In Which we Wrap up November 2024 and talk on December Already!

Good morning, my good friend, reader of this post! Happy Saturday! Happy last day of November! I am both happy and sad. Happy because December is another happy month of the Christmas season, but sad because time is moving, soon it will be the end of the season of '24. Apart from the mixed feelings, I am okay. Yesterday went without many hiccups overall. I was at the live of a guy I follow on Instagram, that I am fond of. It went alright, it was so great to see him and to talk to him further. As for today... I am happy to finish a blog post, if possible! This will be the 800th post of the blog, quite a number!!! Imagine so many entries in this now almost 10 year old blog! Hard to believe I stuck to a project for once. 

We did reach the end of yet another month. How was it? I can say it was not as terrible as September, thank Goodness... It went by very fast, faster than what I could have followed! It seems like it was just a few days ago we were in Halloween, now Thanksgiving 2024 is behind. I haven't drawn much in November, that is true... maybe in December I will work on some more drawings, but I do not want to force myself on any direction. Will I finish reading my book on the Habsburgs? Ideally, yes, but I have been on a slow reading mood in the past few months, we will see. 

I have asked today ChatGPT, a tool I have been using for some months now, thanks to the tip of my friend Lubi, to generate me a picture of myself, based on my face, and on our conversations, on the rococo fashion. The final result is the one above. AI picture generating tools are getting quite impressively good, also in a bad way, it is scary, even! Quite scary. I am not sure if this is a great and superb advancement, or the direction towards further cheapening of arts and crafts... As Tim Cook of Apple puts it, when mentioning of his smartphone habits and how he tries to limit his screen time: This is a tool to make life easier, more enjoyable, better! Not to control, not to destroy... at the end of the day, I do still think technology is neutral, but its users are not. Margaret Thatcher, my favorite historical woman mentioned once you learn something, you cannot unlearn it. She was mentioning nuclear weapons, but it goes for most invents that we have registered. The genie is out of the bottle...

I will see if I can visit my grandma this December. The fact she lives far away on the city, and the commute there is tiresome, and I fear she has been as cranky as ever, that can be an issue... The first time I went to her place, I missed home terribly. I went there on a Friday expecting to return on Monday - Saturday I was already back, I could not wait to return to my mother's company and her house. I still have plans on spending Christmas with her, but since her move, the tradition seems to be broken, as it was specially linked to her old house, where she is no more. I also worry she may want to spend Christmas someplace else other than her apartment, i find that quite probable, so even more obstructions to the traditional moment. You all must have hinted by now that I am prone to melancholy, so I could get nostalgic now... but life has been moving so fast it is hard to keep up. Fast in the sense of, in a space of 6 months: I have done the surgery and lost quite a few pounds, not to mention the dietary changes, and she moved to a new apartment, far away. Things that were granted for years seem over, now. No more flowers in her garden, on the bad side of things, but also, no more fearinf I will break my bed when I lay down, on the positive note side of things. At the end of the day... I just desire a Christmas of relief and joy, and peace, as they have been for a while... No mental strain, no great suffering or difficult choices... just, a good, positive Christmas. As I mentioned some posts ago, if that is not possible, I will not blame the season. It is still is the birth of Jesus, it is still a time for happiness to so many! I want to take part on the celebrations, not shun them for selfish reasons. I like listening to Christmas music, it won't be this time I will mute them.

So, yes, this is it, the end of November 2024, and so the year moves to its final moments... I will write more on the perspectives for 2025 and maybe more balance for 2024 in this next month, but for now, I am happy where this post is, I can start moving towards wrapping it up. When should I be back here, with my thoughts and ideas? I pray soon! Maybe at some point this next week, the first one of December! We will see. Until then, I wish you the best, dear friend, reader of this post! Send you a hug, and bid you farewell for now.