Planning for 2024

I'm curious what everyone's plans are for the upcoming year. My plans had a bit of a shift. I unregistered from my upcoming UC PhD courses and also shelved my plan to take any for-credit science courses so I can focus on some important family things. I'm hoping that in the next 6 or 12 months I can restart my courses but family has to come first.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue working through the Great Books, and get back into my exercise routine which had mostly stalled in the last year.

What's everyone else up to?

 

• Huge new role in distance learning. Announcing soon.
• Going back to school. Not sure where or for what, but narrowing it down rapidly.
• Moving (or, at least, planning a move).
• Continuing consulting practice.
• Figuring out Medicare. It's that time.

 

[QUOTE="Dustin, post: 593789, member: 41444"I unregistered from my upcoming UC PhD courses... I can restart my courses but family has to come first.

[/QUOTE]

Got to have balance and live the rules of 8's. Always take care of your family first

 

What (or where) are these rules of 8s? I've only found:

(1) AMA rules of 8 for billing purposes
(2) Rules for crazy 8's card game
(3) Rule of 8s (octet rules) in Chemistry.

Oh -- OK. Got it. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rule-8s-balanced-life-lama-a-makarem

 

Planning? I don't know my plans until I checked the discount offerings of several institutions...!

 

We are in the same boat! I hope the worst is behind us. My best for you in 2024!

 

@Maniac Craniac Right. Fun. That's what my year is gonna be about. Learning, YES. Degree-looking papers, deadlines, credits, huge expenses, NO.

3 areas basically - fashion, languages (including one computer language) and music.

Fashion:

(a) For me, it starts here. https://www.universityoffashion.com/
(b) I've made inroads into sewing. I may take a dressmaking course from the same career school where I took fashion Design. That way, I'll get what I need (with a lot of work on my own) plus plain old vanity. I'll have two matching diplomas, custom-framed, mats aqua/pink/aqua in my studio / sewing room or wherever.
(c) I hope to try knitting. I'm starting off with an American Girl knitting thingy that I bought in a bookstore for $5, 25-30 years ago. Recently I bought some great purple wool for a tie, for me. It should work. Eventually I'd like to knit well enough (by hand) to recreate knitted jacket lapels for women's suits, like the ones Coco Chanel made famous in the 50s / 60s. Beautiful - and timeless.

Languages:

(a) I've abandoned my idea of learning Nigerian tribal languages. Nobody I know, from Nigeria, has any real interest in them - but they can all speak Pidgin - which is the liveliest form of English I've ever heard! I took a cheap online course $13 and thought it was worth even less. Best instruction comes from friends - and YouTube. This is one site I enjoyed and there are plenty more.


(b) I still want to learn Navajo and I've made a start. Again, I took a cheap course - and YouTube is better. If I want more courses, I'm thinking DuoLingo might be better. Again, YouTube has plenty. One series I like is by "Navajo Grandma," here:
To my ear, pronunciation by older Navajo women seems more authentic. The accents of men seem slightly coloured with modern American English. "Grandma's" pronunciation makes the language sound really ancient -- which it isn't, really. Navajo didn't finish its split-off from The Athapaskan tree until 1350-1500 c.e. Established schools, like Dine College and Navajo Tech have courses -- but I don't think either teaches them online at present.

(c) I want to learn Javascript. It's cross-platform - works on any machine with a web browser, regardless of operating system. There's a huge amount of code available, free. Spreadsheets, photo editors, whatever. Its' quite compact, more so than a lot of languages with its facility. And there are lots of places online where you can learn - and play with your programs till you get them right, online.
I like languages that are graphics-oriented. And beautiful graphics come from javascript!

YouTube hosts full, many-hour courses in Javascript. Here's one:
(Just click the "Watch on YouTube" part. It works.)

Music:

(1) My music learning is going to be strictly guitar, concentrated in two areas:
(a) Romani music - specifically "Gypsy Jazz."
(b) Blues. I've long-admired the style of B.B. King and there's the means out there to learn to play like him. Whether I'll actually SOUND like him is anyone's guess - but I hope to.

Romani Guitar Music.

Some of the best internationally-known stars teach on YouTube, among them Stochelo Rosenberg:


Joshco Stephan, a player of enormous talent, runs a school by subscription, here: https://gypsyguitaracademy.com/

Blues - B.B. King-style.

Lots on the web. Here's the first segment of a 5-video B.B. King Masterclass on YouTube.

___________________________________________________________________________

Yep. This ought to be a fun year.

 

Right now:

1. Race again..running wise
2. Huge news to tell you after January 19th. I have been sitting on this news since August 2019.
3. Start writing a book

 

Nope. The news I have been sitting in fir over 4 years is. Lol

 

I only take one class at a time… and take breaks in between. Toward the end of the last course I took, I had a health issue. I’ve been focusing on making lifestyle changes to help prevent issues in the future, which includes diet and exercise changes. As a result, I’ve lost 20-25 lbs and have 15 to go over the next year. I hope to maintain that momentum as I start my next class next week.

 

"Gbamsolutely," as they say in Nigeria - "not only." Both reasons. The best teacher is one who can easily command your attention, right? That's why there are SO many excellent teachers in / from Nigeria! It's astounding! I'm lovin' it!

 

You got that right, my friend. A privilege, brought to me by the Internet age. I also had the privilege of seeing him in concert, several times during the late 70s and early 80s. Really nice venue - Artpark - Lewiston NY. For $5 you got a "grass pass" - not to smoke pot, (though some did) but to sit on the lawn facing the bandstand. Kind of like a gentrified, mini-Woodstock. B.B was at the height of his powers, then. Phenomenal! (I also saw several other concerts there, featuring Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Arlo Guthrie and once, a trio of famous jazz guitarists - Jim Hall, Barney Kessel and Charlie Byrd.)

B.B. had remarkably wide tastes in music - he was much impressed by the music of Django Reinhardt - and he was a jazz-lover. Two of his very good friends were Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. I bought my first B.B. King album in 1963.

 

My first was Live from Cook County Jail. My favorite--by far--is Take it Home. I just imagine an unknown Robert Cray, coming off his brief cameo as a member of Otis Day and the Knights in Animal House, listening to the newly released Take it Home and saying, "Aw, man. So THAT's how it's done!"

I was walkin' down the street
At sunrise one mornin' in London, England
And there was a very large Rolls-Royce limousine
Pullin' slowly along the street

And in that Rolls-Royce was the Queen of England
Looking tired, just got back from a party
And the Queen leaned out and she said
"Aren't you B.B. King?

She said, "Oh, B.B., sometimes it's so hard
To pull things together
Could you tell me what you think I ought to do?"
And I said

"You better not look down
If you want to keep on flying
Put the hammer down
Keep it full speed ahead

Better not look back
Or you might just wind up crying
You can keep it moving
If you don't look down"

-- From Better Not Look Down on Take it Home

 

Right. I can see that scenario, for sure. Good choice. True, Robert Cray wasn't that well-known at the time he appeared in Animal House, (1978). And B.B. King was definitely a celebrity well before then. But many years later:

"The (entire Robert Cray) Band also appears on two songs off B.B. King's 1993 duet album Blues Summit: the duet between King and Cray, which was written by Cray and Dennis Walker specifically for the project and called "Playin' With My Friends", and the duet between King and John Lee Hooker ("You Shook Me")." - from Wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cray

I used to like the music of all three of the "Texas Triumvirate" as they were sometimes known: Robert Cray, Albert "Ice Man" Collins and Johnny Clyde Copeland -"The Texas Twister." Robert survives, but Albert and Johnny have passed on now. Johnny's daughter, Shemekia Copeland is very well known, as an extremely talented, spirited singer. She is special.

I feel Robert has just about the deepest understanding of the Blues of anyone currently on the planet.

 

"Used to?" I still do, of course -- it's just that I used to like them together - and separately - and now two are gone. Oh yeah -- I still like them. All of them and each of them.

 

My plans for 2024 is to just stay where I am and maintain. I found my "Goldilocks Zone" in South Dakota and plan to stay in and/or around this region. I didn't intend to settle down here, but I was "stuck" here during the pandemic and realized that I really like it here. I feel safe, I'm not scared of the police, and the people are genuinely nice.

I'm also staying still because I'm not doing well, physically. My immune system is running amok and the rheumatologist put me on an immunosuppressant, in addition to everything else I already take. My pain is under control, so that makes me feel and function better. But, it's weird to look okay on the outside but be very sick on the inside.

For 2024, I want to get better at sewing. I just made my first lap quilt. I made some mistakes, but it does what it was made to do. I made it during a lupus flare and as my lovely Bajan cousin-in-law said it's "perfectly imperfect, just like our lives". I want to make a matching set of curtains, pillow cases, and quilt for my bedroom and make more quilts and other things. My hobby used to be photography, but I can't walk far or stand for long, anymore, so sewing is my new hobby.

As far as my lifelong learning journey goes, I started on the Old Testament Survey course in the free Diploma of Divinity from the Christian Leaders Institute. I'm way off their proposed schedule, LOL. But, I'll finish within the time limit.

That's really it for me and 2024. Now, if my SSA disability claim is officially approved (at my video hearing the ALJ told me I could expect a "favorable" decision) it'll be an exciting time because they're going to make me spend down my back pay. I represented myself, so nothing will go to attorney's fees. That might be a really fun time. God willing.