Saturday, December 31, 2016

Goodbye 2016!


A lot of commentary out there that 2016’s been the worse year since, oh, I dunno, 1939 (the start of World War II)? 1861 (the start of the Civil War)? 1328 (the year the Black Death spread through Europe)? 666?

I can’t say I agree. In fact, 2016 was a great year around here for me and my family.

About that whole election thing, well, Hillary’s not going to be President. So there’s that.

About the economy, hmm, I’ve been working since the beginning of June and we’re actually back in a pretty good place, finance-wise. So there’s that.

The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years. Now, we’re not Cubs fans, but my father-in-law down in Hilton Head is (he grew up in Chicago seventy-some odd years ago), so we were pretty excited for him. And the Cubs dispatched the Giants on the way, the team who dispatched my Mets in the Wild Card. So, there’s that, too.

And speaking of sports, 2016 was the year Peyton Manning went out in a blaze of glory with his second Super Bowl win, avenging a horribly embarrassing loss two years prior. Since we’re Eli fans, we’re de facto Peyton fans, so there was that.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: 2016 vs. Celebrity in a year-long death match.

In music, we lost: Pierre Boulez, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Maurice White, George Martin, Keith Emerson, Frank Sinatra Jr, Steve “Seven Bridges Road” Young, Lonnie Mack, Prince, Paul Kanter, Leonard Cohen, George Michael. Other celebrities who passed on to the Great Beyond: Nancy Reagan, John Glenn, Antonin Scalia, John McLaughlin, Gene Wilder, Alan Rickman, Muhammad Ali, Arnold Palmer, George Kennedy, Garry Marshall, Jose Fernandez, Kenny R2D2 Baker, and Carrie Fisher and her mom.

And this is by no means a comprehensive list.

And there still are a few hours left in the year …

Let’s switch gears and look forward to 2017. What about 2017? Resolutions, and all that?

Well, to be honest, I’ve been so busy of late I haven’t made any resolutions. Little One has, resolving to get the rest of her family in shape. I’ve walked three times this past week with her, and she harrumphs and murmbles whenever I reach for a soda or a slice of pizza (I’ve had neither in the past week…).

Yeah, so I’m going with that, the health thing. (How’s that for conveying single-minded intensity?) No, seriously. The wife and I have been discussing this for the past couple of weeks, planning and waiting to get the holidays out of the way. I’m a firm believer in the mind-body connection, and in the upcoming months I need all the energy I can get. So we’re revamping our habitual eating patterns (hint: google Dr. Ian Smith) and resuming short, daily workouts. The object is to make it so it’s not even noteworthy anymore. That’s 2017 for me.

And for you?

Well, I wish you all a


SAFE and HAPPY

HEALTHY NEW YEAR!





Friday, December 30, 2016

2016 Hopper Best-Ofs!


Well, twas a krazy year for me. I don’t think I’ve ever traveled so far in the span of 12 months. This time a year ago I was unemployed, with no prospects as they say, depressed, drifting, living basically day to day if not hour to hour. Now, one terran solar revolution later, I’m seven months in to a decent job I can do with my eyes closed and getting ready to start a part-time nightly career doing something I’d never thought I’d do. The absence of that living-paycheck-to-paycheck thing is a beauteous thing.

Anyway, “TAX” would be the dominant “fad” or “vision” for the year. So I’m taking it off the table for this post. At the end of every year I like to think back on the types of books I’ve read, movies and shows I’ve watched, music I’ve listened to, and other fads that might have consumed me. Then I let you know of the best one. If one really, really, really sucked, I let you know about that.

Now … without further ado …


Best Book Read

Moby Dick (a reread; first traversed in 1998; a thousand-percent better this time around for some inexplicable reason)

Following closely by a pair of mutinies … The Caine Mutiny and Mutiny on the Bounty

Bounty is reviewed, here.

Strange note: 8 of the 53 books I read this year were tax/economy related…

Otherwise, I read a fairly equitable and diverse grouping of books. Some history, some sci fi, some fantasy, some religious, some fringe-y, some Westerns, some classics. It was a good reading year, though I for obvious reasons had an unusually difficult task of carving the time to actually disappear to a quiet spot to get lost in a book.


Worst Read

Deerslayer, reviewed here.


Best Movie

The Revenant

Thought Keanu (the movie about gangsters stealing this dude’s kitten) was really funny and bizarre.


Worst Movie

Sausage Party was pretty bad. So was Jason Bourne. Couldn’t make it 15 minutes in to Deadpool.


Best TV

Breaking Bad, entire series in its awesome entirety, watched during three weeks in March.

My lengthy if tardy take on Walter White, here.


Worst TV

Uh, I try not to waste too much time on the boob tube. I only really watch a couple of shows with any degree of regularity. That being said, I’ve been extremely down on Walking Dead this past fall. Thoughts on that whole turning, here.


Best Music

Dunno … again, it wasn’t a musical year for me, which is strange ’cause I grew up always listening to stuff, learning guitar, playing in a band from 86-96, then delving deep into jazz, classical, and opera. Past five, six, seven years, though, barely listen to anything. Didn’t buy a single CD all year. My girls taught me how to download songs on my iPhone, and I downloaded an old Rush album, but haven’t listened to it.

If you put a proverbial gun to my head, I’d have to reach back and pull out a fossilized gem, “You and Me” by the Moody Blues. I had much excitement about the tune, explained here, and probably listened to it more than any one thing the entire year.


Fads

First and foremost – Work! (began June 1 and continuing …)

Secondly, starting my tax preparer certification process (began September 12 and continuing …)

Third, the March madness of Breaking Bad

Finally, the literary fads:

- Sea-faring novels (Moby Dick, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Caine Mutiny, The Terror)

- Return to WW2 (in January) and the Civil War (in October)

- Peaceful Warrior stuff (movie and book, in April)

- Revisit of The Lord of the Rings (July-August)

- Some UFO books (spread out over the summer)

- Coin collecting (brief June fad)

- Some Bible reading (Psalms, Genesis, Exodus, Mark) over course of the year


Aaaaaand that was basically Hopper’s 2016.


Most fun fad though? Impossible to decide – I loved them all, and still do.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Princess Leia




She was probably my first innocent crush, as a nine-year-old boy during that summer of 1977. I was swept up in Star Wars mania back then, as we all were, having seen the movie twice, read the novelization, and received a ton of merchandised toys that Christmas. Though I haven’t been a fan of the franchise since 1983, Luke, Leia, Han, Ben, the droids and Darth Vader are part of some of the fondest pre-adolescent memories I have.

Rest in peace, princess.



[Shocked that 2016 has claimed another part of my youth …]


Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Christmas Recap 2016


Well, for the first time in … forever, I’ve had a four-day holiday weekend where I got paid for the Friday and Monday without having to take personal time. The company that’s employed me for the past seven months was officially closed those four days. What a nice, pleasant surprise (though I knew of it far in advance). Working for these people won’t make you a millionaire, but the benefits are sweet and they give lots of paid time off.

So that was cool. The little ones had school on Friday, so after dropping them off I worked a bit on my online training for the night-time tax-preparing job, taking and passing one of my required tests. In the afternoon I ran a bunch of last minute errands (mostly buying booze for family and friends). Borrowed an audio book “biography of Plato’s Republic,” and listened to it all afternoon, which made the errands enjoyable and beat talk radio hands down.

Saturday we drove over to my brother’s house to spend Christmas Eve with the extended family. Always a great time. Chugged some good beer, ate some excellent filet mignon and lobster (a once-a-year tradition), opened some presents. Had to leave after dessert as both my girls were scheduled as altar servers for the 10 pm Christmas Vigil mass at our church. Did that, congratulated the priest on an interesting sermon, took some photos against the crèche. Got home around 11:30, put the girls to bed, and then the wife and I finished wrapping gifts and placing everything under the tree in the living room.

No rest for the weary at Christmas, though. The girls woke us at 6:20 am, and somehow I manifested an extraordinary effort of will to haul my bleary carcass vertical. We opened gifts downstairs for the next hour. I did some more tax learnin’ while the wife made her renowned breakfast braids for brunch. The four of us watched Home Alone, then we all drove two towns over to our friends’ house for more gift giving and, well, drinking. For those keeping score at home, I had some German beer, a chocolate-tini, and a Bailey’s Irish cream with vodka variant.

Monday was relaxing. The wife had to get up and go do that insane “buy-discounted-leftover-wrapping-paper-with-a-hoarde-of-other-crazed-women” things. This enabled me to sleep an extra three hours – until eleven am! She returned and took my oldest and her friends to see Passengers in the theaters while I stayed home and watched Coraline with Patch, who was fighting the sniffles. Later I tidied up the house, did the dishes, did some laundry. Walked a mile-and-a-half in the mild winter weather with Little One when they got back. Played some games with the girls (Scrabble and Jenga). After dinner I did two more hours of virtual learnin’, then read a two short science fiction stories, and went to bed, sad that the 96+ hour Christmas extravaganza had come to an end. For me. The girls are all off until the new year.

So how was my haul this Christmas?

Well, the older I get (true story – just typed “odder” and didn’t catch it right away), the more I enjoy the holiday for the little ones. Honest, I’m not in it for the getting, just the giving (though I seem to be impossible to shop for, and I never seem to know what to get anyone else). In no particular order, this year Santa brought me:


A humorous math t-shirt (humorous for 1.76% of the population, that is)

Two B&N gift cards

A pair of much, much needed slippers

A massive 20-ounce New York Mets drinking glass

Tickets to see Puccini’s La Boheme with the wife, from the wife

Tickets to see Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet with the family, from the wife


Have no idea what I’ll use the B&N gift cards for. Probably can get ten used books, or three-to-five new ones, if I had a subject that currently excited me. Or I can pick up La Boheme and a couple of other CDs. Dunno. That’s a subject for another post.

On deck – the Hopper’s 2016 Best Ofs!



Thursday, December 22, 2016

My Namesake


Yeah, so family legend has it I’m named after this guy:




And up until earlier this week I had never ever googled a picture of him. Seems like a clean-cut, all-American go-getter, no? Just like me, if you could get the same results from being a hundred-n-eighty-degrees opposite of the dude on the football card.

For those not in the know (like me, for instance), Mr. Alworth was a first round draft pick in 1962 and played nine seasons with the AFL San Diego Chargers. He played his final two seasons with the Cowboys. He scored the first touchdown for Dallas in their Super Bowl VI win over Miami. He later became the first player who had played in the upstart AFL to be voted in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And Im named after him. Well, that’s what I’ve been told over the past five decades.

Go Chargers!

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Training


Ah, posting is sparse here because I’m in the final countdown with my tax training. In order to start preparing tax returns for the 2017 season (which technically begins January 23, 2017, though I will start work three weeks earlier), I have to complete:

32 hours of “Sales and Service” online / virtual training.

4 hours of “Tax Update,” also online, which details changes in the tax code affecting 2016 returns.

8 hours of “Sales and Service” training over 3 classes featuring role playing, group discussions, etc.

6 hours of Advanced Tax course material, consisting of two classes.

Last night was my final class of the five required, so all I have left is the virtual training. As far as that goes, I’m 11 hours in. All this has to be done by December 31, so I have ten days to do 25 hours of learning.  

Factoring in Little One’s band concert tonight (she’s first chair clarinet), last-minute gift buying, Christmas Eve with the family, Christmas Day with friends, and action-packed year-end tasks at work, it should be doable, but tight. Thank God my new job (now almost seven months in) gives me Friday the 23rd and Monday the 26th off. I’ll spend four or five hours each day in the basement in my little office staring at my laptop with headphones on. Oh, and that reminds me, have to stop in at the office I’ll be working in to see if my business cards arrived.

Much to do, much to do …

So, apologies, but posting has been scarce here for legitimate (read = $$$) reasons.


Monday, December 19, 2016

Something That Spoke to Me Today



Když jsem byl dítě, mluvil jsem jako dítě, myslel jsem jako dítě, odůvodněné jsem jako dítě. Když jsem se stal mužem, dal jsem způsoby dětství za sebou.

. . . 

But in my native language.


* * * * * * *

Anyway, just checkin’ in.

Been very, very, very busy.


Something tomorrow, though.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Book Review: The Fighting Texan




© 1955 by Paul Evan Lehman


“That’s enough of that! I thought you were going to take care of him long ago. You talk big, but you keep plenty of distance between him and you.”

“I’m good at waiting. Shooting’s too good for him. When I fix him, I’ll fix him good.”

“I bet you will!”

Mason took to pacing the room. He made three turns, then faced Spitzer once more. His eyes were bright.

“When Borden gets the cash for his cows, what does he do with it?”

“I don’t know. He’ll probably bank it at Santa Fe, or Las Vegas.”

“Living in Texas? And with banks none too safe? I don’t think so. I think he’ll take it back to Texas with him. And if his men leave ahead of him, he’ll have to cross the Staked Plains alone. Does that mean anything to you?”

Spitzer stared at him, his eyes wide.

“You’ll go along with me?” Mason asked, studying Spitzer carefully.

“For half the swag, yes.”

Half!

“Half. And I’ll do the dirty work.”

They haggled over this for a while, then Mason gave in.

“All right; half it is.”

- The Fighting Texan, pages 109-110


A hundred and twenty-five pages of such dialogue. What’s not to like?

These two unsavory characters, Dex Mason and his attack dog Spitzer, lead a group of ex-Union pre-Reconstruction northerners brutalizing the Texas frontier the year following Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. So neither is the Fighting Texan of the book’s title.

No, that Fighting Texan of The Fighting Texan is Jefferson “Jeff” Borden, late Captain of the late Confederate army, tired from long months wandering home through desolate, devastating lands. Home is a small ranch his deceased Pa left him, just north of Mustang, on the southern edge of the Llano Estacado, the Staked Plains, a hundred miles of sun’s anvil and hunting grounds for Comanche war parties. All Jeff wants to do is live in peace and be left alone, repair the run down ranch, raise some cattle and sell ’em at market for a small profit.

But that’s not what Dex and his marauders have in mind for our taciturn strong-jawed and silent-type hero. No, they intend to run Jeff out, burn his ancestral home to the ground, steal his herd and ground the poor Reb’s spirit into the dust of those hot, sweaty plains. And when Jeff makes a fool out of Mason during the New Year’s dance at merchant John Russell’s home, causing Russell’s beautiful daughter Ellen’s eyes to stray from Dex to Jeff, well, then the cow patties really fly into the fire.

A nice quick read, one where I looked forward to reading it, the literary equivalent of a fairly intriguing documentary on the Science channel or perhaps a beloved sitcom from one’s youth on one of those retro TV stations. I enjoyed it, it took my mind off all the business and goings-on in my suddenly complicated life. Though I find little of the author’s background online, I’d read him again. Probably next year, Lord willin’, next time I’m out in the deep woods of northeastern Pennsylvania and see that small used book store at that country crossroads again.

Grade: A.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

A Scarcity of Me


Yep, life interferes with blogging, even a reduced, twice-a-week demand I’ve yoked myself with these past eighteen months.

I still have four weeks before I officially start my second job preparing taxes in the evening, but they got me taking fifteen hours of classes a week leading up to Day One of the Tax Season. This time, though, I am being paid for it. Last night’s class earned me $30. Which promptly went into Patch’s pocket, for her Christmas gifts shopping for the family they do with third graders at her school.

Anyway, the training is intense, to say the least. So much to learn, so much to retain. Add to those weekly fifteen hours basketball practices and games for Little One, girl scouting for her and Patch, Christmas concerts, Christmas shopping, year-end projects at the day job, and, uh, well, things are so hectic that writing has to take a back seat.

Even reading and hot baths, my two number one relaxation, rest and recovery activities, now find themselves careless discarded, set aside for more urgent and important tasks (much to my psychological detriment, I must add). For the first time since I’ve had to take care of a newborn, about seven years or so ago, I find myself almost too in demand. The days whirl by, and while things are getting done, I feel like time is slipping by and that To-Do List between my ears never quite gets whittled down.

A hundred-and-eighty degree shift from a year ago, when I’d have hours and hours of the day to fill once I’d checked all the online job searches or had my weekly update with the recruiters or went to the occasional interview. Back then I walked that tightrope over the abyss of depression and feelings of worthlessness; now my mind screams for an hour of uninterrupted down time.

Which I do get at the expense of healthy, restorative sleep. Everyone’s in bed and nodding out by 10 p.m., but the lure of a quiet house keeps me up. It’s then that I read my current read, or watch a DVR’d show, or type up a blog post. Before I know it the clock on the TV is shouting 11:30, 11:45 at me, and I have to force myself into bed or I’ll pay for it when the alarm goes off at 6:30 (or when Patch awakens me a half-hour or forty-five minutes before that).

All right; enough whining and crying, bitchin’ and moanin’. Overall, I’m happy and excited. The family has money. Our future looks bright, as they say. There’s a path before me. Both jobs seem to agree with me, and the people in charge at both places like me. The girls are well, developing into responsible, smart, funny, well-adjusted young ladies. And I got lots and lots of books on the horizon (more on that tomorrow).

But that’s why my posting’s been scarce, sparse, sporadic, occasional, in short supply, few and far between, infrequent, unabundant, disabundant, and nonabundant. Though my potential for synonym retrieval has been anything but.

More tomorrow …


Friday, December 9, 2016

A Note on the Popular Vote of the US Presidential Election


Hillary is currently up by about 2.6 million votes.

However, almost 920,000 of those votes came to her from Manhattan and Brooklyn.

In Manhattan, she beat Trump by a margin of nearly 10 to 1, and in Brooklyn (her campaign headquarters) almost 5 to 1 (actually just over 9 to 2).

So if you exclude those two New York City boroughs, Hillary only gets 1.7 million votes out of over 128 million cast, which is almost statistically insignificant and well within the margin of error of a typical poll.

Friday, December 2, 2016

Golf Ball: Coda



$214.00

25 hours or so at minimum wage



See here, final paragraph.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Pavlov



Pavlov is in his office when the phone on his desk rings.

He leaps to his feet: “I need to feed my dogs!”


[Spotted in the comments section on one of the web sites I frequent]