Happy New Year, Everyone!
Well, I was hoping to get one more substantial post in before the end of the year, but I was having a moment of nostalgia and bought a train ticket to New York. I have in my drafts folder some musings about social and political issues regarding race and two more installments of my memories. However, I’d been planning for a few weeks now to do a New Year’s post because I put up my first post on the first of January last year, making it also the anniversary of my blog, which was a sort of little birthday present for myself.
Blogging has been interesting, a little bit of failure and a little bit of success. I believe that my personality comes through on my blog far more than I could have anticipated. I’ve always known that I was emotionally volatile in person and tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, but I thought I would be more distanced on my blog. It shouldn’t surprise me that it didn’t work out that way, but it does. I had intended originally to post everyday, which I did for the first half of the year. Although I did not succeed in that goal, the reason I set that goal in the first place was because previous attempts at blogging resulted in zombie blogs after half a dozen sporadic posts. Now that the pattern has been established, I think I can continue to write without hanging onto that self-imposed discipline.
I’m still struggling with trying to be a better commenter, trying to conduct myself as a guest when visiting other people’s blogs. I’ve found that my humor works on my own blog, but it’s problematic in the comments elsewhere.
It would be nice to develop a thicker skin, but it might not be advisable. I think being overly sensitive, in all meanings of the word, has its advantages from an aesthetic perspective and I’m not sure that I wouldn’t lose something. On the other hand, I really do need to learn to let things go, to shrug off small slights.
One of the nicest surprises about blogging is that I’ve met a few great people I wouldn’t have otherwise met. I have also been surprised by the degree to which my musings and anecdotes have been read. One engages in amateur blogging in the hopes that there are out there, somewhere, a few sympatico individuals.
If I am correct, Socrates is credited with having said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Examining one’s is central to blogging, where we do it visually with photos, or literarily.
In the coming year, I hope to get back on track with recounting my memories. I’ve actually come to the juncture of an unpleasant point in my life and writing it down has been difficult. In the end, though, it is only three posts at most, so I think I should be able to push through it and get on with telling my story.
I also hope to do more sketches and drawings.
Have a Happy New Year!
fojap 
Fojap my friend, I don’t think you need to change how you comment elsewhere. I have always found your comments well thought out, informative and often very polite.
Your personal stories have been both entertaining and superbly written. Thank you for sharing a part of yourself that we may get to know you. Some of the things you write, articulate what I think but can’t express as vividly as you do.
Your sketches have been awesome. I wish I could sketch half as good as you do.
As to where you are in life, it’s a passing storm and am confident you will sail through it.
Happy new year my good friend. It has been good blogging together.
Thanks for your kind comments.
As far as coming to a difficult juncture, I reread what I wrote and I realized that I was unclear. It’s a difficult point in my story that happened over thirty years ago.
I hope you have a good year coming.
So far so good.
Thanks for the clarification and most welcome
Nicely written my friend. I’m working on getting an email address setup so folks can contact me there. BTW, I often say TACP offices are located in Manhattan, but that’s only a Manhattan in my mind. I’ve never even been to New York City. Buffalo is as far into NY as I’ve gotten. I’m in Chicago. Any way, I identify with many of the things you talk about in this post, hypersensitivity being one. Would love to chat more with you on these topics. Happy New Year, my friend. Glad to have met you this year.
I got that the Manhattan office was a joke.
I grew up across the river in New Jersey in a town that was a suburb of New York. I went to college in New York State and moved to New York City when I was 19. I tend to think of myself as a New Yorker.
I visited Chicago once a few years ago, but I can’t really say that I know the town. We did the usual tourist things, like a few tours arranged by the AIA.
Chicago is far more spread out than New York. I really have to visit there one day. There’s a friend of mine who goes to new York with his wife 5 or 6 times a year to see shows and dine. He has a friend who owns a condo, WITH PARKING, in downtown Manhattan that he gets free use of whenever his friend is out of town on business. I’m envious.
I think New York might be more spread out than people think because most people think mainly of Manhattan. There’s the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island as well.
The last place I lived was near mid-town, very close to the United Nations building. Before that, I lived in Chelsea and before that in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn.
I’ve had quite a few friends in the theatre, by the way.
Ah. To be an actor in New York. To be doing Shakespeare in the park in Central Park would be awesome. And, yes, why I’m comparing New York to Chicago, when I’ve never been to New York, makes little sense. Some days, the fact that I remember to wear pants before exiting my apartment, is the best I can hope for.
Hugs from one sympatico to another. Your personality comes through loud and clear and so does mine. I am glad you speak your mind and will stay here for a long time to come !