{"id":768,"date":"2007-01-02T16:34:36","date_gmt":"2007-01-02T20:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/01\/02\/some-favourites-from-2006\/"},"modified":"2007-01-02T16:50:23","modified_gmt":"2007-01-02T20:50:23","slug":"some-favourites-from-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/02\/some-favourites-from-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Some favourites from 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2007\/01\/rewind.gif\" width=\"168\" height=\"168\" alt=\"Rewind\" title=\"Rewind\" class=\"aligncenter\"\/><br \/>\nI thought I&#8217;d start off this year with some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.m-w.com\/cgi-bin\/dictionary?book=Dictionary&#038;va=omphaloskepsis\">omphaloskepsis<\/a> and put up a quick list of some my favourite posts here from last year. These aren&#8217;t the best, or the most popular, just some that I particularly liked.<\/p>\n<p>My favourite in January was probably <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/01\/23\/who-we-just-made-our-prime-minister\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Who We Just Made Our Prime Minister\u2026\">Who We Just Made Our Prime Minister\u2026<\/a>, wherein I, with the aid of some booze, lament the results of the Canadian federal elections. There were several (sequentially more depressed) posts that night, but this is the one that really nailed it, I think.<\/p>\n<p>In February I did a commentary on Russell&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/21\/in-praise-of-idleness\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to In Praise Of Idleness\">In Praise Of Idleness<\/a> that should have been the start of a series of commentaries, but apparently idleness intruded. At least I got one friend reading a lot of Russell this year, so that&#8217;s something.<\/p>\n<p>March&#8217;s pick was definitely a just-for-me choice: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/03\/28\/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to What\u2019s the worst that could happen?\">What\u2019s the worst that could happen?<\/a>, my complicated and only-funny-to-me response to an online writing assignment.<\/p>\n<p>April brought one of my most-commented on pieces of the year, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/04\/10\/confusing-the-art-and-the-artist\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Confusing The Art and the Artist\">Confusing The Art and the Artist<\/a>, wherein I lament my inability to distinguish my personal perception of the artist from my reaction to the art.<\/p>\n<p>A very short post, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/01\/beer-exploration\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Beer Exploration\">Beer Exploration<\/a>, is my personal highlight of May. I still haven&#8217;t had a chance to try any of those beers. I need to get focused on that.<\/p>\n<p>My two favourites in June didn&#8217;t draw much comment, but I still quite like them. One, inspired by something I read in a Michael Connelly thriller, is a detailed examiniation of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/29\/dreamland-by-edgar-allan-poe\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Dreamland by Edgar Allan Poe\">Dreamland by Edgar Allan Poe<\/a>, and the other was my look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/14\/the-kasdah-of-hj-abd-el-yezd\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to The Kas\u00eedah of H\u00e2j\u00ee Abd\u00fb El-Yezd\u00ee\">The Kas\u00eedah of H\u00e2j\u00ee Abd\u00fb El-Yezd\u00ee<\/a> by Burton.<\/p>\n<p>In July I quite enjoyed playing James Burke and tracking down a chain of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/20\/weird-connections\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Hidden sequitors\">Hidden sequitors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I had quite a few posts I really liked in August, but the winner had to be the one where I finally got around to capturing the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/03\/friendly-dictators\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Friendly Dictators\">Friendly Dictators<\/a> cards in online form. Another that was a sentimental favourite was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/24\/you-could-chase-a-bear-with-a-buggy-whip\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to You could chase a bear with a buggy whip!\">You could chase a bear with a buggy whip!<\/a>, a post about the colourful language of Nova Scotia&#8217;s South Shore.<\/p>\n<p>The pick of September for me had to be the final post in my series on the various pieces of art I have hanging around the house: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/27\/hanging-around-the-house-12-updates-unhung\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Hanging Around The House 12: Updates &amp; Unhung\">Hanging Around The House 12: Updates &amp; Unhung<\/a>. As much fun as those posts were, and as much as I&#8217;ve enjoyed some the discussions they&#8217;ve lead to, having that done felt like a weight off me. (Of course new things are always coming in, but I can handle those without feeling the weight of needing to complete something I had started.)<\/p>\n<p>The most fun post in October was the one about Lee&#8217;s new Australian ad campaign: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/06\/she-has-jeans\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to She has jeans?\">She has jeans?<\/a>. A lot of the discussion about this one happened in another online forum, including a bunch of forensic image manipulation.<\/p>\n<p>November was pick something from, by by a hair my favourite post was the one that tied PopBitch&#8217;s drunken drivers to my grandfather, the place of employment I shared with him, and the history of Canadian nuclear research: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/28\/lithuanians-are-indestructible\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Lithuanians are indestructible\u2026\">Lithuanians are indestructible\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In December the post that I enjoyed the most was the one where I looked forward to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/03\/forthcoming-books\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to Forthcoming books\u2026\">Forthcoming books\u2026<\/a> for the new year. However, the one that I talked to people about the most was the one where I had one of my occasional flashes into how much technology has changed without our really noticing it: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/11\/we-live-in-science-fiction-2\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to We Live In Science Fiction.\">We Live In Science Fiction.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, on to new content for 2007&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">I thought I&#8217;d start off this year with some omphaloskepsis and put up a quick list of some my favourite posts here from last year. These aren&#8217;t the best, or the most popular, just some that I particularly liked. My favourite in January was probably Who We Just Made Our Prime Minister\u2026, wherein I, with the aid of some booze,&hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/02\/some-favourites-from-2006\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-cliches","category-meta-blogging","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5UQvw-co","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}