tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125831032024-03-13T07:45:23.661-04:00Randomness<a href="/"><img src="/img/blog_title.png" border="0"></a>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.comBlogger274125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-47117768209672827332024-01-04T23:18:00.000-05:002024-01-04T23:18:39.838-05:00Three Dozen<p>Today, three dozen years into my life, I had a rather dissonant day.</p><p>I started hopeful and productive, then got a bit overwhelmed as I'd set out to do perhaps a bit too much and was developing a headache, then I <i>really</i> needed a nap, then I woke to lots of birthday messages from friends and family, then I felt worse and worse until I decided to take another test.</p><p>Yup. That cold I picked up the other day appears to actually be Covid. The juror summons I got for my 31st birthday was a better gift!</p><p>I'm trying to not let it diminish my spirits, though, even if it's diminishing my faculties at the moment. I am blessed to have gotten the most important stuff done and to be able to dedicate more time to resting, which my body will need.</p><p>So enough with the blogging. I've hit my limit and am going to bed. Happy birthday to me.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-59955115906342296402024-01-01T23:36:00.000-05:002024-01-01T23:36:42.257-05:002024<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzWHkGS2-WclpWeZ1i7sEu1qyNSAHn-aS5I5wDQEp3nXxCPR9BkC8j2kbnq2NQhNAWikUH0aR6P3wO9nHhyW-9mCD3AgR3mfQUHeGO8eNCsUGpqLCUGtv6mK3nXjbKOkPRe6EydHLaMW7fpbMVOKVQlhAU_KjL8XtAKRuafRZ_b97aBMMN8fFuA/s1314/2024.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="786" data-original-width="1314" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzWHkGS2-WclpWeZ1i7sEu1qyNSAHn-aS5I5wDQEp3nXxCPR9BkC8j2kbnq2NQhNAWikUH0aR6P3wO9nHhyW-9mCD3AgR3mfQUHeGO8eNCsUGpqLCUGtv6mK3nXjbKOkPRe6EydHLaMW7fpbMVOKVQlhAU_KjL8XtAKRuafRZ_b97aBMMN8fFuA/s320/2024.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>2024 is going to be another one of those years, huh?</p><p>One of those years like <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2011/01/2011.html">2011</a> or <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2017/01/2017.html">2017</a> when, sitting here on 01 January, it feels like everything ahead is shrouded in complete mystery.</p><p>Back then, it felt a little daunting. And truthfully, it still does a bit. But this time, it feels more exciting. <i>(Though maybe that's the nice, even number talking.)</i></p><p>This year will continue to represent an era of major change as I continue to recover from the <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2023/12/a-sine-of-times.html">setbacks of 2023</a> and — perhaps because of that — more than usual, it feels like something worth embracing.</p><p>It does mean, though, that I don't have much to write. <i>(What else is new?)</i></p><p>But at least the old strained "<i>hopefully</i>" from the <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2022/01/2022.html">pandemic years</a> has turned into a modicum of genuine hope, I think. Even if I don't know where things are headed, it's a nice feeling that has been missing for too long.</p><p>Anyway, as it pertains to my annual <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Day">doodle</a>, among the more minor setbacks of 2023 was losing access to an Adobe license on any computer that operates faster than molasses. So instead of Illustrator, I whipped this one up a bit more economically in PowerPoint instead.</p><p>Just try to ignore the fact that all of these colors are from the default Microsoft Office palette. I bet you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't told you.</p><p><b>Random tangent:</b> My parents are in the midst of renovating their downstairs half-bathroom, and the new tile went in yesterday. Although there are still several steps before the fixtures can actually go in, the long-awaited visible change led my brother to proclaim "new year, new toilet." I'm sure that's not how it works, but I appreciate his enthusiasm nonetheless.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-58564849210738502362023-12-31T17:11:00.000-05:002023-12-31T17:11:36.653-05:00A Sine of the Times<p>Welp.</p><p>I'm not sure where to start closing out 2023 but "welp". Since I'd ended 2017 <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2017/12/welp.html">with a similar sentiment</a>, I'd posit that maybe it has something to do with years ending on a Sunday — which does feel weird to me despite years beginning on a Monday feeling quite natural — except 2006 <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2006/12/amazing-year.html">was pretty awesome</a>, so it's probably just a periodic coincidence.</p><p>It being a Sunday, there are the usual distractions of football as I write this. But I have to write this earlier than usual, because Mom is performing in tonight's New Year’s Eve Concert at the Erie Playhouse which, while it will surely be entertaining, will take up a bit of extra time this evening.</p><p>So despite the fact that it is still light out as I write this, there is still much of the <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Eve">familiar time pressure</a> to distill the year into something digestible for this blog. Since I hear that a picture is still worth about a thousand words <i>(more or less, adjusted for inflation)</i> and I'm still a math geek at heart, I think my 2023 can perhaps be most concisely described by this sinusoid:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-uL-bnKipKLacegOLvccVp2xmhUvRQHWhHQQH4a0ASX_GDcZjKdkNuCzdrk6YxFZWJeUMqv5aFyrCuOUEoNApdxTAEUyK5RjQoysnWEv235YTuJu40gC2oleKDFGmvPi_6SzU3UimV8qjCRIFMaNflnQIeVYurjFbagCopswJnWcFEmfxLTfdcQ/s1314/2023-sinusoid.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="1314" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-uL-bnKipKLacegOLvccVp2xmhUvRQHWhHQQH4a0ASX_GDcZjKdkNuCzdrk6YxFZWJeUMqv5aFyrCuOUEoNApdxTAEUyK5RjQoysnWEv235YTuJu40gC2oleKDFGmvPi_6SzU3UimV8qjCRIFMaNflnQIeVYurjFbagCopswJnWcFEmfxLTfdcQ/w400-h153/2023-sinusoid.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>Very rough and not quite to scale, of course, but still freakishly accurate in spite of its simplicity.</p><p>In short, while the first quarter of the year certainly wasn't perfect, most of my 23-based <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2023/01/2023.html">cautious optimism</a> was ultimately panning out. By March, I was feeling pretty good about most aspects of my life. That lasted for most of the spring, but heading into May and June things got a little rougher, and then the setbacks truly began in July. Just as April and May were a new apex, October and November were a new low.</p><p>Most people who are close to me know a few details of some of the setbacks that befell me in the second half of this year, and I'm sure those who don't can understand why I am not really going to say much about them here at this time. Frankly, there are very few people with whom I feel comfortable talking about <i>all</i> of them. Needless to say, each was significant in its own way and I've been working with those around me to move forward from each as I'm able.</p><p>And don't despair for me: I wouldn't have plotted the end of the graph as I did if I didn't truly feel that they're collectively moving toward resolution by this point.</p><p>Huh. "Resolution." A bit unorthodox, but I'll take it. Such unbridled optimism is normally far too sanguine for my liking, but I really do <i>need</i> a good dose of it in the year ahead.</p><p>So anyway, much like the passing of the seasons are sinusoidal, so, too, has my year gone. Sure, it's out of phase with the seasons by about 2½ months, but the extremes felt just as wide.</p><p>It's not like I'm hoping for a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmoid_function">sigmoid</a> in 2024.</p><p>And so for a math geek like me who still likes the number 23, all that's left to do is to celebrate one more numerological quirk as we waltz into the new year on 12/31/23, or 1,2,3; 1,2,3.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglN9JxcmF-Xfp63rJYR73DNs45KQtHkamNs_SufHT9QIlNSYqD7csOpzA1kIMIuJDt9cCNhYVPu41R-VIQdOQLMp0vVqkPTyZCRA4ELpPv9bDb_wpDErJsjAO9H9ph9PuvhyTORULXOCCus74LgaT1qDr_xJ3ja5yiLWuWCu7PeIRoM9cwIfNGHw/s960/2023-12-31-count.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="817" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglN9JxcmF-Xfp63rJYR73DNs45KQtHkamNs_SufHT9QIlNSYqD7csOpzA1kIMIuJDt9cCNhYVPu41R-VIQdOQLMp0vVqkPTyZCRA4ELpPv9bDb_wpDErJsjAO9H9ph9PuvhyTORULXOCCus74LgaT1qDr_xJ3ja5yiLWuWCu7PeIRoM9cwIfNGHw/s320/2023-12-31-count.jpeg" width="272" /></a></div><p>Ah! Ah! Aah!</p><p><b>Random tangent:</b> NBC has <i>Sunday Night Football</i> tonight, but as hoped ABC and CBS are both breaking their New Year's Eve programming for news at 22:00 EST for a second year.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-28345704193077804932023-05-14T23:59:00.021-04:002023-05-15T00:08:07.714-04:00Adulting<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv3vC1qlBQvZ4TOTYRr3L-XSYS9U0D3h1OZJkf4y8h6rXNp4_854lsappcZhIKM2c6KQSvhwTXBFGiDKg2vL_QfLCaWIuw9hnQYfPVtxnpJMG9FABBOfM_nwj-l1PG4lWyM6mL_Zhmj46voWX-tWY6DioxIeuqWg_RkP6SI-dEAuHSYk219a4/s660/bloggy-cake18.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv3vC1qlBQvZ4TOTYRr3L-XSYS9U0D3h1OZJkf4y8h6rXNp4_854lsappcZhIKM2c6KQSvhwTXBFGiDKg2vL_QfLCaWIuw9hnQYfPVtxnpJMG9FABBOfM_nwj-l1PG4lWyM6mL_Zhmj46voWX-tWY6DioxIeuqWg_RkP6SI-dEAuHSYk219a4/s320/bloggy-cake18.png" width="291" /></a>
<p>It's Mother's Day, so I spent some time this weekend with family as usual. Yesterday's <a href="https://www.nalc.org/community-service/food-drive" target="_blank">food drive</a> went smoothly and brought in a lot of food, albeit lowest returns in many years. Economic effects have brought more need to the community, which means fewer able to give, and even those who can giving less.</p><p>I also watched my parents perform <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54h8TxJyNy0" target="_blank">Mozart's <i>Requiem</i></a> with the <a href="https://eriephil.org/chorus" target="_blank">Erie Philharmonic Choir</a> last night, which was wonderful. Although I guess the lesson is starting to be reinforced on me that I really need to bring my glasses with me to events like that if I want to be able to discern faces from more than a handful of meters away.</p><p>Since I had to be back in Pittsburgh tonight to get ahead of the coming week, my mother and I kind of explicitly didn't have any plans for the day. But spur-of-the-moment externalities caused it to be a day full of adulting and similar obligations which, while enjoyable, tired me out more than I probably needed. So this is all hastily written (and designed!) in the waning minutes of the day with far less planning than I would have liked.</p><p>Perhaps having adulted today is more appropriate than blogging, though, now that this blog itself is eighteen years old. Old enough to be legally an adult; although in blog years, I think it qualifies as "ancient".</p><p>But even <strike>adult blogs</strike> — er, hmmm, grown-up blogs? — want some bloggy cake! And I won't disappoint!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-3769885634639507852023-01-01T23:58:00.005-05:002023-01-02T00:04:44.368-05:002023<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKbCXc9sx_wIBXAPuQHoHi6wRWh_5PSdDs53GQZrGipXbMpO5J3oghHiuRdVntf4pRDTskPC5gqNru0pXRKm8TX4By5V3bRKB1T5ouBSltlULGaKtPAUII2R6pJPBllcqr6gctjCLBLVKZTndpdLfAldxoB1GF6M8eskGkzLKAybZZ3nZPNE/s812/2023.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="812" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKbCXc9sx_wIBXAPuQHoHi6wRWh_5PSdDs53GQZrGipXbMpO5J3oghHiuRdVntf4pRDTskPC5gqNru0pXRKm8TX4By5V3bRKB1T5ouBSltlULGaKtPAUII2R6pJPBllcqr6gctjCLBLVKZTndpdLfAldxoB1GF6M8eskGkzLKAybZZ3nZPNE/s320/2023.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>For the last couple of months, it definitely felt like 2022 just started, and yet now it's over, and 2023 has begun. I guess that's partly the general pace of life getting back to normal, which of course entails a lot of the <i>mechanics</i> of normal, even though nothing <i>feels</i> normal about <i>how</i> it's getting back to normal. "New normal", I guess. (Bleh, I do hate that phrase, but occasionally it's apt.)</p><p>Anyway, 23 has long been my favorite number, so despite any awkward feelings, I'm determined to make 2023 a good year in at least some ways. And as I start to ease out of vacation mode (and down from the overstimulatory sugar high), I'm already setting it up for a good start, I think. Still: <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2022/12/a-refreshing-respite.html">Approaching cautiously</a>.</p><p>Like <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2013/01/2013.html">in 2013</a>, I leaned toward a serifed three for today's <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Day">doodle</a>. I think it's a good reflection of where I'm at and where I'm heading. It doesn't so much reflect the old strained "<i>hopefully</i>" anymore, but rather — really — genuine hopefulness. And that feels good.</p><p><b>Random tangent:</b> Realizing in the waning days of 2022 that my parents didn't yet have a calendar for the new year, I picked up a Dayspring "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kittens-2023-Wall-Calendar-DaySpring/dp/1648705324" target="_blank">Kittens 2023</a>" calendar while passing through a Wal-Mart. Only when I put it up behind the old calendar did I then realize that the old calendar (which I hadn't bought for them) was a Dayspring "Kittens 2022". Kitties!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-30459629436691606672022-12-31T23:51:00.001-05:002023-01-11T16:48:16.666-05:00A Refreshing Respite<p>Huh. I find myself in the usual position of writing this in the waning minutes of the year, but this time I'm finding it weirdly kinda refreshing, albeit still in the usual and frustrating way.</p><p>In particular, I'm struggling a bit to recap the year that was, in part, because, for the first time in a while, I have quite a bit of optimism for the year ahead. (I suspect I'm not alone.)</p><p>Don't be mistaken: After the trials of the last few years, it'll be critical not to enter 2023 with any particular expectations. Walk in slowly, no sudden movements, don't startle it — all that good stuff. But I think, despite the necessary modicum of caution, there's actually a lot of concrete reasons to be hopeful.</p><p>Work life is progressing. Stabilizing from the peak-pandemic chaos, surely, but not into anything resembling the past. We welcomed new coworkers in April and May to expand our team, and they're already helping bring us well into our next phase of existence, as we continue to have more prominent impacts across campus.</p><p>And yet somehow, personal life is maybe progressing even more? I finally have some decent answers to some long-standing questions. Of course, major answers, while helpful, often beget further questions. So still a bit of work to do there, especially in the weeks ahead. I'm never one for resolutions, of course, but nevertheless poised for progress and positivism there, too.</p><p>Meanwhile, family have been struggling a bit here and there, especially these last few months. Some ups, some downs, to be sure. But broadly a bit more on the better side than the worse side at present, which is a relief.</p><p>In any case, it's been busy, and it's been good to have a bit of a break from it all. During my stay in the Erie area, the weather sure has been, uh, variable: We broke the record low on 23 December with a temperature of –2 °F (–19 °C) on 23 December, only to break the record high a week later on 30 December, with 64 °F (18 °C).</p><p>Ah, home, sweet home.</p><p>Now if I could just get over dealing with the last ten days' worth of sugar.</p><p><b>Random tangent:</b> It looks like all three major networks arranged to break from their primetime New Year's Eve programming for local news an hour early, at 22:00 EST. Makes sense: Not only is the overall pageantry less rushed, but also ABC no longer has to cut away from national just as it hit midnight in Puerto Rico. I hope that's able to stick around in future years, and wasn't just a one-off because this year's broadcasts aren't on a weeknight.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-90712589067712294002022-05-14T23:59:00.021-04:002022-05-15T14:17:11.674-04:00Transitional<p>Did I <i>really</i> say 2022 was going to "<a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2022/01/2022.html">feel about the same</a>" as 2021? Oh, what a difference a few months can make!</p><p>In fairness, I'd said it would be "long and transitional". And now that I can see more clearly where the year is headed, that much has been spot-on. But certainly not in the same sense, no. Whereas 2021 was transitional in a more gradual way that even seemed stagnant at times, so far 2022 is transitional in the OMG IT SEEMS LIKE LITERALLY EVERYTHING IS CHANGING way. It's not actually <i>quite</i> that dramatic, of course — but even good and necessary change, when significant enough, can get a little bit overwhelming at times. Right now, I'm in the thick of that in more ways than one.</p><p>Of course, it's fun that my blog's birthday is around the same time as the National Association of Letter Carrier's <a href="https://www.nalc.org/community-service/food-drive" target="_blank">"Stamp Out Hunger" Food Drive</a> each year, which brings me back to my hometown and, in some sense, the same roots that bore this blog in the first place. But things are also quite different, since I'm literally double the age I was then. Now, at the age of seventeen, this blog is just a few short months away from being <i>just as old as I was <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2005/05/my-first-post.html">when I started it</a>.</i></p><p>Maybe it's time for my blog to start a blog. While it decides whether that's a good idea (it's not), here's some bloggy cake:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRAO3N5Gn4KzZtDxV1oBvjNFV25t7ATim0KrMXp8pRo6hjSdS7JOfmZrQ04h5Ahi2G0APgz9KTxqSQk2pwyp3Rcu8I2d9c7EuD_X66gMbYD5drcp0ECEFujsIcJynjIFbGj40GkVw6yCizaFS9mvf0Dng30hzMpJoTLXwVo44W8BPmmY1kRJI/s648/bloggy-cake17.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRAO3N5Gn4KzZtDxV1oBvjNFV25t7ATim0KrMXp8pRo6hjSdS7JOfmZrQ04h5Ahi2G0APgz9KTxqSQk2pwyp3Rcu8I2d9c7EuD_X66gMbYD5drcp0ECEFujsIcJynjIFbGj40GkVw6yCizaFS9mvf0Dng30hzMpJoTLXwVo44W8BPmmY1kRJI/w231-h320/bloggy-cake17.png" width="231" /></a></div><p>Still, while there's usually proximity, it's not every year that 14 May falls <i>on</i> the Saturday, which means both volunteering for the food drive <i>and</i> blogging on the same day. If that weren't enough, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest" target="_blank">Eurovision Song Contest</a> has been added to my radar in recent years. And I have friends graduating at Carnegie Mellon's commencement ceremony tomorrow, so it was right back to Pittsburgh tonight. And good, novel bloggy cake clipart is increasingly hard to find these days. Busy, busy.</p><p>After that, my mother's spending a little time with me here before I help run a primary election on Tuesday. Did I mention I'm a local Judge of Elections here? Been that way for four years. I'm so bad at this blogging thing.</p><p>And then it's right back to what already feels like the busiest summer season I've had at my job, even before adding in the two new full-time staff that have been added to our tiny team in the past five weeks. (One started just yesterday!) All of the shuffling, divvying, and expansion of responsibilities that entails — while certainly for the betterment of us all — will definitely take a lot of adjustment in the coming weeks and months.</p><p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rRL3xLAUrgE/YoBqEgv2vtI/AAAAAAAE_r8/JFKswXqb7Lgi-X8nwHWNgEcD7POdwI5ugCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1652582927247883-0.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
<img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rRL3xLAUrgE/YoBqEgv2vtI/AAAAAAAE_r8/JFKswXqb7Lgi-X8nwHWNgEcD7POdwI5ugCNcBGAsYHQ/w240-h320/1652582927247883-0.png" width="240" />
</a>As far as the food drive, though — since ya know, that's what's already happened — you could indeed consider it a "transitional" year as we got our bearings back: Folks remembering that the food drive exists, letter carriers remembering how and when to best get the food to us, us remembering how best to process the intake, and also getting used to doing it all in the social hall and food pantry area of the new church building, a building which hadn't even broken ground when we had the last food drive in 2019, and which by now has already been open for more than a year. Today, we took in 3642 lb (1652 kg) of food nonetheless — among our lower totals but still an impressive feat — less a super-consistent 3.58% in spoilage from outdated or damaged foods.</p><p>So it's good to see that, despite the challenges of the past few years, and those that continue, the community's generosity hasn't changed.</p>
<p>Another thing that hasn't changed is my "pandemic hair". Unless, of course, you count it having grown a year longer.</p><p>It was already pretty long in last year's <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2021/05/the-agitation-after.html">post-vaccination photo</a> at the age of just over 14 months. Today, it's pushing two-and-a-quarter <i>years</i> since that last haircut on 27 February 2020.</p><p>I'd kinda missed a good window of opportunity last summer before the Delta variant came roaring through, but now I've got some big things coming up before which I'd like to tame it significantly. I don't think I'll be going <i>straight</i> back to the short hair of the past, but I've gotta get this stuff out of my eyes. And mouth. And all over everywhere. Just gotta find the time first to get it done right. (Ya know, 'cause "big things" and "<i>busy</i>".)</p><p>And the <b>humidity</b> today, oof. The result is not so much "unkempt" as "unkempable". Suddenly all those hair product commercials that once confused me as a child make so much sense.</p><p><b>(</b>Maybe my <i>hair</i> should get a blog? Nah. Besides, it's "transitional".)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-36963872945961737842022-01-01T23:59:00.009-05:002022-01-02T00:11:34.777-05:002022<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoD8T8RTJVVufLIQK_fAjAB0u8JVsjN-3dxxGgmKTLAL4IN_VrD1MuNF9Bo-P-p-R1TzhhsihC6K0y6cLbUdxRE53daQvuR2Wo7I6JXwVWtMcKopqN7898wAo9shxgyx92hyQDauYvbb2Lix9pehUtM2jz-uQxgt6oRxYunUS5WyDbfl4wY4E=s657" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="657" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoD8T8RTJVVufLIQK_fAjAB0u8JVsjN-3dxxGgmKTLAL4IN_VrD1MuNF9Bo-P-p-R1TzhhsihC6K0y6cLbUdxRE53daQvuR2Wo7I6JXwVWtMcKopqN7898wAo9shxgyx92hyQDauYvbb2Lix9pehUtM2jz-uQxgt6oRxYunUS5WyDbfl4wY4E=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p>Well it sure isn't March 2020 anymore, but I still don't know what it <i>is</i>.</p><p>Yeah, the calendar says January 2022, but oof. That's <i>weird</i>, man.</p><p>If <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2021/01/2021.html">last year's New Year's Day feelings</a> were "novel", this year's are really stale. <i>Hopefully</i> things would soon be better. <i>Hoooppefulllllyyyy.</i></p><p>We'll get there. Somehow.</p><p>At least I correctly pegged 2021 as long and transitional. So far, prospects for 2022 feel about the same. But progress upon progress adds up, I suppose.</p><p>Just two glyphs for this year's <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Day">doodle</a>; had to find a good font for twos. I have a feeling that, with their increased prevalence, my handwritten ones (by which I mean twos) will soon decline in quality. I think I'll manage. And given that this year is starting out feeling much the same as the last, it's not surprising that I landed on a similar design.</p><p>Whatever last year's "checklists" have even become these days — gosh, it seems nothing is ever over anymore — here's to <i>progress</i>, whatever that may ultimately mean.</p><p><b>Random tangent:</b> After last night's unusual <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2021/12/muddling-through-middle-y-mush.html">thunder at my parents' place</a>, this morning saw <a href="https://twitter.com/Allegheny_Co/status/1477337906914156544">an unexplained noise around Pittsburgh</a> at 11:24 ET! Theories <a href="https://twitter.com/iamtony_97/status/1477345383013437440">quickly converged</a> on a <a href="https://twitter.com/DianeTurnshek/status/1477370319484723201">small meteor</a> breaking up <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSPittsburgh/status/1477386558239952896">in the atmosphere</a>. 2022 is already coming in with a bang!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-38659865659058162742021-12-31T23:53:00.001-05:002021-12-31T23:53:57.416-05:00Muddling through the Middle-y Mush<p>Gosh, this has gotten tough.</p><p>At least I can rely on starting with a generic statement on just how tough I find this. Why do I do this again?</p><p>This time last year, I wrote of <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2020/12/ending-in-middle.html">ending 2020 "in the middle</a>" of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, a year that went by like mush. Well, if 2020 was mush, gosh, what even was 2021? Just as <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2021/05/the-agitation-after.html">vaccinations</a> rapidly ramped up, plateaued, and even started ramping down… suddenly variants! First Delta and now <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2021/05/the-agitation-after.html">Omicron</a>; or, I guess, δ and ο. Good thing I <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2007/10/life.html">learned the Greek alphabet back in undergrad</a>.</p><p>(Sigh.)</p><p>There's definitely been a sense of collective burnout in the air lately. Maybe my persistence here on this blog is a way to rail against that instinct at this particular moment.</p><p>But gosh, this has gotten <i>TOUGH.</i></p><p>Why are we so inept at testing infrastructure compared to other nations? Sure, the specifics of these variants can't have been predicted but, like, it's not as though we didn't know enough to know that <i>something</i> was likely and that maybe we should prepare for it this time.</p><p>On some level, every time the situation changes course, there's an element of "we've done this before, so we can do it again"; but on another, there's "oh no, not again", coupled with the knowledge that different situations are, in fact, different — who knew!? — and so tend to require rethinking and reinvention anew.</p><p>And absolutely <i>nothing</i> is ever "done" or "finalized" or "settled" anymore. Not that that was ever strictly true, but it at least used to be true enough to count on to a reasonable degree of approximation.</p><p>So there's definitely a Sisyphean empathy going on right now. Or something similarly discomfiting like that. I'm too tired to think of anything better.</p><p>The flip side of different situations being different, of course, means that 2021 has allowed us to get some good things in, though. After a year off, we managed to hold Music Camp in July with surprisingly few material modifications, getting it in just before Delta came onto the scene. As emergency use authorization for vaccinations had only just been approved down to the age of 12, all sorts of considerations and adaptations were considered, and many adopted, allowing us to provide a meaningful experience while cases were near their summer minimums. Had camp come a few weeks later, or the variant a few weeks earlier, the situation could have been wildly different — if it would have been able to happen at all.</p><p>Just one more way in which everything's been a little harder at every turn.</p><p>For all the stresses, work saw a successful semester with predominantly in-person instruction. We're at the point where I, for one, am certainly trying to regain composure from the sort of emergency footing we've found ourselves on for the last nearly-two years, and get back into dealing with a lot of deferred backburner stuff that, in the interim, has grown a bit bigger. Such is the nature of emergencies, of course. The endeavor has thusfar seen mixed results: Such is the nature of <i>ongoing</i> emergencies, I guess. Here's just hoping, however the coming term goes, we're familiar enough with our responses that we can continue to adopt "adapting" into our vernacular, albeit hopefully requiring a bit less of an all-encompassing effort each time.</p><p>Other vague personal developments continue. Again, it's been tough to find the time, the energy, the motivation. While I'd hoped this would be a significant year in that realm, many of those things got backburnered for a bit, too. As we close out the year, I am finding support and at least starting to make progress on some. More in the coming weeks, and further in the weeks after that, I'm sure. 2021 bleeds into 2022: My tasks and goals really fundamentally remain the same. When will they be "done" enough to share? Soon enough, I hope. Finding words is half the battle. Maybe I should blog more. (Ha!)</p><p>Most years have some unique quality to them, even if it's a bit fleeting and hard to pin down. But yeah, this time, I'm really struggling to distinguish 2021 from 2020. Perhaps as I make my way through 2022, that will become a bit more clear.</p><p><b>Random tangent:</b> David's a bit upset that Carson Daly's out of the New Year's scene at NBC, and they've gone with Pete Davidson and Miley Cyrus, it seems. We'll probably check out a bit, but may stay with Seacrest. Also, I heard thunder at 23:38 — not often <i>that</i> happens on New Year's Eve. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-77095062570983336072021-05-14T23:59:00.070-04:002021-05-15T10:14:07.896-04:00The Agitation After<p>Do sixteen-year-old blogs care about cake for their birthday?</p><p>I don't know, but mine does, I guess. And if not, I do. Besides, looking out at the world today, it's a time for celebration. Well, kinda. It <i>definitely </i>feels like it ought to be, but it also <i>definitely</i> feels like it ought not to be. Feelings are weird, man.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kd2WyfH5GuM/YJ9Gvt55g9I/AAAAAAAE2Fo/PuQZY_02xg4DYAVgA2loz28k7l4SGmlbwCPcBGAsYHg/s2640/20210503_102544.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2640" data-original-width="1980" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kd2WyfH5GuM/YJ9Gvt55g9I/AAAAAAAE2Fo/PuQZY_02xg4DYAVgA2loz28k7l4SGmlbwCPcBGAsYHg/w240-h320/20210503_102544.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Vaccination against Covid-19 accelerated so much <i>just over the course of April</i> that late March and early May really have seemed like they were two different worlds. It's hard to understate just how hopelessly things felt to be plodding along, and then — <b>BAM!</b> — suddenly, there's a <i>lot</i> of hope in this new reality. So much, so fast that it's difficult to suspend disbelief. I suppose psychological trauma, in whatever form, will tend to do that.<p></p><p>Each of the last 6 weeks or so has brought rapid change: Just in the last three days, emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine was extended to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/12/pfizer-covid-vaccine-cdc-panel-endorses-for-use-in-kids-12-to-15.html" target="_blank">children as young as 12</a>, and CDC recommendations were updated to reflect that fully vaccinated individuals <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/13/health/cdc-mask-guidance-vaccinated/" target="_blank">no longer need to wear masks</a> in most situations.</p><p>Of course, broader society <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/14/business-money/cdc-mask-guidelines-employers/" target="_blank">remains complicated</a>. Knowing for sure you're actually <i>in</i> one of those safe situations <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/relaxed-mask-rules-rational-or-reckless-205141208.html" target="_blank">is impossible</a>, and while it becomes more likely over time, it's nowhere near a guarantee now. We know that folks need time to adapt well. Just as March and April 2020 were a sudden shock to the system <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2020/05/the-calm-between.html" target="_blank">as we came into this pandemic</a>, it seems that May and likely June 2021 are shaping up to be similar as we come out of it. So, while the light at the end of the tunnel is ever clearer, true <i>celebration</i> does still seem a bit premature. For now, anyway.</p><p>But I did my part and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/timparenti/posts/10108891356137963" target="_blank">got my (Pfizer) jabs</a> on 12 April and 03 May. The first one, I think, was not administered particularly well and my left arm even <i>still</i> has a little stiffness around the injection site today after having been quite sore for the first 10 days, but the second one (in the other arm!) was quick and comparatively painless. After having helped run two elections in 2020 under pandemic conditions, I am incredibly thankful that I will be just past the 14-day post-vaccination threshold considered "full immunity" before the upcoming municipal primary election on 18 May.</p><p>There will be more public excursions to come, of course. At the present moment, all have me anxious, albeit to varying degrees. But all in due time.</p><p>In the meantime, while we work our way up to getting ready to gather again, have some bloggy cake. It's just as shocking that this blog is that old.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qK2mqJ28oio/YJ9CTEKhy8I/AAAAAAAE2FU/VnBMkrp9lzU-5Rcv76GkaXvlUiuJSayXACLcBGAsYHQ/s934/bloggy-cake16.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qK2mqJ28oio/YJ9CTEKhy8I/AAAAAAAE2FU/VnBMkrp9lzU-5Rcv76GkaXvlUiuJSayXACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/bloggy-cake16.png" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-70548661652603040912021-01-01T23:53:00.003-05:002021-01-01T23:53:53.798-05:002021<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8mmt48EtsjE/X-_tZj8xy5I/AAAAAAAEfVY/sCBxuWlXUm0jYAbEbVIfI0MoEVIOfRcSACLcBGAsYHQ/s800/2021.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8mmt48EtsjE/X-_tZj8xy5I/AAAAAAAEfVY/sCBxuWlXUm0jYAbEbVIfI0MoEVIOfRcSACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/2021.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>So, like, this is a novel combination of New Year's Day feelings.</p><p>For one, <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2020/12/ending-in-middle.html">as I mentioned yesterday</a>, it genuinely still feels like March 2020. Given, though, that vaccine distribution, while it will <i>(hopefully)</i> ramp up in due course, will undoubtedly be continuing well into the second and third quarters of the coming year, I suspect the pall of March 2020 won't really feel truly lifted until April 2022 when <i>(again, hopefully)</i> we'll be able to do real "April" things again. Insofar as anyone can really make "plans" these days: What are those? <i>(Every past year's me simultaneously shudders at the thought.)</i></p><p>On the other hand, New Year's Day is, fundamentally, just the day after the last, like any other. Nothing terribly earth-shattering has happened. Twenty-twenty-one is a continuation of twenty-twenty in so many more senses than usual. Twenty-twenty, part two. There's a temptation to affix a roman numeral and call it "2020-II", but that would be too easily confused with the proper name for the following year, when <i>(hoooppefulllllyyyy)</i> far much more of this can be aptly described as "behind us". In the meantime, perhaps more resonant, if a bit defeatist: twenty-twenty came for us, and twenty-twenty won.</p><p>Of course, for most of us, it didn't actually. We've adapted, as humans have done through the ages. It's still important to make plans and to set goals. The key has been to remain <i style="font-weight: bold;">supremely</i> flexible in throwing out plans and goals — often repeatedly — and picking something else that ends up suiting the present moment better. As you can inevitably understand, this is undeniably easier said than done.</p><p>And so, a lot of us have been continually deferring things, which has meant that a lot of us have been talking about 2021 as this bright, rosy thing for quite a while now. And I think it's pretty clear it will have a lot of rosiness throughout, even if the exact timing and nature of those positives isn't yet known.</p><p>But let's not be naïve: We're pretty far down in the depths right now. It will take time to work our way out of that, both individually and collectively, and there <i>will</i> be setbacks along the way. Remember in March when there seemed to be this conviction that we'd be through this in just two months? Postponing events just to ultimately have to postpone them again? That's not likely over. And that sucks. It's real rough in both a logistical sense and an emotional sense.</p><p>Yet all this clearing of space can still — somehow — offer opportunity. For my part, in a year when most normal journeys have been curtailed, I've spent the last five months or so embarking on the latest of my series of <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2013/10/self-discovery.html">journeys of self-discovery</a>. Some of those have been bigger ones, some smaller. Some I've shared <i>(albeit not here; I'm a terrible blogger)</i> and others I haven't. I get the sense that this one is on the more significant side of the scale, which has been daunting at times. But I also feel much better equipped for this trek and I definitely know that I'm far from alone. So that has been helping a lot.</p><p>So when it comes to my goals this year, I honestly — and uncharacteristically — haven't got a clue about the "how" that's ahead of me. Nevertheless, the usually-nebulous hope and confidence that I have actually feels more concrete and tangible than ever. In other words, I think I've got some good leads, guys; and ones that I can probably make real progress on despite the current state of the world. It's quite appropriate, then — though not at all unique — that the name "twenty-twenty" is carried forward as part of twenty-twenty-one, and on through the rest of the decade that lies beyond.</p><p>Not to distill it too far, but this year's gonna be less of a datebook and more of a checklist. "Whenever" is fine. It is Absolutely Fine.</p><p>And while no grand checklist is ever complete, <i>hopefully</i> — can you hear the strain in my voice? — enough boxes will be filled that 2021 will be full of fond and rosy memories.</p><p><i>Hopefully.</i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-60248728224325095002020-12-31T23:57:00.000-05:002020-12-31T23:57:01.812-05:00Ending in the Middle<p>Uh, well. Words <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2020/05/the-calm-between.html">continue</a> to fail. But I'll give it a go.</p><p>How to properly synthesize a year that has come and gone mostly like mush? It's probably not possible, and yet our collective culture remains imbued with the compulsion to try. Myself included. More so than usual, TV presenters and news anchors alike have been signing off their final broadcasts of the year with a far more noticeable, and often overt, "good riddance" than the traditional look back. Fare thee <i>(not so)</i> well.</p><p>If you're familiar with my <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Eve">New Year's Eve posts</a> — and frankly, even if you're not — you're probably aware that it's been a good long while since they've had that "holiday letter" quality where I actually recap the highlights of each month individually in any meaningful sense. I've never really been able to maintain that in the best of times, and — I'm not sure you've noticed — this ain't that. Sure, I often go through spells of a few weeks to a month or so where I feel I'm deeply uninteresting, but this year, I'm not even sure I could pick out much from my life about the average day from late-March through June. That, in itself, is pretty remarkable.</p><p>So, yeah, after muddling through those first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic (which should need no further context), by July, I'd learned a bit about what works for me and what doesn't when it comes to dealing with the "new normal". Although aspects of my apartment had honestly not been serving me too well for some time, it's amazing how quickly a living space can almost completely stop working for you when circumstances change and you end up having to use it quite differently.</p><p>Fortunately, I also spent much of the extra time at home knowing I would soon need to move from my apartment of 7 years. Combined with plenty of time in the space and few things to distract me from myself, that provided sufficient motivation to help me cultivate a level of self-awareness that would be necessary to plan a more amenable setup in the new place.</p><p>Unfortunately: Moving during a pandemic. <i>Still</i> not thrilled about that, honestly. Thankfully, right around a local minimum of cases, which made essential travel and assistance from family possible.</p><p>More recently, though, through the holiday season, it's been worse than ever, nearly everywhere in the US. For my part, the responsible approach has meant a very different holiday period: <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2009/12/hopes-for-new-decade.html">Christmas Eve Chips-'n'-Salsa</a> over Zoom, though my folks started without me! One Christmas family gathering that definitely had a time appointed… and then just not followed through upon. And trying very hard to arrange for <i>some</i> sort of human connection time each day so as to keep my mental health afloat.</p><p>There have been positive moments: One reason my immediate family eagerly dug into the chips without me at first was because they had just come out from the cold, having celebrated a brief and "socially distant" Christmas Eve service with members of their church in the parking lot of its brand new building — finally complete enough after rebuilding from a 22 July 2018 fire which I didn't even mention here <i>(I told you I'm bad at this!)</i> that in any other circumstance, it would have been a major celebration. Instead, services are being recorded inside for the foreseeable future.</p><p>Music Camp had to be cancelled of course, but we did a virtual thing which was centering. I've had some professional and personal accomplishments, too, but it still really hasn't felt right to highlight them amidst <i>(gestures broadly)</i> <b>THIS.</b></p><p>Of course, as I've said before, the end of a year is hardly ever the "end" of anything, but just a reflection point — and, hopefully, an inflection point when necessary. It certainly feels truer than ever now, heading from what might as well be, and in some ways truly feels like, the 306th of March into the 307th.</p><p>I've learned a lot about myself in the last few months, and the work on that — just as our collective work with ending this pandemic — will continue well into 2021. All in all, I think I've actually been managing reasonably well.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
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© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-2527725724803041322020-05-14T23:57:00.002-04:002020-05-14T23:57:31.158-04:00The Calm Between<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eSxMS8G7Zzk/Xr4IUOpWg9I/AAAAAAAD1GA/u41C8JhriDYtZnErpDu9nnUnBI2qC9llgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/bloggy-cake15.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="792" height="247" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eSxMS8G7Zzk/Xr4IUOpWg9I/AAAAAAAD1GA/u41C8JhriDYtZnErpDu9nnUnBI2qC9llgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/bloggy-cake15.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Words fail. But we try anyway.<br />
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By this point, it's cliché and a bit trite to say that we're in unprecedented times, in the midst of an ever-changing situation, living through history… but it's absolutely true. There were certainly jokes early on, when we were comparatively uninformed, but no one really expected at the start of the year that we'd be in the midst of a global pandemic a few short months later.<br />
<br />
Locally, we've come a long way. In just a few minutes, the "Stay at Home" order for Pittsburgh and many surrounding areas, which has been in place <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/governor-wolf-and-health-secretary-issue-stay-at-home-orders-to-7-counties-to-mitigate-spread-of-covid-19/" target="_blank">since the evening of 23 March</a>, will officially be <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/gov-wolf-announces-13-counties-will-move-to-yellow-phase-of-reopening-on-may-15/" target="_blank">lifted</a>. Fifty-two days and four hours in total, just shy of one-seventh of the entire year. A lot has happened since then, and a lot hasn't. Events postponed or cancelled. Plans scuppered, classes virtualized, and goals deferred. But there's also a long way to go: more testing and tracing is needed. There will be future flare-ups in our epidemics and, inevitably, more resultant deaths. May we have the collective and individual strength to face that challenge and keep it manageable. For now, I'm trying to savor the occasional liminal moment of calm in between all the uncertainty, doubt, fear, and anxiety.<br />
<br />
In work and in life, it's been easier than ever to lose sight of my direct impacts. New patterns continue to emerge, and on average, I know I'm doing okay and contributing positively. But on any given day, the reality is that everything is, at best, just a little harder. And the thing about everything being harder is that <i>every </i><b style="font-style: italic;">thing</b> is harder. And those things add up.<br />
<br />
So it was with great relief that I found another piece of purportedly-free clipart without too much trouble so I could bake another bloggy cake for a special birthday blog. With 2020 so far being a year replete with almost every cancellation imaginable, it's important to try to keep the easy streaks alive. It's already digital; no further social distancing is required. ;)<br />
<br />
<b>Random tangent:</b> If this blog were to be anthropomorphized even further and ascribed a female gender, I suppose you could say it's celebrating a <i>quarantinceañera</i>. That is a portmanteau that <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=quarantincea%C3%B1era" target="_blank">exists now</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-92090576074579556962020-01-01T23:57:00.001-05:002020-01-01T23:57:19.479-05:002020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ChnOKj3U7u8/Xg104hjMAPI/AAAAAAADW4U/vGJgM8zMd2IVaPj0_BsIcOzaN5sX-6nTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/2020.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="800" height="183" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ChnOKj3U7u8/Xg104hjMAPI/AAAAAAADW4U/vGJgM8zMd2IVaPj0_BsIcOzaN5sX-6nTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/2020.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Twenty-twenty.</b> A new decade. Yes, <a href="https://twitter.com/ajmkenyon2002/status/1211947780731736065">even in a technical sense</a>. No, I don't remember having this same argument ten years ago. I'm not sure why it's even a matter of debate.<br />
<br />
Just like <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2019/12/another-decade-done.html">last night</a>, I'm really not sure what to write here today. I'd love to mark the occasion somehow, but for a number of reasons — not least of which is some work deadlines I have to resume tending to in a few hours — I have not felt up to the task.<br />
<br />
One thing I <i>do</i> know is that I'm left with a similar sense of <i>je ne sais quoi</i> right now as I had when I embarked on the last decade. (Although looking back, I guess it was <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2011/01/2011.html">nine years ago</a> that I wrote that. Bah. The convergence of math and culture are hard.) In the latter half of the decade now past, I embarked upon my career, so inevitably questions now arise such as "What more am I going to do with it?" And since I'm about to reach a power-of-two birthday, I'm also thinking a lot about life more broadly.<br />
<br />
Not that I'm itching to change all that much. Not right now, and not all at once, certainly. After all, just like I wrote then, today is little more than the day after last. But years and decades are long spans of time, and I certainly don't want to stagnate. (Looking far back, I'm reassured that I didn't actually stagnate as much in as many aspects of my life these past 9 or 10 years as the day-to-day myopic view has often convinced me.)<br />
<br />
In any case, 2020 certainly <i>feels</i> more momentous than 2010 (or even 2011) did. Maybe that's just because it's been talked about for literal years, <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2016/01/2016.html" target="_blank">much like 2016</a>, since basically the day after the last US presidential election.<br />
<br />
Or perhaps, as you may have guessed from my doodle, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1rz4yeHRJI" target="_blank">it just has that Barbara Walters ring to it</a>:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--E5nllv8hOI/Xg12ziv91zI/AAAAAAADW44/ZRs1nNHKWtAYyluxhhetpGtHQa4RymxOgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/2020-abc.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--E5nllv8hOI/Xg12ziv91zI/AAAAAAADW44/ZRs1nNHKWtAYyluxhhetpGtHQa4RymxOgCK4BGAYYCw/s320/2020-abc.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Whatever the case may be, I know there's a lot to come in this year and this decade. Here's hoping it's mostly for good and growth.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-62941109612791201652019-12-31T23:54:00.001-05:002019-12-31T23:54:17.109-05:00Another Decade DoneAnother year through… but this time, I don't feel as though I have much to say.<br />
<br />
In some regards, it's just that I'm not particularly feeling reflective tonight. A mid-week Christmas contributed to a whirlwind holiday season for the family, and so it feels as though I've really only <i>just</i> finally managed to slow down a bit. In other regards, it may just be that at this point in my life, no news is good news. Or at least, not bad. The usual, anyway. Meh.<br />
<br />
Not that <i>nothing</i> happened, of course. My mother visited me in Pittsburgh for two long weekends this year, in both March and September, to help me get out of some ruts and catch up on some ever-needed cleaning. And I visited, as usual, in May, July, and around the holidays. <br />
<br />
In January, I finally found a local dentist, and even though they're a little far away, they're great. I served on a jury for a three-day trial in February, and I moved my office at work in July on the very day I returned to work from Music Camp. Elections were relatively uneventful this year, and all of the normal fall events were successes.<br />
<br />
But zooming out to the whole decade, it's really interesting to see how far I've come. It's amazing how much is hidden at that level: I was still in college ten years ago. Now I'm several years into a career. Careful (and even not so careful) readings of <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Eve">past year-end recaps</a> would show you that it hasn't actually been that effortless. It still isn't.<br />
<br />
But, really, tonight, I'm just feeling thankful most of all. Wrong holiday, but eh. Those are my feelings.<br />
<br />
Happy New Year, all!<br />
<br />
<b>Random tangent:</b> Fox's <i>New Year's Eve with Steve Harvey</i> was excited about breaking the world record tonight for most people performing <i>YMCA</i>. A record which was last set by me and (apparently) 40,147 other people in El Paso at the 2008 Sun Bowl, 11 years ago today. I still participated from home while I watched.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-50744663477021059772019-05-14T23:59:00.000-04:002019-05-15T00:00:21.691-04:00Tumult<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0awqp7C_kAM/XNuJy51Mg4I/AAAAAAAClRM/EAoZ1ANErTkdpQvmfXGPelUCZ6o_03R_QCLcBGAs/s1600/bloggy-cake14.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="648" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0awqp7C_kAM/XNuJy51Mg4I/AAAAAAAClRM/EAoZ1ANErTkdpQvmfXGPelUCZ6o_03R_QCLcBGAs/s320/bloggy-cake14.png" width="206" /></a>
Last weekend, I visited home as I <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/Blog%20Birthday">tend to do this time of year</a>, and my mother gave me a crossword puzzle which contained the clue "Teen turmoil", five letters. After conferring with the crossing clues and determining that the answer was, indeed, "ANGST", I reflected a bit on where I am in life right now.<br />
<br />
Much like my teenaged years which launched this blog, it's recently been a tumultuous time. Of course, it's different — it always is. A lot of big projects and initiatives at work are just kinda… up in the air. This is normally the time of year we'd be figuring out answers and solidly charting a course to get through as much of the list as possible through the upcoming summer months. This year, though, there happen to be a lot of externalities, and so many details remain largely out of our hands, at least for now. Which certainly brings up some anxious feelings, but also, at the same time, maybe is a good thing? It's important to focus one's efforts on what <i>can</i> be controlled, after all. But it is an adjustment, and one that's still in flux at least for a while yet, so that all has left me a bit unsettled.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, my personal life just seems kinda disorganized. My mother came down to my place 22–25 March for a long weekend to help me start the process of reorganizing the physical manifestation thereof <i>(read: cleaning my apartment)</i>. The intent was that that could have been a launching point of sorts, the catalyst required to overcome inertia, but alas, life has had other plans. It seems many of my usual amusements just feel like they're adding to the mental to-do list rather than creating calm. And I don't feel like I have the time I need to step back and assess why.<br />
<br />
Ironically, earlier tonight, I actually only got halfway through a podcast episode about millennial burnout before I found my attention turning to "more pressing" matters. And that's exactly the kind of "mental load" framework it was discussing. I'm hoping there are some coping strategies in the second half, because I need them. And perhaps a little more separation from the busy-ness of the school year might help, too.<br />
<br />
In the midst of it all, I am at least trying to take time to enjoy myself, but it's getting tough to balance. It's unclear to me how much of that is the uncertainty and how much is just executive dysfunction rearing its ugly head, but I'm definitely in a weird funk these past few weeks. For now. This, too, shall pass.<br />
<br />
But at least I can cross one thing off the to-do list: <b>Bloggy cake number fourteen!</b> Digitally baked and served!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-9892760050965320132019-01-01T23:58:00.002-05:002019-01-02T00:09:53.926-05:002019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-930wN4tbj2Q/XCxAj466BSI/AAAAAAACbgA/QreMvYoGdM82h38lQKdB0hNjNguVixfPACLcBGAs/s1600/2019.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="888" height="202" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-930wN4tbj2Q/XCxAj466BSI/AAAAAAACbgA/QreMvYoGdM82h38lQKdB0hNjNguVixfPACLcBGAs/s320/2019.png" width="320" /></a></div>
I have to admit, the nineteen is throwing me off a bit.<br />
<br />
Even though, at work, we've been in the 2019 Fiscal Year for six months already, that largely exists in one partition of my life. There's something a bit different about everyone <i>else</i> using it all of a sudden.<br />
<br />
It wasn't helped, of course, by the branding of <i>Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve '19</i>. Because even though it's been nearly two decades since the last time those two digits appeared together in the year, there are still enough personal milestones, relevant family dates, and the like in my memory that my natural reaction to "nineteen" in such a context is to wonder — "nineteen-what?"<br />
<br />
I suppose one could answer "nineteen-wonderful", if one is a fan of <i>Rudolph's Shiny New Year</i>. Interestingly, though the family has more-or-less settled into a holiday routine in terms of our television consumption, we somehow missed that particular special this year.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, alas, the concept of dealing with "what-nineteen" instead is messing with me, numerically, a bit more than other years have. And it means that 2020, which has often been a nebulous, intangible, futuristic year, is just around the corner. Politicians <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/elizabeth-warren-launches-2020-presidential-exploratory-committee-n953151">are already throwing their hats into the ring</a> for the next cycle.<br />
<br />
I'm back in Pittsburgh now and, while working on my annual doodle, I've been assessing how I'm going to tackle the first few days of the year. The advantage of the short work week ahead, especially having followed the long holiday, is that I basically have my priorities there pretty well planned out already — with room, of course, for adjustments as necessary. But, with an unreliable phone battery, having left the bag containing one (or both!) of its wall chargers at my parents' house — <i>thank goodness for power bricks!</i> — and arriving to a bit of mildew on the sheets in my darkened bedroom, the domestic chores are also going to be pretty high on the list.<br />
<br />
Here's hoping I find the return to work energizing enough that I can start chipping away at it with aplomb, leaving just enough time to celebrate my birthday on Friday. "Get through the week" isn't the most exciting resolution, I suppose, but it'll do for now.<br />
<br />
<b>Random tangent: </b>I think the "9" kinda looks like it's smiling, don't you? It's half the reason I left it the way I did.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-69996812862760495822018-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:002019-12-31T22:36:29.764-05:00Ending a Tiring YearIt's New Year's Eve and I'm feeling awfully tired.<br />
<br />
I'm pretty sure most of that is related to a mild sugar crash from all the food I ate at my grandparents' house while the family was over there to watch Pitt play in the Sun Bowl and have dinner. (Though the game was more enjoyable than <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2008/12/way-over-your-head.html">last time in 2008</a>, it was still a 14–13 loss.) But since this is an annual time of reflection, I suppose it rings somewhat true to how the whole year has gone, too.<br />
<br />
My great-grandmother fell ill in late January, resulting in a quick up-and-back trip back home to see her one last time before she ultimately passed away on 1 February at the age of 103. Then, just as I was getting through the busy season of Carnegie Mellon's Spring Carnival in mid-April, while dealing with a nasty ear blockage (thankfully easy enough to resolve), I got word that my paternal grandmother had been taken to a hospital in Pittsburgh.<br />
<br />
So the next couple weeks were filled with visits until she was transferred closer to her home, leaving me just enough time to deal with the end-of-year craziness at work, and to run my first primary election as a Judge of Elections on 15 May. While we knew her time was ultimately short, there were moments when it looked as though she might live a while longer. And so, just as we entered a period where we were breathing a bit easier, and I'd set aside some time to help overcome executive dysfunction and tackle <a href="https://blog.timparenti.com/2017/12/welp.html">some of those self-improvements from last year</a>, on 15 June, she passed away peacefully in her sleep. I was asked to play some of my music at the funeral which was held five days later — and thank goodness I didn't drive back home in <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/06/20/heavy-rain-flash-flooding-advisories-western-pennsylvania/">the torrential rains that hit Pittsburgh that evening</a>. Before I knew it, it was Independence Day, and then it was off to Music Camp, and right into the preparatory run-up to fall semester.<br />
<br />
I took a little time off, though, in September to recharge a bit by spending a weekend in Maryland with my friend Will from undergrad. This, of course, ended with my return Greyhound bus running nearly four hours late and getting into town around 03:30.<br />
<br />
Then, I was busy as usual in the fall running Alumni Band Day for <a href="http://pbac.net/">PBAC</a> in October and <a href="http://www.demosplash.org/">Demosplash</a> in November, followed by a running much busier general election on 6 November and a whirlwind lead-up to the holidays, including having to suddenly overcome the aforementioned executive dysfunction in early December to get a bit of cleaning done ahead of a visit from the landlord.<br />
<br />
But in the wake of that busyness, I think I set myself up for some successes ahead. And thankfully, the holiday season has been pretty restful. And while I've never been one for resolutions, I actually think I've ended up in a pretty good place, and am ready to build further on it. We'll see what that means a year from now.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-55389871043426425002018-11-27T22:20:00.000-05:002018-11-27T22:31:18.519-05:00L’eep !« L’eep ! » Encore, c’est le vingt-sept novembre.<br />
<br />
Plus ça change, plus c’est pareil : Depuis presque cinq ans, j’ai été en deuil. Tu me manques tellement. Et bien que souvent caché, je suis à jamais affligé. Mais pourtant le monde continue, quoique pas tout à fait comme c’était.<br />
<br />
Je suis reconnaissant de ta présence dans ma vie, à la fois au passé et au présent. De temps en temps, je me souviens à ton esprit et moral, et alors que je ne sache pas toujours comment m’y porte, je m’y tienne chèrement néanmoins.<br />
<br />
Tant s’est passé, et même si je suis toujours la personne que tu as connu, je suis également changé pour le mieux ; évidemment, bien que tu ne l’aies peut-être pas su, tu as vraiment contribué à ce que cela se produise.<br />
<br />
Et donc, je te souhaite une trentième heureuse ! <a href="https://www.facebook.com/timparenti/posts/10106329194440543" target="_blank">Bon anniversaire, mon ami</a>.<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
<br />
“L’eep!” Once again, it’s 27 November.<br />
<br />
The more things change, the more they stay the same: For almost five years, I’ve been mourning. I miss you so much. And while it’s often hidden, I am forever grieving. Yet the world goes on, though not quite as it was.<br />
<br />
I am grateful for your presence in my life, both in the past and in the present. Every now and then, I remember your spirit and optimism, and while I don’t always know how to carry them with me, I hold them dearly nevertheless.<br />
<br />
So much has happened, and even though I’m still the person you knew, I’m also changed for the better; of course, though you may not have known it, you truly helped to make it happen.<br />
<br />
And so I wish you a happy thirtieth! <a href="https://www.facebook.com/timparenti/posts/10106329194440543" target="_blank">Happy birthday, my friend</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-265536797127858542018-05-14T23:47:00.002-04:002018-05-14T23:47:41.445-04:00Teenaged Blogs for Bloggy Teens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WCDGBDg3bBY/WvpUIIyEOXI/AAAAAAACKyc/xUUFIvs02osrR0izGBLNqGt1_jZyau0OgCLcBGAs/s1600/bloggy-cake13.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WCDGBDg3bBY/WvpUIIyEOXI/AAAAAAACKyc/xUUFIvs02osrR0izGBLNqGt1_jZyau0OgCLcBGAs/s320/bloggy-cake13.png" width="252" /></a></div>
Thirteen years ago, I was a teenager… And now, <b>my blog is, too.</b><br />
<br />
Dearest Bloggy, I've surely neglected you, but you've always been there, a faithful archive of… well, something. Those close to me know that the first trimester of 2018 has been a fairly rough one in terms of all sorts of life stuff, and that has coincided with some increased responsibilities as well, which has kept me far too busy to write here. A lame excuse, as ever, I know. But I'm still proud enough of you that I'm still taking a little time to bake some bloggy cake.<br />
<br />
And it's surely a sign of adulthood, but noticing when the people and things you love are old enough to do something is an interesting experience… Like when kids you knew as toddlers are graduating high school, when a friendship would be old enough to be in middle school, or when your mortgage is old enough to drink.<br />
<br />
Maybe not that last one… Another sign of the times is noticing how your sense of humor, ahem, matures. And observing the slight cringey feel of each tweet from the <a href="https://twitter.com/feelingoldbot" target="_blank">"Feeling Old?" bot on Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
But to think: Even this blog is old enough to have its own angsty blog. That's so meta. And <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2005/05/my-first-post.html" target="_blank">back in 2005</a>, blogs were <i>cool</i>. Everyone had one. Now it seems more quaint than anything.<br />
<br />
So, Bloggy, though I'm not sure what else to write you on your thirteenth birthday, I'm pretty sure an angsty teenager like you wouldn't want to hear it from me anyway.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-43392847217365415162018-01-04T23:57:00.003-05:002018-01-05T00:13:55.121-05:00Trigentennial<b>Thirty.</b> Three-zero. Yes, today is the trigentennial anniversary of my birth, which means I'm now 30 years old. Three whole decades. It's yet another big number <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2018/01/2018.html">to wrap my head around</a>, though in this case, I've had a few years' worth of mental preparation.<br />
<br />
After years of considering myself to be in my "mid"-twenties, I realized shortly after turning 28 that that wasn't really going to work anymore. That one came as a bit of a shock, but made me determined not to let 30 sneak up on me. Like I said earlier in the week about this year itself, <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2018/01/2018.html">it's something about those eights</a> that strikes me as inherently anticipatory. Must be why, despite having been born in 1988, I'm more of a "nineties" kid. ;)<br />
<br />
Anyway, I celebrated midnight quietly at home before bed, then — because my job is in IT — woke up reading about the recently-disclosed <a href="https://meltdownattack.com/">Meltdown</a> and <a href="https://spectreattack.com/">Spectre</a> side-channel attack vulnerabilities with wide-reaching implications for <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/security-flaws-affect-every-intel-chip-since-1995-arm-processors-vulnerable/">nearly every machine in production that contains an Intel chip</a>, before getting ready to head into work and coming to an unfortunate realization that one of <a href="https://twitter.com/tedgarb">Ed</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/YarnAndCats">Erin</a>'s cats had probably urinated on both my coat and my scarf when I'd visited last night. So I switched to an old coat with a broken zipper, and braced for the frigid 10 °F (–12 °C) weather.<br />
<br />
Despite the apparent panic in the broader industry, I had a calm but productive day at work, one of just eight between the holidays and the start of spring classes at Carnegie Mellon, so I've got to make them all count. Looped back home afterwards, picked up the soiled coat, and brought it back to my friends' place where they graciously made quick work of "going through the process" to properly clean everything because this happens frequently enough that they thankfully have a process down solid. Then a mellow dinner with them at <a href="http://fuelandfuddle.com/" target="_blank">Fuel and Fuddle</a>.<br />
<br />
Nothing wild and crazy today, nor last night, either, since it's been so cold. It's 6 °F (–14 °C) now and getting down to 0 °F (–18 °C) by morning, and even a bit colder tomorrow night. The <i>Post-Gazette</i> says <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2018/01/01/Pittsburgh-weather-subzero-cold-National-Weather-Service/stories/201801010118" target="_blank">it's the coldest stretch of weather in Pittsburgh since 1989</a>. I don't know by what metric, because I definitely remember colder days, but certainly it's been cold for a long while.<br />
<br />
But I guess I've officially earned my <b>tricenarian card.</b> And I can take out my now-expired vicenarian card <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2008/01/vigentennial.html" target="_blank">which was issued ten years ago</a> and put it next to my old denarian card which I'm sure I was given at some point.<br />
<br />
<b>Random tangent:</b> I definitely taught myself all those words just after midnight today. And apparently rarely-used words like those have quite a few spelling variants.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-63940036288474352692018-01-01T23:45:00.001-05:002018-01-01T23:52:24.045-05:002018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FM4tcjlmf2Y/Wkr8-ZtKWJI/AAAAAAAB5p0/2CsPGmFU3Os9QxyJdDZHIJA_onCil8ZzgCLcBGAs/s1600/2018.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="888" height="207" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FM4tcjlmf2Y/Wkr8-ZtKWJI/AAAAAAAB5p0/2CsPGmFU3Os9QxyJdDZHIJA_onCil8ZzgCLcBGAs/s320/2018.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_1150289314"></span><span id="goog_1150289315"></span>Okay, real talk: The concept of twenty-eighteen is just <b>boggling</b> me. It kind of has for a while, and it <i>really</i> is now that it's here.<br />
<br />
As I've noted in the past, <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2014/01/2014.html">I tend to take the onset of even-numbered years more in stride</a> and with a more generally positive outlook. My mother often makes similar remarks at New Year's; to her, even years "just feel right". And on an intellectual level, yeah, it makes sense. It still manages to jive somewhat on paper, despite feeling like an astronomically big number and yet literally not being that much larger than anything else we've dealt with recently. But really, less than a day into it, something about 2018 just feels… <b>off.</b><br />
<br />
It certainly wasn't the first day itself. It was a perfectly reasonable holiday, prefaced by traditional New Year's Eve Nachos, and <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2017/12/welp.html">ringing in the new year with my parents at their house</a>, although my brother was out attending a party elsewhere. After indulging in staying up somewhat late, I slept in a bit, but not unreasonably so, spending most of the morning helping my mother take down a few Christmas decorations and gathering up all of my belongings from my extended holiday stay to prepare to return home to Pittsburgh. And then a bunch of the extended family assembled once more for one last Christmas hoo-rah! before dispersing for the season.<br />
<br />
But somewhere in there, I think — maybe — I've cracked the case. At least kinda. As it happens, part of today's hybrid holiday celebration included a cake (delicious and raspberry-filled from <a href="https://www.wegmans.com/">Wegmans</a>) in celebration of my upcoming 30th birthday later this week. And now that the custom of starting our years with "two"s is itself old enough to be an "adult", it all just feels a little… <b>odd?</b> Even if it's even. <i>(Heh.)</i><br />
<br />
That and, with the benefit of nearly a decade's hindsight, 2008 and 2009 were both quite formative years in my life and self-discovery at the start of my twenties. So the similar-looking 2018 and 2019 just seem like they already have high expectations for my thirties? It's interesting, anyway, how the numbers we grow up around leave their lasting imprints on us over time, even when they come up in different ways. Or maybe that's just me.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I really never go into any real detail about any of the symbolism behind <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Day">my yearly New Year's doodles</a>, and to be honest, a lot of the choices are just avoiding overt reuse of past designs. This time, though, I knew pretty early on today that these greens would feel right. It's a hope for a year of renewal, perhaps… forward-thinking, looking ahead. The "eight" — as well as the "nine" to come — simply acts as melodic tension as the chords of life naturally resolve toward the next decade.<br />
<br />
Of course, nothing about life actually resolves itself so neatly like that, and the whole symphony, broadly defined, doesn't really ever end. As it is, I'm about to enter my fourth decade of life, and by that frame of reference I could just as easily make a similar argument about the two years just past as the two forthcoming. Round numbers tug at our hearts and tell good stories, or something like that.<br />
<br />
But between the onslaught of world news and politics, increased responsibilities at work, and shifting aspects of my social life, a lot of 2017 has been a near-constant struggle to stay simultaneously well-informed, personally productive, and mentally well. The old adage, adapted for the modern era, is that you can only really have two of those three at a time, and certainly in any given month the winners and losers have varied. I think I've been managing mostly not to neglect any one of them for too long, but it's been hard.<br />
<br />
And so, if 2017 was a year in which I felt somewhat downtrodden and laden with various burdens of life, 2018 is a year in which I hope for some "fresh air", whatever that might mean for me in the months that lie ahead. A year in which I'm more intentful in actively adjusting my lifestyle to suit my style and set my course. Maybe those actually <i>are</i> high expectations, but at least they're truly self-imposed, and I'm actually pretty confidently in a good place for once… <b>so let's keep going.</b><br />
<br />
See? I knew I could turn it all into a positive.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-52710382002234556932017-12-31T23:50:00.000-05:002018-01-05T00:14:38.373-05:00Welp.Hmmm…<br />
<br />
Apparently I had aimed <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2017/01/2017.html">at the outset of this year</a> to improve my fitness, be more diligent about housekeeping, and make more intentful connections with friends. And, well, a lot of that sure sounds familiar… because it's a lot of the same goal-oriented thoughts I've been having in more recent months, too. <b>Welp.</b> Maybe I should intentfully read over my blog posts at intervals throughout the year. <i>(Or maybe keep it at the front of my mind by just writing here more often, lol.)</i><br />
<br />
This isn't to say that I haven't progressed in the past year. Just in perhaps less-visible ways. After nearly a year of part- and full-time hourly work, I officially became a salaried employee in April, which has come with its own twists and turns. Being a big part of a small team is thrilling and challenging, but at the end of the day, it's often hard to fully step away from whatever might be weighing on me at work. Often, I've been surrounded by various activities and friends which have helped me to keep some semblance of balance. Other times, some of my least-helpful coping mechanisms from my long-hours grad school days come back to haunt for a day or two. But all in all, I've been doing pretty well. Here's to continuing to hone and adjust that life balance in the future.<br />
<br />
Anyway, in some sense, I've managed to recharge over this holiday week. Unfortunately, a <a href="http://www.weather.gov/cle/event_20171225-20171227_Erie_Snow">major lake-effect snowstorm</a> on Christmas Day and a second round at the end of the week contributed to our not making it out to some family gatherings this year. Officially, <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidWolter1/status/947235384467034112">84.3 inches (214 cm) of snow</a> fell at Erie International Airport between 24 December and today. So, I'm a bit restless with cabin fever and ready to get back at my goals, whatever they are.<br />
<br />
<b>Random tangent:</b> Even though we'd lately not been caring much for his show, I feel bad for Carson Daly this year. With New Year's Eve on a Sunday, NBC opted to rely on their <i>Sunday Night Football</i> program, but then the NFL decided not to flex a game to the evening slot, leaving a schedule gap <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BdWWQL1FGxL/">that couldn't be filled with New Year's Eve programming in time</a>. So they got stuck rerunning <i>Dateline NBC</i> and two episodes of <i><a href="https://www.nbc.com/the-wall">The Wall</a></i> instead.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-42540756640512842272017-05-14T23:59:00.001-04:002017-05-15T00:03:40.509-04:00A Dozen Years of Bloggy!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's a time for celebration! "Randomness" is twelve years old today!<br />
<br />
I've baked the <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/Blog%20Birthday">traditional bloggy cake</a> for this inarticulate pre-teen, and all is well.<br />
<br />
I've been back in my hometown of Girard for the weekend, to help out again with the National Association of Letter Carriers' <a href="https://www.nalc.org/community-service/food-drive">"Stamp Out Hunger" Food Drive</a> and to celebrate Mother's Day with my family. The Girard and Lake City community donated 4676 lb (2121 kg) of food, which we were much better equipped to handle this year than <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2016/05/exhausted-in-good-way.html">last</a>. Mom and I went to see the University of Notre Dame Concert Band, who happened to be in town putting on a local benefit concert, and then the family had dinner with my grandparents and my now-103-year-old great-grandmother.<br />
<br />
All that has left this weekend pretty jam-packed. So this blog post is short, in part because I had to keep my daily streaks in <a href="http://www.pokemongo.com/">Pokémon GO</a> alive before midnight, <i>as well</i> as the usual race against the clock to finish this post. Busy, busy!<br />
<br />
I should write about my actual life here, too, soon, because it's actually pretty good lately. (A welcome change!) But for now, <b>happy birthday, Bloggy!</b><div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12583103.post-83228596914741804202017-01-01T23:58:00.000-05:002017-01-02T00:20:49.677-05:002017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div>
I'm not quite sure how to start things off.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
That about sums up my feelings on this blog post, as well as this year.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Just like I felt <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2011/01/2011.html">at the dawn of 2011</a>, with literally nothing bearing down on my life's calendar, 2017 is starting off as its own enigma. Maybe it's something about prime-numbered years (I doubt it).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Six years ago, I took that relative freedom as an opportunity to reset my bearings and chart a new course. Where I'm at today is the complex result of that journey. It's not exactly where I was aimed at the outset, but it just might be a better place.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Similarly, this year I recalibrate and adjust, having reached enough of one set of goals that it's time to start forming the next. It's an opportunity that ought to be taken, even if tomorrow feels the same as today, since life doesn't typically allow for such compartmentalization.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But I think my next major goal, life-wise, is better <i>de</i>compartmentalization.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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To wit, I finally managed to get my hands on a piano a few times over this holiday season, and it felt really good. Here's to trying to restore music, which has often had to take a back seat the last couple years, into my natural balance.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This ties into thoughts I have about my general health and fitness, getting more cleaning done around the apartment (a chronic struggle!), and more intentfully fostering friendships both new and old. I've never been one for resolutions (certainly not in January), but I think most of this stuff is in the scope of typical American resolutions and is stuff I'd be interested in working on anyway. So, eh.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And maybe I want to get a little better at graphic design for <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/search/label/New%20Year%27s%20Day">these annual doodles</a>. <b>;)</b> I never want to get to the point where this post just feels like "another year, another doodle." I was a little rushed this evening, as I was actually, ya know, enjoying the day… but I think I keep doing alright at making this meaningful, if for no one else but myself.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anyway, now that I've gotten out of the instability of the past few years and <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2016/12/taking-step-back.html">moved onto a pretty stable work situation</a>, the sorts of "life goals" I have this year seem a bit more actualizable this time around… even if I have no clue what the end result might be, or if "I'm not quite sure how to start things off."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'm pretty sure I'll figure most of it out.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Random tangent:</b> Compared to other years this decade, saying "twenty-seventeen" seems a little long and unwieldy, but it really isn't. <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/2007/01/2007.html">I pointed out in 2007</a> that "two thousand seven" was the same number of syllables as "nineteen ninety-nine". Not only is "twenty-seventeen" also just five syllables, but those syllables have the same accents and emphasis as most years in the 1990s (apparently, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochee">trochee</a> and an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapaest">anapæst</a>, now that I look them up). We'll be fine.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><br/>
--<br/>
© <a href="http://www.timparenti.com/">Timothy J Parenti</a>. All rights reserved.<br/>
<b>Comments are welcome and encouraged at <a href="http://blog.timparenti.com/">http://blog.timparenti.com/</a>.</b></div>Tim Parentihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877370325672076940noreply@blogger.com0