Top Books of 2023 (LIES IT’S ALL LIES)
Yo.
So I had every intention of doing a “Top Five Books I Read in [insert previous year here]” thing like I’ve done the past several years. But…
a) I only read 12 (?!) books this year, and
b) Nothing even remotely compares to War and Peace.
I’m not kidding. I can’t make a “top five” list because all the other books are all at the same-ish level and War and Peace stands mountains above them all. I guess maybe Andersonville is a bit higher than the others, but still. A “top two” list? Nah.
War and Peace is my “top books” from last year.
Fight me.
Walk da Walk, Run da Run (2023 Edition)
Is it walking/running stats time yet?
YES??
WOOOO!!!!
Here are my walking stats for January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023.
Total number of days walked/ran: 365
Total mileage: 6,515.09
Total number of steps: 14,228,321
Total calories burned: 479,577
Total walking/running time (minutes): 95,233.67 [that’s about 66.13 days]
Average speed (mph) per walk/run: 4.55
6,515.09 miles is approximately the great circle distance between San Diego, California and Naples, Italy or between Helsinki, Finland and Cape Town, South Africa.
I beat last year’s mileage by almost 1,000 miles. Almost. I should have tried harder.
Anyway.
I’m pretty sure Nate will divorce me if I keep ramping this up, so I took the preventative measure of only walking 16 miles today, as the first day of the year basically sets the precedent for the rest of the year.
Edit: the fact that I’m not going to be breaking an old record this year has taken away a big portion of my already very tiny will to live. So that’s fun.
Music: 2023 Edition
One of my favorite end-of-the-year things to do is to give y’all my top musical picks (as I’m sure you all know). So let’s get to it! These are my five favorite songs from 2023.*
*Note that these songs are ones that I’ve discovered in 2023, not necessarily ones that were released in 2023.
Call On Me performed by SYNTHONY
Eric Prydz’ Call On Me has been one of my favorite songs since…whenever I first heard it (way back before 2009). Add an orchestra to it and you get this year’s top song. This has such an awesome energy and I LOVE how much you can hear the strings.
Freaking love strings.
http://www.nevergetoveryou by Prozzak
This is such a catchy song. I found this over the summer and my poor mom had to listen to it on repeat when I was down in Moscow with her, haha. I love how it uses the ICQ “uh-oh!” sound (which also happens to be my text notification sound).
Pompeii MMXXIII by Bastille and Hans Zimmer
Adding Hans Zimmer’s influence to anything automatically makes it better, but there aren’t a lot of songs that work as smoothly with that influence as Pompeii. I love what the orchestra adds to this already beautiful song.
Aquatic Ambience by Scizzie
So I mentioned this back when it was really popular on TikTok as background music for slide videos featuring pictures of 90s/early 2000s nostalgia. I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently it actually samples a bit of music from the song of the same name from the game Donkey Kong Country, which came out in 1994. So maybe that’s why it’s hitting the nostalgia button so hard? Though I’m sure I’d never heard that song before. Regardless, 0:15 evokes a feeling that is difficult to describe.
Variation 15 by Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer
Even without the scene from “Dunkirk” that this music accompanies, this holds so much emotion, pain, and release. “Home” is definitely a close second on this soundtrack, but this one beats it out because of that build starting around 2:40.
Are we at the end? ARE WE AT THE END????
Yes, we are. So it’s time for some res-res-resolutions!!!!
(I had sugar before this, so beware)
Let’s review the 2023 resolutions and see what a disaster life has been this year, shall we?
- ACCOMPLISHED: Blog daily. As always. Done. As always.
- FAILED: Post all backlogged blogs. Yeah, they’re still in the Word document. There are like 340 pages now, hahaha. I’m really going to try to get them posted in the next few weeks, though.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Walk/run 5,000+ miles. Yup! A blog on this will come soon.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Run a marathon. I finally did it, yo! I’ve actually run…15 of them? 16? Something like that now.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Complete another complete draft of my 2020 NaNoWriMo. Yes! I completed a new draft in May and I’m almost done with an edit of that draft. I should hopefully have another one by the end of the year.
- FAILED: Write more in general. I did not. I just worked on my 2020 NaNo.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Draw. Technically I drew something this year. It was just one thing, but hey, you make a vague resolution, you can meet it in a vague way.
Let’s see what we can do in 2024.
- Blog daily. Ye olde standard.
- Walk/run at least 5,000 miles. I’ll hopefully do more than this, but this is always a good baseline goal.
- Run at least five (official) marathons. I plan on doing more than five marathon distances, but let’s try signing up for at least five official marathon events. They can be virtual.
- Run at least one (official) ultramarathon. Minimum distance: 60 km. This can be virtual.
- Run a sub-4-hour marathon. I know that’s a low bar, but I’m slow.
- Do something with my 2020 NaNo story. Hopefully more than just another draft. I’d like to take the next steps in getting this story out into the ether.
- Do some non-writing creative stuff. I realized earlier that while I have been doing “creative stuff” in the form of writing, I haven’t done much in any other way. I’d love to be able to do some drawing or painting or something this year, so let’s put it in stone in the form of a resolution. Let’s say…three drawings/paintings minimum.
- Buy fewer frivolous/unnecessary things. Basically, I want to be more careful with my money. More conscientious of my spending. This is a hard one to quantify, so let’s say (as at least something to track) I can only buy a “frivolous treat object” once every two months.
- Take at least two French classes in my progression towards the certificate. This one is pretty self-explanatory.
- Get the DAMN BLOGS POSTED
- Limit my “down time” screen time. I’m good at losing way too much time to Twitter and/or TikTok. I don’t want to completely remove these sites from my use, but I do want to limit my time on them. So let’s say…I can have three 15-minute intervals of “down time” screen time over the course of the day.
I’ll add more if I think of more!
THE MASHUP IS HERE!
Thank you for the Christmas present, DJ Earworm.
Oooo I like this one. I’m surprised that there’s not more Taylor Swift, but he must cut the year off at some point so that he can, you know, actually make the mashup. So maybe more of her songs will be in the top 25 next year.
Chaosball
Yeah, this has been a pretty wild season for many reasons. This video sums it up very nicely.
I’m sure more insanity is to come.
r/place 2023
Because I posted a timelapse of last year’s.
Needs full screen mode.
Claudia’s Big Bad Year of Doing Stuff
So.
I have things I want to accomplish this year.
To help keep track of them (and to allow for a reflection on progress later), I’ll list them here. Note that this list may update as the year goes on AND that these things are in no particular order.
THING #1: Apply for tenure
The obvious big one. I can’t get tenure this year (the application process goes from May – May), but I can get my application in and hope I get tenure next year.
THING #2: Take at least two French classes through the Continuing Education program
One class is currently in progress; I’d like to take another either in the spring semester or the fall semester.
THING #3: Run a marathon
Preferably an “official” one (like the Calgary Marathon) and preferably in person, but who knows with COVID. I’d at least like to run the distance at some point.
THING #4: Beat last year’s walking/running distance
I guess is kinda sorta a New Year’s resolution, but I’m putting it here anyway.
THING #5: Go to a Coldplay concert
I love Coldplay. Being able to actually see them live would be SO FREAKING COOL. I’m putting this on here so that I don’t try to back out, assuming (again) that COVID is manageable via masking, etc.
THING #6: Do at least one full story revision
I’m partway through a big revision right now (I’ve got a lot to go, haha); I’d like to be able to do at least one full revision to make the story more cohesive and better overall.
THING #7: Apply for Canadian citizenship
I’m finally eligible for it now, so let’s goooooooooo
That’s it for now! We’ll see how it goes.
We Do This Every Year!
As I’m sure you all remember, December 27th is the day of the New Year’s Resolutions. So let’s check out last year’s and make some new ones, eh?
A review of the 2022 resolutions:
- ACCOMPLISHED: The blogs. They’re still being written daily, but they’re currently sitting in a 236-page Word document instead of being posted on WordPress. Because I’m lazy as all hell.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Walk at least…let’s do 5,000, why not. You’ll get a more in-depth review of this on January 1st, but it has been accomplished!
- ACCOMPLISHED: Run three times weekly whenever possible. Yup! I only missed this when absolutely necessary.
- FAILED: Complete a new draft of my 2020 NaNoWriMo. I worked on this a little bit, but I was way too busy to do a completely new draft this year.
- FAILED: Win NaNoWriMo 2022. Didn’t even do it this year. I’m a loser!
- FAILED: Run a marathon. I’m still not there yet. But I’m working on it!
- ACCOMPLISHED: Continue to get blogs in a physical format. It’s a slow slog, but it’s happening!
- FAILED: I MUST WORK OUT MY ARMS! APPARENTLY NOT!
Peh. Let’s see if we can do better in 2023 with the following:
- Blog daily. As always.
- Post all backlogged blogs. It’s getting out of hand, yo!
- Walk/run 5,000+ miles. This is becoming pretty standard, too.
- Run a marathon. The fact that I’m actually training for one is a good start, I think
- Complete another complete draft of my 2020 NaNoWriMo. This is, of course, a carry-over from this year. But I need to do it.
- Write more in general. I’m not saying I’ll do NaNoWriMo 2023 because who knows how busy the fall will be, but I should be writing more. That’s the only way you get better at it, after all.
- Draw. That’s it. That’s the resolution.
ONWARD!
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