New Year's Eve 2015

May the upcoming year bring you good health, more laughter than you have known, true friendship, grand adventure, full satisfaction, warm hugs, continual romance, perfect peace, and lasting joy. Blessings to all of my online friends.

Resolutions 2015

At the end of each blog year (like a regular year only bloggier) I have traditionally written a post reviewing my New Year's resolutions for the past year. The point is to own up to areas in my life that I have looked to change and honestly assess how I have done. Looking back over the past posts in this series, I have not done particularly well. In fact, the truth of the matter is that I often fail completely on realizing my goals. However, the pattern that has consistently emerged is that the goals that I set that depend entirely on me and my efforts and attitude, have turned out quite well. It is when I have resolutions that depend on other people when I am awarded with a plastic goose egg.

In my past "Resolutions" posts I have itemized my resolutions for the year and provided some commentary on my successes and failures. However, this year I just don't have it in me to do things the same way. This year has been more than tough for me and most days have found me struggling to stay afloat or numb to the happenings of the world around me. Hurt after hurt caused me to just let go of realizing my dreams. Holding onto hope when nothing ever seemed to go as I would have liked was killing me and I had to let it go.

While that sounds horrible and depressing, something positive at least came out of all of this. My approach changed from struggling to try to get what I wanted to one of just planting seeds. Doing little things here and there to help others as I was able or as I was inspired. Each seed planted might have died unnoticed or might have made a small positive difference in someone's day. I planted randomly without making it about me in any way. Maybe that is the best resolution that I could have made to begin with.

Blog Recap 2015

At the end of each year, I like to take a moment to look back and survey what I have included on my blog. As I peruse the list, I come upon posts that still resonate with me. They can still make me smile or bring a fresh tear. I think that I am pleased with what I have included here.

One of the ways that I look back over my site, is to make a list of my top 10 blogs for the year. This list is not compiled based on the number of comments or the number of views. It is based simply on what I liked the best. So, without further ado, here is my top 10 list of my own blogs (in no particular order) for 2015.

• Jack O' the Wisps (Dec. 17) - The story of my life, which explains everything and nothing at all.
  
• Italian Recollections (Oct. 19) - Staying positive when I was not where I wanted to be.
  
• Make Ur Move (Aug. 31) - Being a man when I just don't have it in me.
  
• Lessons in Geometry (Jul. 27) - Owning up to lessons that should have already been learned.
  
• Waves (Jul. 13) - A melancholy look back.
  
• Pulchritude (Jun. 29) - You have got to sound out your words.
  
• Bucket Equity (Jun. 8) - Explaining why I often struggle with others.
  
• Reflections (May 4) - Watching me slip away.
  
• Who I Am (Apr. 14,16,21) - For art lovers who ever wanted to know the different sides of me.
  
• Duke of Yosemite (Mar. 11) - Realizing that the train has left you behind at the station.
  

I hope that you found something here that made you think, that made you smile, or that somehow created a spark for your day. Thanks for stopping by my humble site.

Best Books of 2015

This year I have read 74 books and definitely found some good ones along the way. This was a year dominated by Brandon Sanderson (20 books), Bradley Beaulieu (7 books), and Robert Jordan (8 books). It was also the year that I read a few ebooks (9 books). Following my well-established year-end tradition, I share my list of the top 10 "books" for this year in no particular order. Note that I use "books" because I typically count a series by an author as one entry.

• The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
  
• Saint Odd, Dean Koontz
  
• Tuf Voyaging, George R.R. Martin
  
• Cross Roads, William Paul Young
  
• The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy (The Winds of Khalakovo, The Straits of Galahesh, The Flames of Shadam Khoreh), Bradley Beaulieu
  
• The Wheel of Time series (New Spring, The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords), Robert Jordan
  
• Lest our Passage be Forgotten, Bradley Beaulieu
  
• Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
  
• The Cemetery of Forgotten Books Series (The Angel's Game, The Prison of Heaven), Carlos Luis Zafon
  
• Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson
  

I have already started to pick out some books for the first part of 2016. If you have any suggestions, send them along and I will check them out. I keep my list of reads current on my Shelfari page.

Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas to my online friends. May you find blessings and peace on this day.

Christmas Eve 2015

Today of all days during the year, the children are most like angels. Excited, innocent, and loved. For parents the anticipation of what tomorrow will bring is often the best part of the experience. Ribbons and bows adorn the packages, months spent in the preparations and the execution. May your tomorrow be better than all you could have asked for or imagined. Beyond everything, may you feel loved and appreciated. Merry Christmas to all.

Observations 119

My occasional blog series "Observations" was created to be an outlet to share a variety of topics that pop into my field of view as a result of a condition that many bloggers are afflicted with known as "blogger's eyes". In this state we view the world on the constant look-out for topics on which to write about. Today's blog came about from random odds 'n ends of things that I have noticed over the past few weeks.

• I still find it amazing how these "miracle tonic" ads on T.V. keeping pulling in the suckers, especially when every single one ends with the statement, "This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."
  
• Watching once great athletes who were dominant in their primes fall so far that they are among the worst statistical performers in their leagues breaks my heart. It leaves an image that begins to replace the iconic one that had been formed over many years.
  
• Over the past several weeks I have stumbled upon some words that I would have bet were typos or gibberish that turned out to be real, actual words. It seems that I don't know everything after all.
  
• One can know the end is coming and take steps to plan for it. However, when it inevitably comes, it can still be wholly unexpected.
  
• At the dentist's office the other day the dentist was searching for the right tool to pull something out of my mouth that had gotten wedged between my teeth. I reached down to my belt pouch and handed him the pliers that I always carry with me.