean to be harsh on Atkins. He was hired to do a job and he did it well. And I’ve put one of his original books on my to-be-read list.
It’s quite an interesting discussion. I hadn’t realized how many author’s estates had continued book series. There’s Tom Clancy’s Ryanverse, with more books written since Clancy’s death than he published while he was alive. As the OP mentioned, Ace Atkins continued Robert Parker’s Spenser stories and three other authors picked up his Jesse Stone stories. Clive Cussler’s son Dirk, along with four other writers, have carried on most of Cussler’s series.
I don’t think I’ve read any of the post-Clive Cussler books. I know I’ve read a couple of the Atkins Spenser books and liked them well enough. I’m not sure I could point to any major writing style differences. I’ve read a couple of the post-Clancy books and was fairly meh about them. That may have been because I felt like Clancy himself was getting too…formulaic? in his stories. I lost interest, or began to, anyway, somewhere around Dead or Alive or Against All Enemies. As I’ve seen pointed out in a couple of places, things seemed to fall off for him sometime around the end of the Soviet Union.
Resolutions
It’s the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. There’s some sort of intergalactic law about posting New Year’s resolutions. A friend of mine shares this list every year, and I think they’re pretty good.
I’ll leave you with a little music to close out the year. May the year to come hold bountiful blessings, contentment, and new adventures.
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[…] Last week I mentioned Florida State’s poor showing in the Orange Bowl; they lost 63-3 to Georgia. Both teams had a substantial number of players forego the bowl game because they’d declared for the NFL draft or entered the transfer portal. There was quite a bit of discussion on /r/CFB about how many players across the NCAA skipped their team’s bowl appearances. Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr in theory waited until the last minute, making his announcement the day of the game, even though he traveled with the team to Dallas. I thought that was a little tacky on his part. It was an open secret that he wasn’t going to play, so why should he be allowed to partake in all of the pageantry and benefits of a game he’s not playing in? […]