I’ve the Sadness
I am painfully nostalgic for pre-COVID times.
Anyone else?
Walking 2019
Happy New Year! Happy New Decade! Let’s do the annual madness that is my review of last year’s walking stats.
Here they are for January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.
Total number of walks: 348
Total mileage: 4,836.81
Total number of steps: 11,813,295
Total calories burned: 304,776
Total walking time (minutes): 80,420.25 [that’s about 55.84 days]
Average speed (mph) per walk: 3.64
4,836.81 miles is approximately the great circle distance between Seattle, WA and London, England or between Constantine, Algeria and Cape Town, South Africa.
Let’s do as well (or better!) this year.
Claudia’s 365 Days of Music: Year 10 – A Review
Holy crap, y’all, it’s the final year of this project!
Before we get to the stats, let me mention again (since it’s been a few days since the actual blog post about it) that my thorough “Decade of Music” review is coming at the end of January (hopefully). I would like to do it sooner than that, but I just haven’t had the time to compile all of the information I want to for the review. I’ve been way too busy with work.
A disappointment, I know, but hey – we all know I’m really good at being a disappointment.
ANYWAY. Expect that later. For now, let’s just look at 2019:
Total songs: 365
Total time: 23 hours and 59 minutes
Mean song length: 3:45
The Five Stars
Listed in order of acquisition!
Airwaves by Airplanes
Ice Cream by MIKA
Canada Dry (Acoustic) by Barenaked Ladies
Send Me On My Way (Jesse Bloch Bootleg) by Rusted Root
When I Need a Friend by Coldplay
Door by Caroline Polachek
The five most beautiful/touching songs of the year:
When I Need a Friend by Coldplay
Underneath the Stars by VOCES8
Air on the G String by Bach (played on the Whitworth Hall Organ)
The Sound of Silence by VOCES8
Lully Lulla Lullay by VOCES8
The Overall Top Five
Canada Dry (Acoustic) by Barenaked Ladies
This song is simultaneously chill, uplifting, and melancholy. I’ve really gotten into the Barenaked Ladies this year and this song, from their newest album “Fake Nudes,” is definitely my favorite. And I like this live/acoustic version better than the album version because of the piano. So good.
Ice Cream by MIKA
AAAAAAAA MIKA IS BACK! A hot, sexy, summer song with a very catchy chorus. Love it.
Send Me On My Way (Jesse Bloch Bootleg) by Rusted Root
The bass in this song is nnnnnf. This remix takes a pretty chill song and gives it a lot more exciting energy. 1:33 goes BOOM!
When I Need a Friend by Coldplay
Chris Martin has a perfect voice. The only way to improve upon it, as this song demonstrates, is to give him the backing of a choir. This song is just stunningly beautiful.
Door by Caroline Polachek
Caroline has a captivating, haunting voice. The way it’s layered and used in this song makes this song haunting as well. I love the chords in the chorus.
YAY!
Again, stay tuned for the Decade of Music project review…hopefully at the end of the month!
What a Decade
I suppose any decade has the capacity to bring about MASSIVE CHANGE due simply to its length, but this past decade has definitely brought many changes, both worldwide and personally.
For example, 10 years ago today was December 30, 2009. Things that were true on that day include:
- I was 21 years old
- I had a BS in psychology, a BS in philosophy, and had just finished my first semester of grad school at UBC for an MA in psychology
- I was 100% miserable in my grad program and did not want to go back up to Vancouver after visiting Moscow over Christmas break
- I had no desire to ever become an instructor/professor (or whatever the hell you want to call it), especially an instructor/professor of math
- I was not yet walking for pleasure/exercise/sanity
- I suspected I’d never find anyone I wanted to actually legitimately marry. People I liked? Yes. People I thought would like me and would tolerate my nonsense? Nope
- I had 1,340 blog posts on Eigenblogger
Now, on December 30, 2019, the following things are true:
- I am 31 years old
- I have a BS in psychology, a BS in philosophy, I (somehow) finished my time at UBC to get an MA in psychology. I also now have a BS in math and an MS in statistics
- I love living in Calgary and always enjoy going back after visiting Moscow over Christmas break (even though I miss my mom when I leave Moscow!)
- I have been working the past six-ish years to get to where I am now career-wise as an instructor in math/stats
- Walking is my JAM, yo
- I have found my soulmate and love him more than I ever thought I could love someone
- I have 4,992 blog posts on Eigenblogger
Wild. What has changed for y’all over the past decade?
I hope the next decade proves to be even better to everyone.
You Say You Want a Resolution
HELLO, PARTY POOPERS!
It’s that time of the year again where I review all of my FREAKING FAILURES and set up some more FREAKING FAILURES for next year.
So without further delay, let’s get to it!
A review of the 2019 resolutions:
- ACCOMPLISHED: The blogs. As always. Not even a hard resolution, but I keep putting it on here ‘cause then I get at least one “ACCOMPLISHED” on my list, haha.
- ACCOMPLISHED: The musics. There are only a few more days left in this Decade of Music project! MADNESS
- FAILED: Get my music organized before the end of the year. I had every intention of doing this and have a few years organized, but I’ve been S U P E R B U S Y and thus haven’t gotten it all done. Hence my pushing back the Decade of Music review.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Walk 4,000 miles. Done. Easily. I won’t hit 5,000, but I’ll probably be in the 4,800s maybe?
- ACCOMPLISHED: Get back to running 10k distances. I was looking at this resolution list a few months ago and was thinking “hey look, this one’s going to be a failure!” But over the past month or so I’ve picked up running again and just recently started running 10k distances. Hell, I ran 10k today! So that’s coolio.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Win NaNoWriMo 2019. I almost didn’t do NaNo this year, due to – you guessed it – being S U P E R B U S Y. But I did it, I won it, and I actually want to keep working on the story, even though it’s a craptastic premise.
- FAILED: Get my blogs in physical form. Hahaha. S U P E R B U S Y.
- FAILED: Write at least 500 words a day, 5 days a week, until my NaNoWriMo 2018 story is done. Then start editing it. NOPE
- SORT OF ACCOMPLISHED: POST THESE GODDAMN BLOGS. As of my writing this list, I haven’t posted my blogs since the end of September. But I posted a whole slog of them earlier this year, I should get credit for that! …Right?
- FAILED: Be. Better. For. Nate. I’m such a bad wife. I try not to be, but I am. It’s rage-inducing.
And now for the 2020 rez list:
- The blogs.
- Walk at least 4,500 miles. This is assuming that I’ll be teaching all year; if I’m not (heaven forbid), let’s say 4,000 miles.
- Do something with my writing. I don’t even freaking care what, really. Just something. I need to be more consistent with it apart from banging out 50,000 words every November. I want to work on one of my old NaNo projects – maybe this year’s, or 2009’s or 2014’s. Or do something with my old short stories. SOMETHING.
- Run a half-marathon. I don’t want to just run half-marathon distances, I want to run in an actual “official” half-marathon race.
- Run a marathon. See above, but replace “half-marathon” with “marathon.”
- Win NaNoWriMo 2020. Let’s keep the streak going!
- Get my blogs in physical form. I really need to do this. I fear losing them more than I fear losing my own life (priorities: I have them)
- Get a body composition analysis. I have no idea what my body fat percentage is, for example, and I’d like to know. I also want to do this near the beginning of the year and then work to improve it (less body fat, more muscle, that kind of thing)
- I’m going to try to be more consistent in posting these blogs, but pffft.
- I’m also going to keep trying to be better for Nate. I really do try, but I’m absolute garbage, so it probably doesn’t even seem like I’m trying half the time. But I am. Sorry, Nate.
Ugh.
DJ Earworm: 2009 vs. 2019
Since I started my Decade of Music project back in 2010, I’ve made it a point to have each year’s December 31st song be that year’s United State of Pop mashup by DJ Earworm (with his 2009 mashup actually being the first song I downloaded in 2010).
Well, almost as if it was meant to line up with my decade-long project, he’s released short (~1:30-minute or so) mashups of ten 2009 songs with ten 2019 songs.
And they are FANTASTIC.
I love this kind of stuff, yo. It activates my happies (and not a lot of things do that these days).
My favorites:
- Lady Gaga – Pokerface vs Ava Max – Sweet but Psycho
- Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow vs BTS – Boy with Luv
- Taylor Swift – Love Story vs Taylor Swift – You Need to Calm Down (these sound so good together!)
- MGMT – Kids vs Billie Eilish vs Bad Guy
- Flo Rida – Right Round vs Lil Nas X – Old Town Road
- Beyonce – Single Ladies vs Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next
HOT N’ HEAVY RESOLUTIONS MAYHEM
I am IN THE ‘SCOW!
And on a completely unrelated note, let’s do some resolutions.
First, a review of the 2018 resolutions:
- ACCOMPLISHED: Blog-a-ma-thon. Did the blogs daily, but failed at posting them with any frequency whatsoever.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Music-a-ma-thon. I only have one more year of this! I’m super excited.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Walk 3,500 miles. It will be quite a bit more than this, but less than last year’s 5,100 miles. More to come on the 31st!
- FAILED: Do at least one of the following: run in the Calgary Marathon or walk 100 miles in a 24-hour period. I kept busting up my leg. Also I suck.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Win NaNoWriMo 2018. I almost quit like five times, but I didn’t.
- FAILED: Write more. HA YEAH RIGHT WITH THIS FREAKING BUSY YEAR I BARELY HAD TIME TO BREATHE
- FAILED: Another resolution that’s PRIVATE! The reason for failing is also PRIVATE!
- FAILED: Be a better wife for Nate. I’m trying, but I’m also garbage, so.
2018 Resolutions:
- The blogs.
- The musics.
- Get my music organized before the end of the year. After going through like twenty* different laptops last year, my music organization tanked. Gotta fix it.
- Walk 4,000 miles. I had it set at 3,500 last year and that was TOO LOW BRO so let’s bump it up again. This is assuming I’m teaching all year. Let’s say 3,500 is the goal if I’m not teaching and have to get a different job. I HOPE THAT WON’T HAPPEN HOLY HELL
- Get back to running 10k distances. I have no doubt from a muscular/cardiovascular standpoint that I can do a 10k. It’s mostly the injury that I’m afraid of re-aggravating. Also that runner’s knee that I gave myself a while back. But maybe both of those concerns won’t even crop up.
- Win NaNoWriMo 2019.
- Get my blogs in physical form. I’m not sure if my Year 1 is still going to get here or if it’s lost in the great Canadian wilderness that is the postal system up here, but I’d like to get it and every other completed year in hard copy form, preferably as soon as possible.
- Write at least 500 words a day, 5 days a week, until my NaNoWriMo 2018 story is done. Then start editing it. I gotta do it, yo.
- POST THESE GODDAMN BLOGS
- Be. Better. For. Nate.
BRUH LET’S DO IT
*slight exaggeration
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