Some thoughts (which are hopefully a bit less provocative than some recent blogs have been, lol):

I absolutely love the holiday season, including the entire month of December. Planning for Christmas, buying presents, seeing decorations, and even holiday talk are all wonderfully uplifting. If every month of the year was as delightful as December, the world would be a heck of a lot better place.

There are certain things about which I am very intolerant, and right near the top of my list is arrogance. I can befriend people with many faults–after all, who doesn’t have faults, myself included?–but I will reject an arrogant person almost immediately. You’re no better than the rest of us are, buddy, so stop acting as if you are already!

I was extremely fortunate to realize about 15 years ago how much I loved teaching and loved interacting with my students on a daily basis, both in and out of the classroom. These past 15 years have been the happiest and most rewarding of my life. I probably should have worked on eliminating my craving to write full-time and stayed in the classroom until I keeled over someday in the middle of The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Wouldn’t that have been a fabulous way to go? ☺

I have selected by favorite book and cd of the past year: my favorite book was C.J. Cherryh’s Finity’s End; it was not a new book; it was published in 1997, but I first read it this past year. This is the third time my favorite book was by C.J. Cherryh. In 1976 I selected her Brothers of Earth and in 1981 it was Downbelow Station. Obviously, she is one of my very favorite writers.

My favorite cd was Willie Nile’s Streets of New York. That is also not new, having been released in 2006. This is his second time topping my list. In 1991 Places I Have Never Seen was my favorite album.