Hello my friends
I'm very happy you are visiting!
Hello my friends
I'm very happy you are visiting!
Winter in the Southern Hemisphere in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Winter is here.
Settling ponderously on top of us.
Can’t breathe.
Try to squirm out from under to no avail.
Temp in the teens and single digits.
No respite in sight.
Three positive thoughts to share.
It builds community.
Each of us having to cope; millions of ways we do cope; some comical, even to ourselves, although more frequently to others.
All efforts binding us one to another.
Ready sources of elevator-conversation.
The second is the sun.
Walking through blocks of shade and then emerging into sunlight streets is rejuvenating.
At least emotionally.
And the positive takeaway, the days are getting a tiny bit longer, giving us a tiny bit more of that re-energizing sun.
And the third is that we have only 33 days remaining on our winter calendar, Valentine’s Day.
276 posts to date.
Today we’re at the 5.52% mark of my commitment,
the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
5,000 posts will take 13.69 years, taking me to a new phase of my life.
That phase too distant from today with too many variables to make planning for it feasible.
13.69 years, a big chunk, too big, really, to be much affected by a single day.
So we’ll be marking this phase not by single days but by segments of the year.
We are in our winter-calendar segment, defined as starting Jan 2 and ending Feb 13.
Forty-three days, this piece.
One of only approximately 116 similar segments.
116. Not nearly as daunting as 5,000.
116.
Not so far away.
Tick Tock.
In clock language: Enjoy today.
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Tagging Today
Sunday, January 13, 2019
My 276th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
Time is 12.01am.
On Sunday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 27* with a feels-like temperature of 20*.
Dinner is Slow-Roasted Turkey with Stuffing.
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Question of the day:
Did they make a Lord of the Rings movie?
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Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com
Dear dom,
Soars through the air
Men and grace - yes, our culture rarely pairs these in so many words.
But "grace" is the only word to describe the actions of Doug Marcaida, one of the judges on History Channel's "Forged in Fire" blade-smithing competition show.
Marcaida is of Filipino descent, and his handling of knives, swords, and other blades during the tests is sheer poetry in action.
Enhanced (more likely made possible) by his profession in martial arts.
Controlled power delivered with precision.
Grace: yes.
Men can have it.
The words mean little after witnessing such grace.
Sally
Web Meister Responds: Thanks, Sally. Upbeat.
Short Takes: City Life
The weather impacts the Public Garden in Boston.
From the left, we have two photos on a warmish winter day: 35*.
From the right, we have two photos taken when the temperature hit 9*.
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Question of the day:
Did they make a Lord of the Rings movie?
The Lord of the Rings is a film series consisting of three epic fantasy adventure films directed by Peter Jackson.
They are based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
The films are subtitled The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).
They are a New Zealand-American venture, produced by WingNut Films and The Saul Zaentz Company and distributed by New Line Cinema.
The trilogy was one of the biggest and most ambitious film projects ever undertaken.
It had a budget of $281 to $330 million depending on the source.
All three films were shot over eight years simultaneously and entirely in Jackson's native New Zealand.
One in every 160 New Zealanders was a part of the production.
Each film in the series also had special extended editions released on DVD a year after their respective theatrical releases.
While the films follow the book's general storyline, they do omit some of the novel's plot elements and include some additions to and deviations from the source material.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
Set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, the films follow the hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) as he and the Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, and thus ensure the destruction of its maker, the Dark Lord Sauron.
The Fellowship eventually splits up and Frodo continues the quest together with his loyal companion Sam (Sean Astin) and the treacherous Gollum (Andy Serkis).
Meanwhile, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), heir in exile to the throne of Gondor, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Pippin, and the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) unite to rally the Free Peoples of Middle-earth in the War of the Ring.
The series was met with overwhelming praise and was a major financial success, with the films collectively being among the highest-grossing film series of all time.
The films were all critically acclaimed and heavily awarded, winning a total of 17 out of 30 Academy Award nominations.
The final film in the series, The Return of the King, won all 11 of its Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, tying with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) the record for most Academy Awards won by a single film.
The series received wide praise for its innovative special and visual effects.
Right here.
Annoy me and I’ll whip my snow ball at you.
Ice ball, really.
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Good morning on this Sunday, January 13.
We shared some thoughts on coping with the cold.
Sally validated the entry that men can be graceful.
We looked at the Public Garden in the winter, both moderate and frigid days.
And finally we talked about the Lord of the Rings movie.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Love
Dom