Have we birthed a New Year's Resolution?

End of the year contemplation. Why do we do this? I wish we didn't, frankly. Today is December 23, 2024. Finally having a few minutes of down time, this being day one of Christmas break from work (I work in a school), to look for things, organize things, throw things away... I have a habit of keeping things when there's hardly anything left, in case I can never get it again. So--well, first of all, it's a few years old...should have been thrown out a long time ago (and it's a terrible habit). I had some amoretto flavored coffee creamer taking up space in my cabinet, and I was considering giving away this little mortar and pestle a friend gave me before she moved back to Ohio. So, I tried the creamer in my coffee. Three things: it had lost its flavor, it was separating in the cup and it was hugely lumpy in the container. So, I found a use for the little mortar and pestle.I ended up drinking the coffee anyway because I hate to waste anything, and it wasn't that bad. I have lit what's left of a lovely cranberry Home Interiors candle from probably two decades ago burning on my desk. It burned for a long time yesterday, and it's still going. Whatever happened to Home Interiors anyway? Home Interiors still exists. You can look it up online. I don't think they have cranberry anymore, and I think you have to get it from a representative or you have to be a representative or something like that, and, in addition, they want you to "create an account" or "log in" or some such foolishness. I found out the horse in National Velvet was supposed to be "piebald" ("irregular patches of different colors, typically black and white"). How I discovered this was noticing that the National Velvet Breyer horse is black and white. I, of course, had always thought he was black because he was black in the movie with Elizabeth Taylor. I had also wondered why they called the horse "Pie" in the clips of the movie I had seen. Now, I know. "Pie," for "piebald." Now I wonder what is the difference between piebald and pinto or paint. Oh, curiosity, is it a blessing or a curse? Piebald, skewbald, pinto, paint, they are all different. Piebald is white on black, skewbald is white on non-black. I don't know the difference between paint and pinto. I'm not sure I care that much right now. Oh, okay, "pinto" is the color, "paint" is the breed. Now you know. Oh, my goodness. So much to know. What is the difference between body lotion and hand lotion? Hand lotion is thicker and has more moisturizers. There, now you know. Just found "National Velvet" (the film) free on Tubi TV. Has nice music. "Greensleeves" or "What Child is This?" at the beginning. The film opens where Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Lansbury are at school, the last day before...summer break? Not sure what the significance of the school is in this film. I can't believe I never saw this. It's a long one. Two hours and four minutes. Wow. The horse is chestnut in this version. I always thought it was black, and the horse Taylor ended up buying. I wonder if the original film was in black and white...no, the movie was in Technicolor. Learn something new every day. I watched the movie, undistracted by my political TV show, in my room, the way I used to watch movies before I left home, but knowing you can't go back--in time and be young again, living at home. So...really good movie, and now I know. There are more horse movies on if I want to watch them. My candle is still burning. Wow. Those were good candles. Sometimes I think all this curiosity is just a distraction, distraction from what I really have no idea. Sometimes I think I'm just keeping busy until the time of the end. I don't mean that to be sad and pitiful, I just mean the dailiness of life returns when the movie ends. People love movies, stories, good books, things to keep us busy just to get through. That's why people stay on their phones so much. My laptop came unplugged and now I have to charge it. I am not ready to go back out into the front room. I am getting hungry though and it is past lunch time. One of the themes of the movie was the same as the theme of Ecclesiastes chapter three. There's a time for everything. Not sure what time this is. Time to get dressed, go check the mail, see if my package came. I didn't hear the mail carrier knock on the door. I still wish I knew where my imagination went. As a child I could sit down and write a story, just like that, and in 1997-8 I wrote them for a creative writing class. Now, it's gone, I guess. Maybe it will come back some day. Meanwhile, I think maybe I just need to read a little bit. I really want my screen time to get down to two hours. Last week it was two hours and 59 minutes. That's not great. Maybe I have hit upon a good New Year's Resolution. Perhaps, if all things are possible with God, that could actually happen, given a whole year to accomplish it. Maybe I could even write a story. An interesting activity I have discovered is salvaging candle jars; cleaning them out and using them for other things. I cleaned one up and am using it to put white chocolate truffles with gold wrapping. Today I cleaned out the Home Interiors Cranberry candle jar and plan on usibng it for something--short pencils, maybe, highlighters, emery boards. Not sure, I also may just use it to put those little tea light candles in. I did that earlier, and it looks real nice. I am currently going to burn down a Black Currant and Elderflower candle and maybe clean it out and use it for something. I really don't like throwing jars away. There used to be a recycling center in my neighborhood, but it went away and it's not convenient anymore, so I just keep jars and use them for other things if I can. I finally had to throw one out today that had some paint medium stuck to the insides and all dried out. I read about Phil Spector today and learned a little about him. You may not know about him; he was a hall of fame songwriter, musician and producer who ended up being convicted of second degree murder and died in prison in 2021, I believe. He wrote and roduced most of my favorite songs in the 60s. You can look them up, I’m not going to list them here. He told one British journalist he had "demons inside him," which he probably did. But in one of the latest mug shots of him, he was smiling, and a rumor was floating around that he "found religion" in prison. I am always very interested in whether or not a person finds God before they die, and a lot of people do find God in prison, so I hope he did. What a talent, and what a lot of tragedy in his life. The Bible describes in a lot of places the way lives lives are destroyed when people (and nations) choose to go their own way and not God's way. I really do pray that America is turning back to God. It's beginning to be time to turn in. It has been a relatively productive day and mostly relaxing, especially watching "National Velvet" in my room. I saw a hot air balloon go up in the air over God's Storehouse (thrift store) this afternoon. That was crazy. People must be crazy to want to do stuff like that. I am not sure you could pay me enough to do something like that. I am watching the Black Currant and Elderflower candle burn down and it really smells nice. I think I'm going to go try to do a little reading. End of day one of Christmas Break. 1. Watched "National Velvet" 2. Saw a hot air balloon go up over God's Storehouse 3. Cleaned out the Home Interiors candle jar 4. Some other piddling stuff not worth mentioning but important in the grand scheme of things, preparing for the day I might die suddenly and someone will have as a result of today's effort slightly fewer things to sort through... Correction: Okay, so in the book "National Velvet" the name Pie was for piebald; in the movie it was short for "Pirate." And the horse was not black in the movie; he was chestnut. https://tubitv.com/movies/100012520/national-velvet