Beard of the Week XXV: Welcome 2007

Happy New Year from your hosts Jeff (above) and Isaac (below).

Our South Park doppelgängers come via this amusing divertissement for creating such. We do look tolerably like these guys, but not too much I hope. Pondering that makes me think that occasionally we see people who strike us as looking like they are cartoon characters, and it's rarely a flattering observation.

At lunch (Taco Bell, of course — we end the year as we propose to begin the next one) Isaac and I thought for a moment about the things we'd managed to get done in the past year, partly as an antidote to feeling like there are so many projects still left undone. Perhaps it's because I turned 50 this year and my memory turned ever more sieve like, or perhaps it's because I'm a neurotic overachiever, but it never seems like we've done much. Nevertheless, there were a few events worth noting:

There may well have been other things worth mentioning, but they unaccountably escape my mind at the moment. But then, you can always look back through the blog if you really want to be complete.

Today is not so much different from other days in some ways. It's a very sunny and mild day here in suburban Washington, DC, maybe a bit cloudier than it was earlier in the day. Isaac worked this morning (the usual two services, in contrast to last week's blowout of five services before the end of the day); this morning I read and wrote some, as I typically do After we had our lunch we assembled some Ikea furniture (a little bookcase and CD cabinet for the loft), moved some stuff about a bit, and Isaac has gone off to play organ for a wedding ceremony.

Tonight, in a tradition of several years' standing, we go to some friends' house for a lobster dinner, after which we all do our best to stay awake until midnight then quickly disperse for home and bed. At least one of my regular readers can tell you about this since he was with us this time a year ago for the same event; he also went with us to Rome this year. Bill, perhaps I should just keep you around so I can remember life's events with more acuity!

For all the rest of you who didn't go to Rome with us this year, let me know if you'd like to join the tour to Tuscany that Isaac will be leading in April 2007 and we can send details about the trip.

For all you, here are my best wishes for a fun and productive 2007.

Posted on December 31, 2006 at 17.00 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Beard of the Week

4 Responses

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  1. Written by Bill Morrison
    on Sunday, 31 December 2006 at 22.50
    Permalink

    Happy New Year.

    I remember last New Year's Eve very well. But last year everyone but you and I went off to church between the main course and dessert. Did that not happen this year?

    And what's this about Tuscany in April???

  2. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Sunday, 31 December 2006 at 23.03
    Permalink

    Happy new year, Jeff and Isaac. The beard(s)of the week are the best ones yet, and good fun.

    Sounds as though you've had quite a productive year. May the next be even more so. Enjoy the lobster, take care, and thanks for all the comments at Oh!pinion. Your input helps brighten up the place, especially when I get too seriously bent out of shape about what's going on.

  3. Written by rightsaidfred
    on Thursday, 4 January 2007 at 16.39
    Permalink

    "…perhaps it's because I'm a neurotic overachiever, but it never seems like we've done much."

    I was thinking about this the other day, and why some high energy, workaholic types keep at it indefinitely. It seems they have an internal fear of being considered lazy, or low achieving, indicated by how they talk about themselves and others: everything in terms of what was accomplished. I wonder how one stays alert to the possibility of overreaching, of producing too much, of the house that is too big, the salary too gross, the potato chip too tasty, the video game too entertaining, the drug too addictive.

  4. Written by jns
    on Sunday, 7 January 2007 at 20.52
    Permalink

    Actually, my problem seem more due to my been-there-done-that personality. Any sort of path to a goal may be difficult and challenging, but as soon as I've made the goal, it is no longer difficult or novel. This was always an impediment to my career as a scientist, since once I'd worked out the details of some experimental program, it no longer seemed difficult — it had become obvious, and thus it was difficult to craft a paper of research results that seemed interesting and new. I was always better writing about work in progress.

    Now, as for the "salary too gross", I'm so far from that problem, having had no salary for more than 4 years, that I'm just not going to worry about it for awhile! But to think about your question, it seems that alertness towards excesses is difficult, and hard to obtain without others around to help — plus the humility to accept their wisdom.

    Even in our neighborhood the houses seem to have gotten grotesquely large, and the potato chips exceedingly tasty. Perhaps it's all addictive. I used to think that what I wanted to be was rich, but it's since seemed that it that were my real desire, I probably could have accomplished it. Doesn't it seem that to most rich people, being wealthy is the goal itself?

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