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| The actress Ana de Armas, a friend of the blog |
This blog is now of legal age, eighteen-years-old. Its birthday was actually on the eleventh of this month which fell during our recent European vacation. So today’s celebration is very much a case of better late than ever. Late or not....yay!!!!!🥳🎉🎂🎊
I thought it would be worthwhile to look back on all that has gone on since that first post in 2008. I see that many of you disagree. Well, I've never let common sense stop me. Here goes.
When this blog was born George W Bush was still in the White House and would be for another eight months and nine days. Barack Obama had not yet been elected and most of us were blissfully unaware that such a person as Sarah Palin existed. In the months and years to come she would help lower the national discourse with her folksy stupidity. Also in the coming months Joe Biden would be selected as Obama’s running mate and would go on to serve admirably as vice president. He seemed like a wise old hand who’d seen and been through a lot and was appreciated and admired for his efforts. Later would come his presidency during which he seemed at times to be comatose. That said he did a good enough job, though one wishes he would have timed his decision to step aside better. That Obama fella was all right and we’ve been missing him a helluva lot lately as the US teeters on the brink.
In 2008 Donald Trumpy was just a businessman and buffoon with weird hair who appeared occasionally on talk shows. No one was thinking that the blowhard would some day ascend to the highest position in the land and work at destroying democracy.
Back then the U.S. was dropping bombs on brown people in the Middle East. Some things never change.
George Carlin still had a month to live. His comedy today is as relevant as ever and he has come to be rightfully seen as something of a soothsayer.
Michael Jackson had another year on this planet. His departure devastated fans across the globe. His music — as they say — lives on although his legacy has been tarnished. Speaking of tarnishing legacies, Woody Allen has practically been canceled as his adopted daughter re-introduced to the world the false and spurious charges he was long ago cleared of — twice. To study the Allen case in any depth and with objectivity is to realize he is not a molester and that Mia Farrow manufactured the whole story. Back in 2008 Allen was still cranking out films and “everyone” wanted to be in one. He would make excellent films like Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Midnight in Paris, Blue Jasmine and Rainy Day in New York before the Farrow hate machine would slow him down.
In May of 2008 there was no such thing as Instagram, WhatsApp or Tik Tok. Twitter was in it’s infancy and was years away from being taken over by dark forces. People were blogging and when I started I was one of many. Today a blog is a rare thing. I’m a dinosaur.
In those days Bill Cosby was not in prison or a pariah. It wasn’t until 2014 that the allegations against him became widespread and part of the news cycle with him eventually going to the gray bar hotel.
In 2008 people were worried about climate change coming soon. Now it’s here in what may be the worst development the world has known since Hitler.
There was talk of artificial intelligence and it kind of sounded cool. Little did we know how prevalent it would become and what dangers would be attendant to it.
What about little ole me? What’s gone on with the author these past eighteen years?
Thanks for asking.
When I started this blog I was still a middle school teacher but only for another month. I spent two years as a sub while I got my TEFL certificate (Teacher of English as a Foreign Language) and the last sixteen years teaching English to people from hither and yon (over sixty different countries) minus eighteen months during the pandemic.
I’ve been at three different schools all of which liked me and all of which I’ve liked. I’ve loved virtually every minute of my job which is in stark contrast to teaching middle school where there were many minutes I disliked, hated or even detested. So it goes.
I have maintained excellent physical health throughout this time. I haven’t had the flu at all and only caught cold about ten times. I’ve had a surgery or two but nothing major and haven’t been out of commission as a result for more than two days. You could accurately say I’ve been lucky, but a good diet and exercise are also contributing factors.
In the world of sports the highlight came only last week when Arsenal won their first premier league title in twenty-two years. There have also been three world series championships for the San Francisco Giants but they’ve mostly been crap since. Cal football had pretty good seasons during the first two years of this blog but they’ve been mostly crap since. This year however….I’ve made it to London for six matches since the birth of this blog including in each of the last four years. Arsenal have not been mostly crap although they hadn’t won a title until now.
I’ve made seven trips to Europe, six with the missus and three trips to the East Coast since ’08. I’ve enjoyed them all including our most recent trek earlier this month.
I’ve remained married to the same woman which speaks volumes about how tolerant and understanding a person she is. Also, she’s the love of my life. *sigh*
I mentioned my physical health being quite good. As for my mental health…well, I wish. There has been much depression. There’s been too much anxiety. There have been unhealthy obsessions. On the bright side I’ve stayed clean and sober and continued the process of working on being mentally healthy and happy. I’ve proven to be medication resistant and even tried Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation which worked for a few months. In am finding that dark chocolate helps a little.
As for the blog itself well you can see by the labels on the right I’ve covered an array of topics. Most commonly I’ve written about films and in the early days of the blog I wrote almost exclusively about movies. This has been great for me because I’ve become a real student of cinema and fancy myself as something of an expert. At the very least I’m a cinephile and film snob.
I’ve included a fair amount of fiction on the blog though not lately as most of my fiction efforts are going towards the novels I keep writing that keep not getting published (I’m trying).
This will be my 1,743rd blog post (raise your hand if you’ve read them all). I’ve come here when I’ve been happy, sad, angry, inspired and apathetic. The blog has proven to be therapeutic. The reality is that today virtually no one reads the thing (I barely do myself) but I’m a persistent son of a bitch and keep cranking out content that no one sees. Do I wish more people read the blog and occasionally offered comments or asked questions? Yes, of course, that would be nice. But if these posts continue to be met with resounding silence, no matter, I shall carry on. I don’t know no better. I love the process and if no one sees the results.
Happy 18th Streams of Unconsciousness. You can now vote and join the military and get married. Just don’t try to buy any booze here in the States. This is a law abiding blog — if an irreverent one.
Cheers, y’all.
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