A New Age Snow Day

 

Yesterday, Wednesday, February 12, was a snow day. 

The weather forecast called for 3 to 6 inches of snow which was to begin at 9 am and end at 3 am.  In this era around these parts where snow rarely measures up to the forecasts, this one was spot on.  In fact, the snow started at 7 am.  I was in bed well before it ceased.  It was a beautiful snow.  All told, we had about 4-5 inches of snow.

Tuesday, the night before, I was weighing whether I should move my Wednesday morning classes online.  Still recovering from a January 8 knee replacement, it seemed silly to be walking around on snow covered walkways, risk slipping, maybe falling, and incurring a setback in my recovery that is going so well.  But I was tentative to pull the trigger.  I was feeling a bit wimpy.  As I would be home by 11:15 at the latest, I was very likely I would be home safe and sound before the storm really got going.

Reason finally prevailed and I sent announcement to both classes that I was moving our classes online.  Ten minutes later, at 9:26 pm, the university sent out an email saying, “Due to the forecasted winter storm and potentially dangerous driving conditions, North Park will conduct remote operations on Wednesday, February 12.”  If I had only argued with myself a bit longer, I would have avoided that wimpy feeling.  Ah, the idiosyncrasies of male logic.

I was up early on Wednesday, brewed some coffee, ate a muffin, prepared for class online and opened up my first class at around 7:45 on MS Teams.  I taught that 8 am Operations Management class and then my Principles of Microeconomics class and was done at 10:20. That part of my brain that was fixated on “snow day” was ready to kick back, as childlike guy over 70 recovering from a knee replacement might do, and enjoy the snow day.  The possibilities included watching TV, reading the paper, perhaps blogging, reading a novel, and, most likely, napping. 

But… I had a few other things, work tasks to complete, before I could veg out and relax.  So, I wrote out the to-do list and got to it, checking them off one by one.  I broke for lunch but still was not done and continued on.  Soon, it was dinner time, and I still wasn’t done with the to-do list.  After dinner, I went back to work and finally finished up at around 9 pm.  I truly, and most frustratingly, experienced The Planning Fallacy.

Well, I finally retired to my ‘easy chair’ and proceeded to enjoy and hour of what was left of the snow day.  I only did two of the things on the aforementioned list of snow day activities:  I watched TV and napped.  Sadly, it was mostly napping.  I woke up and went to bed.  As I drifted off to sleep, again, I felt like I was robbed of an entire snow day.

Indeed, I was.

I wrote about the demise of the snow day back in February 2018.  That was pre-COVID and I had noted, “In recent years, with laptops, wifi, and cell phones, snow days became work at home days but they were welcome nonetheless.”  Since then post-COVID, it has gotten even worse with virtual meeting apps like MS Teams and Zoom.  Now, classes and meetings can proceed as normal albeit online instead of face-to-face.  This is bad news if vegging out is one’s priority on a snow day.   If productivity is paramount, well, the best part about a snow day is that you doing lose any time commuting and can actually get more done.

I did get more done but I am not really a fan of these new age snow days.

Starting Volume XXII

 

This thing, this bloggy thing, began as a monthly e-letter back in February 2004.  This project began 21 years ago and with this post, I am beginning Volume 22. 

From 2004-2008, I sent a monthly letter via email.  All sixty of those were the first thing I posted when I moved everything to this blog.  In 2009, I posted 12 more, still treating it as a monthly, letter.  September of 2009 was the first time I wrote and posted more than one post in a month.  Thereafter, I drifted from one longish monthly letter to shorter and more frequent blog posts.  This post will be my 887^th. 

887 posts.  I am amazed and proud of the way I have stuck to this project.  I am usually not that good at long term projects of this nature.  In that first letter, I even noted, “let’s see if I can do this more than one month in a row!”  I did have my doubts then.

I used to handwrite everything before putting finger to keyboard.  Nowadays, I create an MS Word file, TSoF 20XX for This Side of Fifty and the year and basically do all my blog and article writing in that file.  I average 20-30,000 words a year. 

The past two years, I have tried to write more for The Armenian Weekly.  Their policy is they will only publish articles that haven’t been posted in other media first.  So, the articles I write for that paper are published there first and then in my blog.  I was already in the habit of writing such bloggy bits on Armenian issues but only for my blog, the only change was first offering the better ones to The Weekly first.

The ongoing, lingering, question is what to do with all of this writing.  The interest in answering that question spikes up more when I write these anniversary blogs.  Do I try to monetize it? i.e. Do I make an effort to widen the audience becoming a columnist for some newspaper or magazine?  I mean, I have always like the New Yorker and the Atlantic.  But dang, if that doesn’t just sound like looking for a job?  I suppose I am just too far ‘this side of fifty’ to get excited about doing all the detailed work.  I suppose, I am just waiting around to be discovered.  I could self-publish a “Best of” collection that I could give to family and friends.  This seems more my speed.  Any of these ideas are good, but sadly, my preferred way of accomplishing any of them is to [1] win a substantial lottery jackpot and [2] hiring others to do all of the detailed business kind of work.  Besides an agent and publicist, I would hire a world class proofreader as well.  I guess I am saying that enjoy writing but not the business of writing.

Usually in these anniversary posts, I extoll the non-monetary benefits of this 21-year-old project.  First and foremost, I write much better and faster than I did before this project started.  Is it really good writing?  World class?  I don’t know.  I doubt it.  It is not for me to judge.  And… it really doesn’t matter.  When you are doing something you like, you do it because you like it and are committed to it.  I guess that is where I am at and that ain’t half bad.

A Great Detroit Lions Season

 

I am watching the Detroit Lions playoff game against the Washington Commanders.  There is about 6 minutes left in the game and… it will take a miraculous finish for the Lions to win.  The Commanders are leading 44-28.  As the camera pans fans in the stands at Ford Field, the Lions fans have the look all fans have when things look hopeless in a game they were expecting to win.  

The problem with championship playoffs is that every team but one loses their last game of the season.  The Lions are about to lose theirs.

Growing up in Detroit.  I was excited about all the home teams.  I loved the Tigers, Red Wings, and Lions.  Every year, at the beginning of any of their seasons, I had great expectations for these teams as any kid does.  During my formative years and continuing until 2022, the Lions were at best unimpressive and for the great majority of the time they were simply awful.  Year after year of consistent disappoint turn my youthful passion and exuberance for the home team into ambivalence. 

When I moved to Connecticut in 1990 and the New York Giants won the Super Bowl that year, it was pretty easy for me to become a Giants fan.  When Tom Brady led the Patriots to a Super Bowl win in 2002, I became a Patriots fan.  Now that I live in Chicago, I follow the Bears.

I always kept an eye on the Lions, however.  Detroit roots run deep.  Sometimes I would feel a twinge of that youthful passion and exuberance for the Lions when it looked like they might finally be turning the corner.  But, the Lions, as I was prone to say, “never disappointed” in that they were consistently bad.

The TV just showed the banner of the last NFL Championship.  It was in 1957, ten years before the Super Bowl era.  In 1957, I was only 4 years old. 

I remember at the start of this season, there was a lot of buzz and predictions from the pundits that Lions would be in the Super Bowl this year.  I was excited too, because the previous year the Lions were 12-5 and were really looking good.  I knew they would be as good or better than last year.  I was hoping this year would be the year they got to and won the Super Bowl but, I wasn’t predicting or counting on that happening, however. 

Sadly, their season ended tonight.  The Commanders won 45-31.

The Lions are a good football team.  They had an amazing season amassing a 15-2 regular season record, winning the NFC North Division, and earning a #1 seed in the playoffs.  Dan Campbell is an inspiring and driven coach that molded this team into a tough, gritty, and hard driving team.  In the end, it was clear that having 18 players on the injured reserve, mostly on defense, finally caught up with them.

I am disappointed with the loss.  I am disappointed for the city and the fans that showed so much passion and exuberance for the Lions.  But it nothing like the chronic disappointment I wrote of above.  They had a great season, and I sure hope they have turned the corner and continue to excel.

Welcome, Lilly Torosyan

Originally published in the Armenian Weekly

In the same week that the Armenian Weekly published my piece thanking editor emeritus Pauline Getzoyan for her five years of stewardship of the Weekly, I read the first piece by our new editor Lilly Torosyan.

My first thought was one simple word: “Wow.” Lilly can write. Lilly weaved a beautiful piece, threading many familial and national themes into a poetic tapestry, to mark her taking the helm of this venerable paper. We gained insight into her family, rooted to the recent history of our nation, in the eyes of her grandfather. We learned of Lenin’s despicable response to Shaumian and Andranik’s request for weapons. She invoked Raphael Patkanian, James Baldwin, Zahrad, Siamanto and Tigran Hamasyan. While Lilly’s tapestry is beautifully crafted, it is also bluntly serious, as is the last century and half of our history.

My second thought was, “Oh boy, not only will I have to sharpen my pen, but I will have to sharpen my wit, expand my vocabulary and seriously mine for deeper metaphors to keep up with our new editor.” I don’t think this was her intent. I believe she was just writing in her natural and gifted voice. But in doing so, there was a tug on, a tightening of, the creative tension that anyone who contributes to the Weekly probably felt. It was an invitation to step it up, to take things to a new level. This is the kind of thing any organization, including a weekly newspaper, needs in order to refine the organizational ethos and nurture continuous improvement.

The Weekly has a long and proud history. The editors, their staff and contributors have defined the quality of the paper and forged this proud history. The editor is the leader, of course, in this regard. We face existential concerns, rooted in Nakhichevan, Karabakh, Zangezur and whatever the unholy alliance Turkey and Azerbaijan are planning as their next step. The role of the Weekly is to buoy our part of the diaspora in these rough seas as we contribute however we can to ameliorating our national plight. We, the larger Weekly community, also need to support our local communities and organizations, especially those of our youth, like the AYF and HMEM, to keep our community viable, vibrant and cohesive.

Pauline Getzoyan felt all of this intensely in her tenure as editor. Lilly Torosyan feels it with the same passion. Pauline inspired and encouraged folks like me to want to contribute more to the Weekly. Lilly has certainly picked up where Pauline left off and has taken a very good first step in charting her own course. 

Welcome, Lilly, and best wishes for a long and successful term as editor.

Who Said What?

 

I watched a movie, The Big Short (2015), which presented the Hollywood version of the subprime meltdown in 2007 that arguably triggered The Great Recession.   It was a very well-done and engaging film with a star-studded cast that included:  Steve Carell (Mark Baum), Christian Bale (Michael Burry), Ryan Gosling (Jared Vennett), and Brad Pitt (Ben Rickert).  All the characters portrayed by these stars were based on real people but only Christian Bale’s character, Michael Burry, used the character’s real name.  The movie is fast paced, gripping and each of these actors does a great job. 

There was a Mark Twain quote at the beginning of the movie: “It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”  It resonated with me, as quotes are prone to do.  I reversed the video, hit stop and took a photo of it.  It was a very cool quote. 

I did an internet search to find a graphic for the inevitable bloggy bit I was going to write about this.  There were graphics of the quote but there were articles, as well, that state that Mark Twain never said this.  This is the problems with quotes found on the internet… anything found on the internet.  How can we be sure the luminary said what the beautiful graphics on quotation websites attribute them as saying?  In my case, I simply trust the websites which is a bit risky.  Case in point, in my New Year's Day 2025 post, I wanted to include a quote attributed to Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  It is beautiful and direct.  The problem is that it has never been verified he ever wrote or said this.  But dang if Albert Einstein doesn’t give the good quote more gravity and force then say Rita Mae Brown who actually first uttered the phrase.  Rita Mae who?  Get the idea?  Rita Mae Brown is a civil rights, feminist, and LGBT activist and writer.  She has a reputation but nowhere near that of Einstein’s.

The New Republic addressed the same issue in a December 29, 2015 article by Alex Shephard, “’It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble,’ which must be why The Big Short opens with a fake Mark Twain quote.”  The article claims that the closest that Mark Twain ever came to this was, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”  It also attributes a different version of the quote to one Josh Billings (1818-1885), a humorist and lecturer.  The New Republic article noted that the quote used by Michael Lewis in his book, on which the movie is based, is from Leo Tolstoy in a 1897 essay, “The Kingdom of God is Within You.” 

The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of a doubt, what is laid before him.

The New Republic article states that the Tolstoy quote is good but cumbersome to the one falsely attributed to Mark Twain. 

So why the fake quote?  Movies need something move things along and quotes need to be  pithy.  The Tolstoy quote has 55 words, the questionable Twain quote has 21.  Who’s going to read the longer more complex quote that takes longer to read and digest than the shorter folksier easier to digest fake Twain quote.  A post on reddit noted, “This is done to show that people will make things up and you will believe them. Just as the big banks and ratings agencies did before the Financial Crisis of 2008.”  This sounds like as good a theory as any. 

Of course there is my favorite quote of all time…

 

Thank you, Pauline Getzoyan

 

Recently in an email exchange with Pauline Getzoyan about a piece I had written for the Weekly, she closed her email with, “I have some news to share with you and I’d rather tell you over the phone than via email.” Having been around the corporate and organizational block a few times, I knew she was going to tell me she was stepping down as the editor of the Weekly.

I got a little sad. 

Part of the sadness was the unknown about who would take over, what their leadership style would be, where they might want to take the paper, et cetera, yev eylin. It is a natural part of the change and turnover that occurs with greater frequency these days. We have to get used to it and manage. Heck, I have worked in fields where the job was to change and improve organizations. Change is inevitable.

The greater part of the sadness was simply that Pauline was so good at being the editor of the Weekly.  She was easy — actually, wonderful — to work with. Working on the AYF Olympics Special Issue with her for five years was a great pleasure. We met as a team, and there was constant communication between the writers and editorial staff. It was more collaborative than ever, and that is not to take anything away from previous editors. With Pauline, it was just more of a joy.

Pauline has made the print edition cleaner and more visually appealing. The website has become a vibrant go-to news source with more original content. Her leadership style and team-building skills are exemplary.

Pauline is the kind of editor who nurtures and encourages writers and contributors. She edits to make the writing better, not just to cut content to accommodate a layout. She asks questions and provides feedback in a way that not only makes you a better writer but also makes you want to write more. This last skill is truly a gift. It cannot be taught in any school. It is an innate trait. 

Pauline presided over the paper in very tough times for the Armenian nation: the Artsakh war of 2020, the ensuing blockade and the fall of the Republic of Artsakh in 2023. We talked about these sad events and existential implications for the Republic of Armenia. These events weighed heavily on her heart, as they did for many of us. Pauline led her team and kept us all informed with reporting online and in print. She also knew how important it was to help our community, the readers of the Weekly, regroup and appreciate what it means to be Armenian in the Diaspora. She sought out and encouraged articles that focused on this, as well.

James Mandalian, Jimmy Tashjian and Khatchig Mouradian were great editors and stewards of the Hairenik Weekly and Armenian Weekly. They all had longer tenures, but Pauline’s contribution in five short years puts her right up there with these editors. 

In each and every AYF Olympic Ad Book, Mal Varadian’s family presents his tenet and charge for all of us: “Make it better than it was.” I think Pauline has indeed “made it better than it was.”  Brava and thank you, Pauline. 

--

Originally published in the Armenian Weekly

New Year's Day 2025

A beautiful sentiment
sent by my friend Mike Adajian

 

It is the start of a new year… another new year. 

As of today, we are a quarter of the way through this 21^st century. 

Traditionally, I would be writing about all the things I want to do and accomplish this year.  Over time, that has been less and less the theme of these New Year’s Day posts.

In 2019, I posted my New Year piece on January 3^rd.  It was titled In the Time of Your Life.  It focused on the prelude to William Saroyan’s award-winning play, The Time of Your Life.  Like many a great writer, Saroyan’s were impactful and probably something I should read more often, at least every New Year’s Day.  Saroyan’s words put this whole thing into a perspective that resonates with me. 

My 2020 post was written two months before the COVID-19 Pandemic hit and disrupted everything.  The Dawn of a New Year and Decade was more reflective and full of the contentment and joy that comes from hanging out with one’s grandchildren.  Later that year, my hopeful naivete really shined in a May 1, 2020 post, Contagion: Promise of Utopia?  I really thought there was a chance that impact of the pandemic would unite us all.  Talk about naivete.

Was it folly or wrong to be hopeful?  It was certainly a normative perspective… focus on the way things should be rather than the way things are.  It is folly for not knowing it was a normative aspiration.  It is never folly for being hopeful.  Hope, dreams, aspirations drive the world.  This happens on a global scale and for each of us in our personal communities. 

What am I getting at here?

That is a really good question.

It is the dawn of a new year.  It is an arbitrary marker, but it is marker like one’s birthday, and the start of a new school year.  It is a good time to reflect and assess where one is and where we want to be.  It is a good time as any to set some goals, resolutions, whatever you want to call them.  They may be new goals or goals that you have set many times but have not made much progress at.  It is OK to be hopeful for yourself.  Try again.  To paraphrase Winston Churchull, “Never give up.”  Remember the words of the great comedic sage, Jerome “Curly” Howard (or a script writer): “If at first you don’t succeed, keep on sucking until you do succeed.”  It’s also good to keep the words attributed to Albert Einstein in mind, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Honestly, these New Year’s hopes and resolutions are for the most part personal, about ourselves.  Sure, over the holidays we tend to thing on a larger scale when wishing for Peace on Earth.  New Year’s Day signals the end of the holidays that began with Thanksgiving.  We prepare ourselves to return to work in earnest and set personal goals for ourselves include the infamous resolutions.  The resolutions are filled with dedication and hope on New Year’s Day even though most are quickly forgotten in a few weeks.

Today, this first day of 2025, a violent act in New Orleans forced a larger, global, perspective in today’s reflections and planning.  In the early hours of the morning, a rented truck drove into the reveling crowds of Bourbon St. and killed at least 15 and injured 35.  The gunman had an ISIS flag in the truck.  The FBI is considering this an act of terrorism and suspect it was not a sole act.  Hours later, a rented Tesla Cyber Truck started smoking, caught fire, and exploded outside a Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

This only reminds us on this day of setting personal objectives and resolutions that we need to think globally as well.  The wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the starvation and displacement issues in Gaza and the Sudan were brought front of mind today with these violent acts.  The setting of personal goals and resolutions were shelved worrying about the dangerous state of world we live and how we might realize that utopian goal of Peace on Earth.

      If only…

Happy New Year: Michigan 19 - Alabama 13

 

This post, written on December 31^st, should be a reflection on this year, 2024, that is coming to a close.  It is not.  Maybe, I will pen a New Year’s post tomorrow morning.

Today?  I wasn’t quite sure.  I started watching the Michigan bowl game and as the game progressed, well, it became my topic.

Michigan is playing Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa… formerly known as the Hall of Fame Bowl.  While many of the other bowl games not in the National Championship Series have very few fans in the stands, this game looks to be well attended.  Michigan is a 16-point underdog.  This is due to the fact a lot more Michigan stalwarts opted not to play in this game because they had decided to enter the NFL Draft.  This was not as big a problem for Bama, as a most of their players who could have opted out wanted another shot at Michigan after their Rose Bowl loss, 27-20, in overtime on January 1^st of this year.

As a result, Michigan was a 16-point underdog.  Just like in the Ohio State game, everyone expected Michigan to lose.  But because of what we did in the Ohio State game, the Michigan fans I know understood the logic of point spread but had more faith in this Michigan. 

While many of the other bowl games not in the National Championship Series have very few fans in the stands, this game was very well attended by the faithful fans of each school.

Alabama took the opening kickoff, got a couple of first downs.  Then they went for it on 4^th down and Michigan stopped them and took over on downs.  Michigan drove down to the Alabama 27 and kicked a field goal to take a 3-0 lead.  As soon as they kicked the field goal, a rainstorm started.  During that rain and eventual torrential downpour, Alabama fumbled and Michigan got a another field goal.  Michigan intercepted Alabama and scored a touchdown.  Michigan recovered another fumble and got another first down.  In the rain the Alabama backs and ends were slipping and falling when they made their cuts.  At the end of the 1^st quarter, Michigan had 2 first downs, 43 total yards of total offense.  Alabama has 2 first downs and -2 yards of total offense.  The score was Michigan 16, Alabama 0.

The 2^nd quarter was different.  The rain stopped.  Alabama stopped turning the ball over and regained their footing.  The Michigan offense was stymied by the Alabama defense.  Reminiscent of the Michigan - Ohio State game, the Alabama offense showed their explosiveness with 6 minutes left in the quarter.  Starting at their own 29, they scored a touchdown in just four plays that included a run of 28 yards and a 25-yard touchdown pass.  Michigan took the ball, got two first downs, and then had to punt it away.  Michigan downed the punt on the Alabama 4-yard line with only 58 seconds left in the half.  With back-to-back plays, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe ran for 41 yards and then passed for 40.  Alabama was first and goal at the 6-yard line with less than 20 seconds on the clock.  Michigan’s defense pressured them into three incomplete passes and held them to a field goal.  The score at halftime:  16-10.

The third quarter of the Michigan – Alabama was scoreless.  Both defenses played, dug in and played very tough.  Again, it was reminiscent of the Ohio State game.

The fourth quarter of the ReliaQuest Bowl was a nail biter.  The quarter opened with Michigan having the ball.  Michigan punted to Alabama who drove to the Michigan 36  and turned It over on downs for a second time.  Michigan took over and ran the ball on eight plays down to the Alabama 19 where they kicked a field goal.   With a score of 19-10 and 7:21 left on the clock, Alabama needed to score twice to win.  They began their next drive they drove 47 yards in eight plays to the Michigan 33 where they kicked a 51-yard field goal to make it a 19-13 game.  Michigan then got a first down and then had to punt.  A return of 38 yards put Alabama on their own 44 with 2:18 left in the game.  In six plays, Alabama was 1^st and 10 at the Michigan 15 with about 1 minute left in the game.  The Michigan defense dug and after forcing four incomplete passes Michigan took over on downs for a third time in this game.  As Alabama was out of time outs, Michigan took a knee on two snaps and ended the game.

As noted above, this game was very reminiscent of the Michigan – Ohio State game just a month ago.  Michigan controlled the time of possession, ran the ball, and kept Alabama’s explosive offense off the field.  When that offense was on the field, Michigan’s defense held them to 13 points.  We made them play our game.

We beat Alabama twice this year.  We beat them on January 1, 2024 in the Rose Bowl and again today, December 31, 2024, in the ReliaQuest Bowl.  We are the only team to beat Alabama twice in one year.  We lead the series with them 4-3.

This Michigan team did not look good earlier in this season.  They lost to Texas, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and Indiana.  Before the Northwestern game, it was not clear if we would be bowl eligible.  Then we ran the table beating NW, Ohio State, and, today, Alabama.  As the year progressed, the offensive line started to gel.  We settled on Davis Warren as quarterback who went from worrisome to a very gutsy OK.  As the offense started to eat up the clock, the defense was fresher for the whole and realized their potential.  We ended up the season as a pretty good football team. 

Things are looking pretty good for Michigan Football in 2025.  Go Blue.

Happy New Year!  A prosperous, healthy, and happy 2025 to one and all.

Ouds, Guitars, Horses, and Camels

 

The older I get the more I like cowboy movies.  I first noticed and wrote about this trend in 2011:  Old Westerns.

In some of the lighter movies I have watched, I noticed that several of them have the same flaw/dichotomy.  A few drifters or cowboys traveling by horseback make camp and under the starry night in the glow of the campfire, one of the cowboys is playing the guitar and singing for the others.  The flaw?  The dilemma?  Where the heck did the guitar come from?  This guy is traversing the prairie or high desert on horseback in one scene with no guitar visible on any the horses.  The next minute, after dinner one suddenly appears and disappears again when they hit the trail again the next morning.  In some movies, where the cowboys are driving cattle and there is a chuck wagon as part of the crew, I can see where a guitar could make the trip with the pots, pans, and provisions.  

Where did the guitar come from?  The same place the change of clothes come from which I am guessing is the script.  How much stuff can one cowpoke tote along one horse?  The clear answer is not much.  After a bed roll, some food, guns, ammo, maybe a coat… there is no room for a guitar.  I could see a harmonica but not a guitar.  Plus, trail dust, the hot sun and cold nights, rain and snow, and the general jostling about associated with riding horses is not the best environment for a guitar.  I would imagine they would warp, crack, and break quite often. 

 

No matter if it is rooted in reality or Hollywood, the guitar playing cowboy atop a horse is an icon.  Does the same apply to other cultures and eras?  Troubadours certainly travelled with a lyre, fiddle, flute, or lute like instrument.  They might travel by horseback where the main purpose was music not herding cattle, robbing trains, or fighting Indians.  Again, this has been influenced by Hollywood as well.  Think of the Will Scarlett character in Robin Hood (1938) toting a lute like thing around when not engaged in battle.

Does it apply to the Middle East?  Is there any lore, legend, or history of oud players on horse or camelback?  There is none that I know but then I am not well-versed in the films of the region.  If guitars don’t travel well on horseback, the oud being more delicate would be a bigger challenge.  In times of yore, it probably was not the chosen instrument of troubadours who travelled on foot or by donkey, horse, or camel.

I have come acress two photos of Armenians on horseback holding ouds.  One was Lilit Karapetyan (1963-2006) considered the first female oud player in Armenia SSR.  There is a nice biography of her in January 26, 2022 article in The Armenian Weekly:  Armenian Women Artists.  I could only find two clips of her playing.  Both are on Instagram.  These clips are from a concert at Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, 1992. The concert was presented in memory of her teacher, Karapet Aristakesyan.  She played classical music in these clips.  The notes in one of the posts claims that the full concert is on YouTube, but I could not find it.  I would love the story of how she came to take that photo with her oud on horseback.

• Clip 1:  Lilit playing the oud using like a classical guitar.
• Clip 2:  Lilit playing "Fantasía" by Anushavan Ter-Ghevondyan.
  

Lastly is my favorite photo. Richard Boyajian uses this very cool photo of him on horseback taken in Montana in 2011 as his Facebook profile photo.  While we are Facebook friends, I do not believe I have ever met him nor have I heard him play the oud.  Why is this my favorite photo?  I am not really sure.  I think I like it because it is cleary Armenian and clearly with an oud, but it is also a cowboy style photo at the same time. 

 

 

Lest We get to full of Our Motivated Selves

 

Yesterday’s post was the nth addressing, perhaps rehashing is a better word, of motivational and inspirational quotes.  As I wrote, this is an area of fascination for me.  Another way to explain it could be an obsession.  Nah, I would never dedicate the amount of time to this to be anywhere close to obsessive about it.

It is clear that motivational quotes, solely, are not the primary driver of change in lifestyle or other self-improvements.  If they were, the Nike adage of ‘Just Do It’ would be all anyone would need.  Heck, we would be a world of perfect humans if that were the case.  The only thing for certain is that Nike sold a lot of shoes and other swoosh adorned clothes and accessories with this tagline.

Earlier this year, in one of those ‘where did the time go’ scrolling through reels sessions, I came across a delightful one:  Demotivational quotes for people who hate inspirational quotes.  I was laughing out loud.  I sent the link to others who would find it just as hilarious.  Here are the demotivational quotes in this reel:

• Smile every day…  as a daily reminder that your life is still a joke.
• Do something nice for someone today.  Leave them alone.  Life is hard enough without your bullshit.
• Don’t let anyone tell you what you can’t do.  That’s a job for your insecurities.
• There’s no limit of what you can be… if you lie to yourself.
• Meditate every day… so you can become an even better selfish bastard.
• It gets better… for a minute or so every now and then.

These are all brilliant and funny.  It is a bucket splash of cold water to anyone worried about their ability to get and stay motivated.  In making light of it all, they remind us not to be too hard on ourselves if the progress is not clipping along as briskly as we might want.

These reels and others come from a website - Sad and Useless Humor:  The most depressive humor site on the internet.  Their About tab says, “SadAndUseless.com was created in 2009 as a sad attempt at humor. And to this day it still is the same old useless site it was meant to be.”  The website is full of content of various attempts at sad and useless humor.  Examples include:

• AI-Generated Gallery: Dogs Pooping In Beautiful Places
• Creepy Santa Photos: Scary Vintage Christmas Gallery
• AI-Generated Images of Advanced Yoga Poses

The demotivational series of videos and reels are all wonderful.  Many of the other posts are more sad and useless than actually humorous.  Sure, there were some amusing chuckles here and there.  But I suppose the website is true to its name.  With a name like Sad and Useless Humor, they can post just about anything they want (kind of like this blog when I am in my ‘blog about nothing’ mood).

It was easier to find the demotivational videos and short on their YouTube Channel than on their website.  They also have 2025 Horoscopes on the channel as well.  Being a Cancer, my horoscope was:

Try not to take this personally but you will continue to be an insufferable prick in 2025.  Thinking that you know everything better than everyone doesn’t make you smart or interesting.  It just makes you delusional and unlikeable.  You will never learn to shut up, will you?  Not in 2025, not in 2026.  Not ever.

So, I got this going for me…

Here are some more demotivational quotes:

• If at first, you don’t succeed… it’s probably never going to happen.
• If you never believe in yourself… you will never let yourself down.
• True love is when two people… lower their standards just the right amount.
• If you’ll keep following your dreams… they’re going to file a restraining order.
• Before you love someone else, you have to learn to love yourself… so there’s no chance of that happening.
• The best things in life… are actually really expensive.
• Don’t hate someone for what they look like on the outside… hate them for what a piece of shit they are on the inside.
• Enjoy the good times… because some terrible is probably about to happen.
• Life is hard… but at least it’s also long and boring. 
• One of the best things you can do in life… is shut the hell up occasionally.
• It’s a beautiful day… to eat leftovers over the trashcan like a damn racoon.

Let me close with the same closing I used in my January 18, 2018 post:  Resolution Update.  It kind of fits here. 

I have often downplayed the Nike slogan. But, maybe it is right. In a 2011 movie, Friends with Benefits, Woody Harrelson played Justin Timberlakes boss. At one point near the end, the Woody character gave the following little sermon:

Hey, everybody wants a short cut in life.  My guide book is very simple:  You wanna lose weight? Stop eating, fatty!  You wanna make money?  Work your ass off, lazy!You wanna be happy?  Find someone you like and never let him go. Or her

Or as Yoda said, “Do or do not. There is no try.”  So I should lace-up my physical and mental Nike's and Just Do It.