New Years Resolutions (I got home late today, and had to shovel, but I don't want to break my streak)

 This blog was (obviously) my New Year's Resolution for last year. Officially, I'm not "obligated" to keep it going daily, but it's hard to give it up now. This year, my goals are to get my Chess rating up (I said 1500, I should've said 1400!) and to get back into an exercise routine. I initially said stretch every day, but I found that stretching "hard" more than a day or two in a row is rough. I guess I should've figured it'd be the same as any other kind of exercise. Years ago, I was pretty good about doing some light warm ups and stretching each day, then going into something a little harder, so I'm trying to build a new routine based loosely around that.

I really like just going for a nice long walk, but it's been below freezing most evenings this week, and there's ice around. I could maybe deal with the temps (something something stoicism) but twisting my ankle while trying to go for a jog feels unproductive.

Maybe I'll find a way to stick with one post a day between here and my other blog (blogs? thinking about starting yet another). I'd like to do another reflection or two, but I think they'll be more in depth and take longer to write. We'll see.

SHARE YOUR RESOLUTIONS, LURKERS!

Some things never change.

 I'm not sure how many of these reflection posts I'm going to wind up doing. For tonight, I want to talk about something I found really reassuring T5FSOB: how many of the things people struggle with today were apparently still issues hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of years ago. On the one hand, I guess it's a little depressing that we're still grappling with so many issues, it's also comforting to see that the world is still spinning, and mostly better, even if we haven't entirely fixed them. We still grapple with how to govern like Hobbes and Machiavelli. We still have all manner of moral, emotional, and philosophical issue that Ben Franklin and Marcus Aurelius talked about. Locke wrote about using what we would call "gamification" over 300 years ago. 

I guess it's also kind of disappointing that we're still arguing about some stuff that was mostly "solved" hundred of years ago, but that's part of being free, I guess. People are welcome to be morons about stuff that their great great great grandparents could've read a book about (if they could read). But, overall, it's comforting to me. People make a big deal about how the times we live in are so horrible, stressful, etc. and how happy people used to be. It's nice to see that they worried about a lot of the same things (maybe today isn't so bad) and to learn from them to hopefully deal with those issues in our own lives. I think the example that most resonated with me was Cicero's.

9. Nor, again, do I now MISS THE BODILY STRENGTH OF A YOUNG MAN (for that was the second point as to the disadvantages of old age) any more than as a young man I missed the strength of a bull or an elephant. You should use what you have, and whatever you may chance to be doing, do it with all your might.

I don't necessarily worry about old age a ton (yet), but I like that when I do I can hopefully frame it like this. There were always things I couldn't do, and I tried not to get hung up on them before. Enjoy and do you best at what you an do, and you'll be happier and more successful than if you worry about what you can't. Really, that's good advice for life in general, not just aging.

Failing at time management, fifteen minutes at a time.

 I think one of the biggest things I learned from this project was how much time and energy reading, writing, etc. take, and how much I can afford to devote to it per day. (You'd think, after getting two English degrees, I'd have it figured out.) One post about ten or so pages of literature was fine. There were days that I had to rush/skim a little, but I could usually go back and reread by the end of the week. But as I started to add more and more stuff on it got to be too much. At the peak, my schedule looked something like this:

Monday: 15 Minute Classics, Weekly Reflection
Tuesday: 15 Minute Classics, guest post on my wife's blog
Wednesday: 15 Minute Classics, Casually Completing Classics
Thursday: 15 Minute Classics, crits/submission for writing workshop
Friday: 15 Minute Classics, Star Wars Classics
Saturday: 15 Minute Classics
Sunday: 15 Minute Classics, guest post.

That meant that Saturday was the only day I wasn't locked into two posts (or other writing responsibilities) on the schedule (and something extra often came up). More often than not, it meant I tried to cram a ton of fiction writing in on Saturdays (since I couldn't actually produce a reasonable amount for workshop just on Thursday) and wound up burnt out. Obviously, anyone reading saw what happened. Things dropped off little by little, until I was down to basically just the core 15 Minute Classics posts. I snuck in other stuff to try to make it up here and there, but by December I think I was close to 30 posts in the hole across all the series. I am proud that I never had to miss a day on the core series. I think keeping up a daily post on just about anything is a fair accomplishment, let alone having to also read 10 or 15 pages for it. I'm mostly caught up now (I'm about a dozen books behind on Star Wars Classics, but some of them will be grouped under a single post and  I don't know that I'm going to "make them up" or just start posting and leave a little backlog.) This year, I'm going to try to shoot for one post a day, more or less, across my various projects. I want to devote a lot more time to my fiction. I was kind of burnt out after my Masters, so it was good to take a break, but I'd like to work my way up to doing fiction roughly every other day, with the other stuff filling in the rest of the days. No firm schedule yet, I'm just taking some time to enjoy finishing out this project and I'll figure it out later this month.

Where do I go from here? Is there anybody out there? (Next steps and begging for comments.)

 Short post tonight since I got home late. I'm in the closing stretch of this little project. I've got to do at least one more general recap post, but I think even if I really ramble I'll be done by the end of the week. I'm still holding onto the every day streak for as long as I can, but I think I'll probably let it go by the end of the month. When I had an explicit, daily challenge it made sense, but as I move onto longer pieces I think once or twice a week will be more suitable. I have spent some time thinking about what to read next, so here's a list in order from what I think is least to most likely:

1. More Harvard Classics- 15MAD is only a small portion (my napkin math puts it about 15%) of the total collection, and that's not even counting the later fiction supplement. However, they're not exactly easy to find/work with, the translations are dated, and I think I'd prefer to broaden my horizons a bit.

2. Dig into the "to read" list- I made a list of about 50 (I think there are some doubles) things to read over the course of this year. I'd definitely like to read them (or I wouldn't have made the list!) but I think I want a little more organization than "pick the next thing that looks interesting off the list."

(These two are almost guaranteed not to be the plan, but they're reasonable ideas to consider.)

3. An organized classics/liberal ed course- There's a bunch out there, but many are on some kind of actual schedule, and I'd have to find one that I liked, aligned with my schedule, etc. I think this is a better plan for some other time, unless a great one falls into my lap.

4. Do one of the Great Books courses- Gateway To The Great Books is probably the most direct competitor to 15MAD released, and is much more modern (original date 1963, updated edition 1990?). It'd be kind of cool to see how they compare. On the other hand, it feels like it'd basically be a repeat of this year in theme, if not in content.

5. Casually Comparing Classics- I had a lot of fun with The Odyssey series, and I have a couple Beowulf translations I'd like to read sitting on my night stand. It'd be fun (and comparatively short/easy) to chunk through a section or two of each a week and compare them.

6. 15 Minute Classics: The World Tour- I got a copy of one of the current (shorter fifth) editions of the Norton World Lit anthology for my birthday. T5FSOB (and The Great Books) are heavily western focused, and I think I'd like to expand my range a little. Maybe I'll decide I really like southern Asian mythology and want to dig in on that for six months or something. This feels manageable (I think it's actually slightly less pages than this year's challenge), I have the books physically (and I think digitally, although I'm having some issues with my code. If not, I can yar har the 4th edition if nothing else), and it seems most likely to increase the breadth of my reading, if not depth. But I'm not one hundred percent locked in yet...

I think I probably have a handful of regular readers on this blog. According to Blogger, I'm averaging a ~100 hits a day. I'm sure most of those are from bots (and I really doubt the blog is as popular in Singapore as the stats suggest), but I think that there's gotta be at least one or two of you actually reading most of these posts. So, I'm going to ask for two things. First, leave LITERALLY ANY COMMENT. Even if it's just one letter. I just want to know someone actually exists and is looking at these. Second, if you care, feel free to talk about which of the above options you like/dislike. I'm open to any one of the six, and if someone is really engaged with one it'll probably be more fun to do that one.

At the end of the day, this blog is mostly a journal for me to help me organize my thoughts about the readings. This isn't a Fanfic.net "no updates until I get enough comments!" hostage situation, I will keep tooling along for the foreseeable future regardless. But I would like it more if I knew someone was actually alive on the other end of the ethernet cable.

Final Reflections: Weekly Average

I started keeping a spreadsheet a month or so ago where I recorded my weekly average scores. I have most of the second half of the year done, so I went back today and started rereading the recap posts and adding them to the sheet. It was nice to refresh myself on some of the earlier readings, and to see how I reacted and how things changed. I saw my comments on the first Burns entry today (when I just thought of him as regular bad). I forgot that I didn't "officially" calibrate the scoring system until (I think) April. There's a lot of three and fours when I was just rating based on "overall" quality, vs specifically as "classics." I'll update this post tomorrow when I finish, but didn't want to break the streak. (I plan to go non-daily at some point, not quite yet.)

Final Average: 2.47

Worst Week: Week 33, 1.71

Best Weeks Week 3, 3.57 

I want to start by saying that it took me a couple weeks to settle into an actual scoring system (I officially documented it the last week of February into March, but I think I'd mostly figured it out a week or two earlier). Looking back, I don't think I would've knocked Week 3 down very much. The Nightingale already only got a 1, Ben Franklin usually rated high, Poetic Principal might've even snuck up to a 4 depending on my mood. It could've dropped a point on each of the other entries (all of which were also strong, and probably wouldn't) and still kept it's 3+ average. A few of the earlier weeks would've definitely dropped a bit, but I stand by Week 3.  Weeks 1 and 2 also scored at or above a 3, and were more likely to lose a point or two off their overall score. The only week to score a 3+ after the scoring guide was "officially" established was Week 22. I think this is getting carried by my Kit Marlowe fanboyishm, but it was nice to see one "later" week make the cut.

I also want to take a moment to restate the scoring system. (From here):

1/5: Should not have been included in T5FSOB in the first place. Poorly written, not particularly intellectually stimulating, historically unimportant.

2/5: Valid for inclusion in T5FSOB but not a good selection for the reading list. Might be a poorly chosen excerpt from a stronger piece, or an okay piece that has value but not in the top 20% or so that a piece (by napkin math) should be to get into the reading guide.

3/5: A passable choice for the reading guide. Well enough written, and at least somewhat historic or thought provoking. While not spectacular in and of itself, suitable as a starting point to discover other pieces or start thinking about a subject.

4/5: Actually good. A selection that works without needing other pieces to prop it up. Writing quality is decent, and it has some sort of critical/educational value.

5/5: The best of the best. Something that immediately prompts me to want to find more on the subject/author or otherwise changes my perspective on life.

I think I kind of undersold 4 here. "Actually good" starts around a 2 or 3 (a 2 could be a weak section from a strong piece, or a decent but not amazing piece on its own). Four is better than "good", but not a super-best-of-the-best-life-changer.

There were also a fair number of 0s (so bad it probably shouldn't have been written), mostly for Robert Burns. I hypothetically allowed 6s, but I don't think I featured any. I used it once or twice in Star Wars: Classics for something that hit the triple threat of being exceptional in all three categories of entertaining, thought provoking, and historic.

Working backwards, Week 33 narrowly edged out Week 32, and does a great job of highlighting the two things that can really drag a week down. They're only a point apart, so they could've easily flipped. The two most common things to drag a week down (especially later in the year as my patience waned) were:

1. Bad religious writings.

2. Bad (especially Burns) poetry.

I spent a lot of brain time waffling on how to account for "bad" religious writing in T5FSOB. Something Eliot highlights (and I appreciate) is that not everything in T5FSOB is supposed to just be "the best." It could be historically significant, even if completely wrong. And that means there is room for some amount of questionable Christian (or any other religion, but Christianity gets the lion's share) rambling. Christianity is still a major force in the West, especially the US, and still is today. I can disagree with a lot of Christian writers, but some of them are still well written or important for some reason. But the particular strain Eliot pulls from so heavily, "God is infinitely amazing, people are infinitely terrible, watch me pretzel logic to prove it!" was (as far as I can tell) never influential enough to deserve the amount of page space he devotes to it. How could it be? If you went to church every week and got called a peace of shit for an hour, and read stories about God torturing people for no reason, you wouldn't go back. At some point earlier in the year, I entertained the possibility that Eliot was doing some stealth anti-apologetics to try to make God/Christianity look as terrible as possible. While it appears he was more of a middle of the road (possibly even more Deistic) Christian, I don't think full on Atheism Commando is very likely. Besides, he does include a smattering of not complete garbage Christianity readings. 

Poetry was much more straight forward. If your poem is about how beautiful nature is, or how you're "in love" (creepily obsessed) with someone, you have to write a really amazing poem to score well. About a million people do it well every year, and when you're in the same collection as Shakespeare, you're probably not going to measure up. Bonus point loss if you sacrifice readability to cram in a weird slant rhyme scheme or something. I don't hate all poetry (Keats scored the first 5!), but it's real easy to do a bad job, and I think meh-bad poetry is more unpleasant than meh-bad fiction.

Week 33 had examples of both, and was punished accordingly.

So, how does that average of 2.47 shake out? Most simply, it'd be a week with four 2s and three 3s. It means that the vast majority of the selections in 15MAD were at least good enough to be included in a collection of the best/most important writings of history up until 1910ish. It means (by a slim margin) the average selection wasn't good enough that I'd have selected it in a "Top 366" list for such a collection. I suspect the 2s do slightly outnumber the 3s, though the numbers could be skewed by the 0/1 and 4/5(/6?). I think there were more low outliers than high outliers, so I suspect the 3:2 ratio is a bit better than it looks. If I did a similar challenge (I am eyeing some Gateway to The Great Books sets, and I got another potential project from my parents yesterday) I'd like to do the data in a more granular and organized way. Overall, the ratings aren't the point, but just a tool to foster more thought. I'll continue with more reaction and reflections next week. 

Reflections on Week 53 (Dec 30&31 THE END!)

         Link to the readings

Last one!

Quick review on this week's readings:

Dec 30 Two Years Before the Mast by Dana: 3/5 I would like to fake my way through a foreign country by knowing a related language.

Dec 31 "Inaugural Address at Edinburg University" by Carlyle: 1/5 Way to end the year on a downer

Average: 2 I did that math myself.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

Kind of a let down for the final week. Two Years Before the Mast, like some of the selections the week before, was fun to see one last time (even if the choice was odd). The Edinburg Address is a rambling disaster. Anything passable here could've "saved" the average, but this was a disaster.

Reflections On Week 52 (Dec 23-29)

        Link to the readings

It's slightly more than 52 weeks in a year.

Quick review on this week's readings:

Dec 22? (Oops, wrong week)  The Voyage of The Beagle by Darwin: 2/5 Not the best Darwin

Dec 24 Holinshed's Chronicle by Harrison: 1/5 This was a total bait and switch.

Dec 25 The Gospel of Luke: 3/5 An obvious, but appropriate, choice for Christmas.

Dec 26 King Lear by Shakespeare: 3/5 Lear is an underrated play.

Dec 27 The Voyage of The Beagle by Darwin: 3/5 The famous finches. 

Dec 28 "Drake's Great Armada" by Briggs: 2/5 The worst of the Drake excerpts for the year.

Dec 29 The Odyssey by Homer: 3/5 This project finally got me to stop adding an extra "e" to Odyssey. (I think I already said that.)

Average: 2.42 Saying goodbye to some favorites this week.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

It was kind of cool to see the final selections Eliot picked for the repeats. Circling King Lear back to just before the first reading. The Odyssey ending on its natural climax. Darwin getting his finches. It was like seeing an old friend grow up and realize their potential.