New Year's Resolutions

I might just return to New Year's Resolution both in title and content. In practice, YES they are destinations, but...who honestly thinks of them that way? And while I have felt the liberty to update them as it aligns to my life, an optimization of goals, they are goals set on 12/31, not 3/31! Who cares about April's Resolutions? They are not perfect and some I have actively chosen to fail, but I can swing by next NYE and release a better list. Plus, it is beneficial to see what was on my mind at that moment in time.

And hey, New Year's Eve is my second favorite holiday of the year! Why diminish it? SO looking forward to this year's!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Yes, it is April. And yes, I am listening to Christmas music.

Reasons:

• Celebrates the birth of my undying life's Lord and Savior.
• Places me in a good mood—brings JOY!

Now, why do I gotta wait 'til ALL THE WAY to DECEMBER for that sort of thing? Yeah, it is decidedly NOT the stuff of The Cool Kids' Table.

I am reminded to set aside some cash each month for Christmas. I should have already been on it earlier, but all of the cash that goes out the door with the purchase of a house spins my head around. I do it for my yearly Mint Mobile, 6-mo car insurance and homeschool purchases—why not have a Christmas category? It is a predictable cash outflow.

Undying

Tearing through these days I find the tolerance to strive and push on
I know what lies beyond this life for me is already won
No one can take away the blood that covers over my fall
Without the blood of perfect life I know I'm nothing at all
So now I reign forever hallowed in eternity's hand
No man can shake me from the everlasting ground that I stand
When this season ends

-Demon Hunter

YouTube Link

Bible

It is a new month and with it, my Bible studies continue to the Book of John, chapters 6-9. To kick things off as I had my meating with BBBE, I watched a John MacArthur sermon on the study selection, The Pathology of False Disciples (Part 1):

YouTube Link

1. The bigger the crowd, the more interest they have. They’re looking for the excitement.
2. Fascinated by the promise of the supernatural.
3. Are interested only in earthly benefits.
4. Are indifferent to worship...they might come to what is called worship in a contemporary sense. There is this kind of music environment that is created today that's called worship. They may like the music and the experience. They have no interest really in directing praise and adoration toward God.
5. Seek personal prosperity.
6. Make demands on God.
7. Do not find their desires fulfilled in Christ.

MacArthur also highlights rather amusingly that Jesus was the first Calvinist in the New Testament regarding divine election. These words of Jesus are found in John 6 and are in context to His losing many of His disciples despite hearing His words and miracles on a daily basis:

37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
...
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
...
65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."

Training

I continue to restore strength and flexibility to these quads of mine. Along with weightloss, the Expeditions have told a story of injury mitigation (or my failure thereof). Truly, it is a shame that I lost ALL of 2019's posts, as it told of foot going offline after walking that 50,000 steps on a treadmill and then making a stellar comeback via new wave and the release of the 3rd season of STRANGER THINGS and its tagline, "ONE SUMMER CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING."

Later was autumn 2020's knuckle and forearm strikes that did a number on me...

...immediately followed in December by my left shoulder falling to the vertical climber.

Then there was January 2021's foot that gave way to pushing a minivan out of the ice, the same one when I gave in to the fear and saw a doctor at an urgent care clinic, who so infuriated me, it was like Jesus himself touched it: the lame could walk! I tossed my crutches aside.

That May 2021 was the time I tripped running away from my zombie of the night—like any good horror film—almost recovered, then flew to only crash land atop my elbow, something I rarely feel these days, but something that stopped production on my running.

Swing it to a year later and I randomly put weight on my patella in August, felt an immediate sharp pain and would break carnivore the next day from the overnight suffering. I soaked myself in a hot tub of Bud Light with Little Debbie. Unfortunately, inactivity had led to atrophy which was an issue on those quads from WAY back—I lamented on it in this blog back in 2002. The lesson here: do NOT rest and put your legs up for an injury, folks.

I slowly was coming out of it in 2023 when...TADA, our house move happened and I pushed my legs to the max. And there I went, back on the crutches, unable to lift my leg in bed or even left my leg up in a sitting position. I was just a couple of inches better than August when lifting my foot off the ground when standing; I could do a whole THREE inches.

Until now...

...I can do those things.

Oh, there remains a twinge of pain that wakes me up at night. There is some swelling and discomfort. But, I am now in the position to strengthen my quads. The thing is, my injury in August had a pain that was centralized BELOW my knee, toward the inside. All of my stuff today is ABOVE my knee (for awhile it was on the ridge of my patella). When I push in a workout, I will feel it again on the lower side—well, all of that is to say that I need to build up strength in my quads.

So, I slowly ramp up the intensity to strengthen things:

• Perform yardwork with the wheelbarrow and take breaks when needed.
• Jog in the pool.
• Bike pedal motion in the deep end of the pool via a couple of pool noodles.
• Practice taekwondo in the pool, with emphasis on the front kick.

"Simply the Best"

I feel at peace with life. Oh sure, I have got weight to cut, though that is more of a fun challenge. Then there is my quad/knee that remains swollen, weak and numb, but there are always those little things. And others may say, "What's wrong with you? You should be ANGRY because the cool kids are angry! ANGER! ANGER! ANGER!"

Take a couple of steps back: it is all ridiculous, is it not? That sort of thing drives clicks I guess. But, anger with no tether to reality is the stuff of fools. Anger is the foul fruit of the "you owe me" mindset.

Today's post is entitled after another Eagles-related song and it is apt. My old, high school truck had this covers compilation CD as a mainstay, the October '93 release, Common Threads: The Songs of the Eagles.

YouTube Link

A feature I absolutely love about YouTube Music is for albums I like this: if it is on YouTube, I can swing it over into a playlist on the YTM side. For whatever reason, this album is never available on streaming services; it must be a licensing thing like Garth Brooks or that Smashing Pumpkins song.

"Thinking Problem"

I watched this the other day from Dr. Berry and was delighted this his research scientist guest shares the same take on science as I do.

YouTube Link

And maybe that is the problem with terminal degrees: folks think they are done with learning. The only thing that happens is that the more you know, the less you know. There is no such thing as "follow the science" other than the pursuit of seeing how many different ways you are wrong. This is how I went from a vegan diet to carnivore. And the thinking schema is how I went from full-blown Arminianism to Calvinism or adding writing to a specialty in tech.