2025 So long, Farewell Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye and welcome to a healthier 2026

 

For some reason I want to be here this year:

There are many things the Swiss do right, among them is fireworks. Not only are they spectacular and spectacularly old school, but everything is special around new Years. Very few villages do drone light shows. Not only that, but there are fireworks at 20 past midnight, so one can get all the hugging and kissing by Grogged people out of the way and then go outside to enjoy the show. Grog is a warm up drink made of hot water, sugar, rum and some spice mix.

I don't drink, but a few sips of Grog after a whole day skiing when your skin forgets how to warm up ever again and your more than warm.

In fact, the early St. Bernard's rescue dogs who found people in avalanches usually had this 'medicinal' hot toddy in a little barrel around their necks. It might also be Whiskey. I suppose when you contemplate mortality under a ton of snow, getting sloshed might be a good idea.

Jodel and Hiccup

Back to fireworks. The tradition, which I love, is to scare all the bad juju, voodoo and evil spirits and leave them behind in the last year. The more light and sound and smell of sulfur the better. So much so that the Swiss have a second day around lakes so that the fireworks can reflect off the lakes and do the same.

I have mentioned previously that this is my favorite season. I will have to extend it somehow. While I rarely make new Years resolutions, I do have a goal setting list that I put in my art journal and doodle around.

One of them is that I'm done letting SM or AI dictate what I should think. Up until a decade ago I never heard of "this is just another date in the Gregorian calendar". Lots of dates in calendars, why do away with everything that people enjoy?

Well then go to hell 2025 and take your little friend 2024 with you.

HAPPY AND WAY BETTER NEW

YEAR THEN THE PREVIOUS

ONE TO EVERYONE

EXCEPT BAD PEOPLE 

(A FEW EXCEPTIONS APPLY)

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆

I could use some cheering up

Well. I'm living the life of old age at middle age. Turns out that I may have long Covsshh according to my check up. Most of the symptoms are gone, but I'm beyond fatigued and any kind of walk is like running a marathon. It's been like that for weeks. I get dizzy sometimes wobbly, I feel better, make plans, the next day exhaustion and a bad mood. I'm competing with cats when it comes to nap time.

Despite negative tests and as I suspected this "cold" that is going around isn't. So. At more or less the last minute I convinced spouse to just enjoy the festivities, I was going to stay home. Wanted to work in my art journal, clean and organize and watch a movie.

Hahaha haha.

More like Flash in this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4aUC1VZQE1E

The reality? I took a nap. Woke with a headache. Couldn't find my glue stick. Exhausted by looking for it. No longer felt like arting. Ate something. 

Went for a walk. I think they stretched the street. Walked by a house that had already taken the decorations down. Who is that uptight? I liked their lights. Returned after 20 minutes, but felt better. Watched a movie aaaaand fell asleep. Again. Remembered where the glue stick was when I woke.

FML.

Here's my art installation titled:

Stars on Snow Blanket (that I forgot to put up)

Send me some good wishes. Art. Jokes, anything cheerful and wear a mask please. I'm supposed to rest some more. Sigh.

⭐⭐⭐

Cookies, Monks and shrinkflation

The first time I had a soft chocolate glazed cookie called Lebkuchen was Switzerland. That cookie along with roasted chestnuts at an open air/outdoor Christmas market is pure nostalgia.

Lebkuchen are made with only 10% flour, the rest has to be ground nuts, spices, HONEY, and some citrus grinds. Depending on quality they include Marzipan. My favorite come on a white wafer called Oblaten. I've just had two and want to jodel.

Apparently, Monks had invented them in the 13th century. I always suspected monks hid their epicurianism beneath a fassade of asceticism.

I'm still trying to figure out how to live in a world that my father is no longer inhabiting and he used to always get them for me.

 As I got older I no longer liked them and found they were too sweet. Whether the ingredients were changed or I simply outgrew them, I don't know. They became available in local stores and I suspect that they weren't imports but a sweetened version of the original.

When he got older, my father who loved to bring gifts would ask me if I wanted some. I declined, he still brought them. He was disappointed. I never regifted what he gave me and I simply didn't want him to waste money on something I no longer enjoyed. 

Advancing age made him miss the loss of his youth and my childhood. Losing him made me miss the same. I recently bought groceries to avoid the Christmas shopping mayhem and saw them on a display. I grabbed a package. Instead of six to a package, there are now five rattling around, but I get to connect to a pleasant memory that I can maintain in the future.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

Blogging and Coping

 

I returned to blogging because it is something I used to enjoy. Everyone has the choice of what they post, but for me it was never a public diary. I wanted to interact, discuss and communicate. Otherwise I can just use my journals.

I used to read many and got a significant amount of recommendations, interesting POVs, and learning about places or exhibits or research that I was not aware of otherwise. The internet was thriving and turning into what it should be. I was expecting the algorithms to improve; if I ordered specific books, I didn't want would you also like a pogo stick and a can opener to go with that? If I watched relaxing videos or listened to music to help me fall asleep, I didn't want how about some horror to wake you up or techno music because of something you looked at previously? 

Instead of getting better, the programming got worse.

I also came across artists that later exhibited and became well known. Etsy provided an environment akin to me going to a quirky gallery. The pop art surrealist Mab Graves among them. Not my style, but her creativity is endless and original. And her Dinokitties are somewhere between cute and scary.

Depending on mood I could spend some time reading humor sites and blogs, get quick access to science, laugh and have fun. Over a decade ago, we were asked to trade all of that creativity and interaction that allowed me to enjoy, escape, learn, cope; whatever one wants to call it for vitriol, click bait darkness depressing topics and sensationalism.

If I go on a scientist site, I want to read what's new outside my field. In order to compete, scientists started to mention politicians on their science communication sites adding their voices to the cacophony already out there. There are journalists for that.

There are several reasons I do not want politicians mentioned in the comments, among them the fact that there is no person past or present that I would discuss every day for months much less years.

Another is that ridiculing and gossip doesn't make me feel better, nor does it change anything. For some negative news is addictive, I personally think it's not a good coping mechanism. If I sound repetitive it's because keeping a positive outlook is more likely to turn things around sooner and eventually they will.

Amusing movies

 

In the 1940s and 50s movie studios produced many of the iconic classics to offer people an escape and a moment of Hollywood glamor and joy. Singing in the rain among them, probably the most iconic dance scene ever.

I suppose that over the last few years all the superhero movies were supposed to do the same. Covid stopped a lot of production, but most of the movies recently are too tragic or violent.

Among my all time favorite happy silly movies that still put a smile on my face and that Ill partially rewatch if they happen to be on are 

Ferris Buellers day off, 

Blast from the past,

The Party

Princess Bride

Zootopia

(I'll post some more when I think of them)

A movie that actually looks funny and that I'm looking forward to is sheep detectives

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fNKEpis6iFk

Any favorites or recommendations?

Tis the season to give. A few thoughts.

 I had a series of posts on empathy, kindness using science fiction to explore those human topics then thought what for? I don't want to discuss this. I don't want to be in the position where people just do not comprehend it and I try to convince them.

The conversation came up elsewhere and made someone feel so diminished for asking that I intervened. And it worked. Someone whined on a wish fulfillment site that the season is not about gifts, making a few people feel humiliated for asking to have that one special time of year. I help where I can. 

When I was a student, I went to a grocery store to pick up a few items. Outside was a man quietly waiting. Young idealist that I was I wanted to help. I didn't have much and asked what he wanted. "A hot chocolate and a Cola", he answered. I went in, got the hot chocolate and a sandwich, because Cola was not nutritious. I stepped out and gave it to him. He didn't thank me, but asked "where's my Cola?"

I was taken aback and left. Called a friend and complained about his ingratitude. My friend told me there is a saying: If you choose to give its between you and him, what he choses to do with it is between him and God. I learned from my mistake.

Later in life I volunteered whenever I had time. Packed food bank items (that's all for four people?) and I learned that the mistake I made was due to ignorance; 

I had taken away the choice and dignity of another human being. In my own way I had judged and no human is in a position to. He liked cola, who am I or anyone to decide what he should like?

When I volunteered for toy drives I thought, none of these toys would have appealed to me as a kid. The extra hygiene products some charities include were basically dollar store quality. Someone commented that the last thing Ukranians want is another stuffed toy. Most people that help, donate, get their tax receipt and forget about it. Others do angel trees and for the last few years I've seen angel trees for seniors. What they want is heartbreaking. 

How much a random act of kindness can mean? I was staying with my father during covid, had just returned from grocery shopping but unable to find his favorite cherry yoghurt. Brought it home and he was escalating, throwing the opened wrong flavor at me. I stormed out. Sat on a bench in a park on the way. Tears rolling down my face. (Too exhausted to care what people thought). A woman stopped, she connected, I told her what had happened. She shared that her father was staying with her because nursing homes weren't accepting new clients during covid, but at least her and her brother were taking turns. Then she told me that she had just been grocery shopping, did I want anything? "Unless it's cherry yoghurt, which I now have to hunt down, no thank you." "No, I meant you. You need a banana." I started to laugh. "Or an apple? It's organic." I took the banana. "Take a granola chocolate bar to strengthen you for the journey." I relented. I sat there thinking about how absurd and random life can be as I munched my banana and my granola bar. Found the yoghurt for my father in a different store and saved the day thanks to a kind stranger. I could afford my own banana but she helped me on an emotional level.

Back to giving. I don't want to overgeneralize, how much help or what kind of help a person receives depends on the area they live in. Rural with friendly neighbours vs cities. Small churches that do great work vs faith based charities that buy real estate with the donations. This is a global issue that will get worse and is happening everywhere. If you want to give ask people what they want or need don't judge them and consider that this will go on for a couple of years.

If you can, help the person directly, don't turn it into a big deal. Keep in mind that they have their dignity.

No discussion about politicians please.

Back to regular programming: Caturday

 These are some funny excerpts from Love, Death and Robots, a collection of fantasy and scifi tales, some of which feature cats. Advisory NSFW

Sanchez and thumbringer

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MDkulwiHl1Q

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QDcZ-y3XMk4

Robots after humans are gone (the cats did it)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sq6Xutf79D4

And here are more cat videos 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5DXZAvhISA8