Preparing for the new blogging year

Maybe it’s a good sign, but I’ve already started planning and preparing for next year's blogging, something that begins less than a month from now. That planning process meant taking a look back, too, of course. None of this is even remotely new—one way or another it’s something I do every year. And yet, the fact I’m doing it after a difficult year gives me hope for the year to come.

One of the easiest ways to see that this has been a difficult year for me is to look at how much I produced for this blog and my podcast, and that can be summed up by the simple phrase, “very little”. November ended up in a three-way tie for my least productive months of 2024, but unlike the other two, I at least know what was behind the lack of output in November: The disastrous US election. I just didn’t feel like doing anything even remotely creative for at least the first two weeks after the disaster, and for the past week or so I’ve been busy in an entirely ordinary way.

My posts right before and after the US elections were both in my Weekend Diversion: 1984 series, but I wrote both of them right before they were published—I didn’t write them in advance, and, in fact, I think only one or two in the entire series were. It would be another week and a half before I’d post again, and that was the call for questions in this year’s Ask Arthur series, also written right before publication—around a week later than I wanted to publish it.

My last two posts in November were also delayed, though only by days. In fact, the only reason they got published at all was that I wanted to make sure that November wasn’t the least-productive month of the year. Motivation is motivation, I suppose.

So now it’s December and, including this post, so far I’ve managed an average of one post per day! That amuses me because when I thought about the rest of this year, I realised that I only needed 22 posts over 31 days to ensure that 2024 isn’t my worst-ever year for blogging. I know only too well how what in the past I would have always seen as an achievable target is now something that can easily evaporate. So… who knows?

Here’s what I know: The Weekend Diversion: 1984 series has two more mosts, so that takes the total needed down to 20. I’ve already published the first of three other posts I’d planned for this month, and if I publish the other two of the three, that leaves 17 posts needed. This year’s “Ask Arthur” series will take up some of those (I don’t know how many yet), and there are a whole bunch of unfinished posts I’ve been wanting to do this year, so I think I’m (possibly unrealistically) optimistic that over the next 29 days I can achieve that remaining goal of 17 posts I hadn’t specifically planned for.

All of which leads to an inevitable question: Why do I care at all? I’ve certainly asked myself that question a lot this year, especially when there were so often many days between posts. The first reason is that overall, I still enjoy it, despite everything, and because it’s my only writing outlet, something that matters to me (and I’ve noticed I’ve become a bit rusty due to lack of practice).

There’s another reason it matters to me, though, one that, once again, relates to the US election disaster. One of the main features of that disaster was how shockingly awful the legacy news media was in covering the campaign. That’s a big topic in itself, obviously, but I think it’s important that people who can should call out the inevitable bad and anti-democracy behaviour of the incoming regime. There was a time when my posts on politics were by far my most-read, and while I’m absolutely not suggesting I’m some sort of sage or oracle—or even any good at discussing politics—I nevertheless have a platform of sorts, and maybe it’s time for me to use it again to speak my truth. That may not be useful to anyone, anywhere, but if it helps even one person feel for one moment that they’re not alone in being alarmed by the incoming regime, then that’s enough.

There’s quite a lot I still want to talk about, and that’s the biggest reason of all that I care about my productivity (and, of course, pretty much all of this is also relevant to my audio podcast, too, something that’s been neglected even more than this blog). What all of this really means is that in 2025 this blog will probably be more like it used to be: Still about lots of things, but also different from what it has been in that I’ll again talk about political topics, too.

Much as I do try to think about what a reader might get out of my small efforts here, the fact is that it's what I think about this blog that matters the most. I think that if I keep that in mind, it’ll be a good place to begin building a new version of what I once loved so much about this while project. Like I said at the end of my first-ever blog post: “So pour yourself a cuppa, relax, and let’s see where this leads.” Yeah, that—once again.

Welcome to our Summer

December 1 is the start of our Meteorological Summer for 2024-25, and so, what we consider the start of the summer season. I’ve talked about this many times over the years, but the one underlying truth is that summer is my favourite season. Especially this year.

I last talked about meteorological v. astronomical seasons in September, at the start of Spring. I said:

I suppose I should restate that I couldn’t possibly care less which date one chooses for the start of seasons—meteorological or astronomical—however, I’ll continue to use the meteorological dates because the first of the relevant month is always the first, whereas solstices and equinoxes change dates and times with every visit… [snip] I think most of us find remembering the first of the relevant month is pretty easy to do, and since the weather is so variable until well into each season, picking either date is equally valid if a change in the weather is what we think of (or maybe hope for) at the start of a season: We have pretty much the same chance to be thrilled or disappointed.

It doesn’t matter at all what date people choose to mark as the start of seasons—except when it does, and that’s all about us personally. I loathe winter, with its shorter, darker, wetter, and colder days, the exact opposite of summer (obviously). In summer, I get plenty of free electricity to use, and the excess power I produce reduces the amount I pay to buy electricity. In winter, I generate less, and so, pay more, by midwinter, a lot more.

Life isn’t about money and costs alone, of course, but both are things we have to deal with, and they often unfairly constrain us. The bigger issue for most of us is what we might call quality of life: How does daily life feel? I always feel better and, well, brighter in the longer, warmer days of summer than I do in shorter, colder days of winter. Spring and Autumn are often mixed bags because the seasons are.

So, while the timing of the start of summer doesn’t really matter, many of us nevertheless notice the seasonal changes in weather, and we probably associate the start of seasons with particular dates. For me, it’s definitely the meteorological dates which are usually closer to when the weather is noticeably different (to me, the solstices and equinoxes seem to arrive well after the weather has started to change). Even for me, though, there’s a lot more to it than the date.

This has been a very difficult year for me, and I welcome the warmer, brighter, longer days because I know from a lifetime’s experience that I thrive in summer—and I really need that right now. While I may not care what date others choose for the start of seasons, I need summer right now, so it’s fortunate that I embrace meteorological seasons. And, that money I save over summer is another nice thing about the season. In fact, since summer in Hamilton is often hot and dry, that could mean less frequent lawn mowing this summer, and that'd be nice, too.

There’s no way of knowing what sort of summer we’ll have, though NIWA is predicting warmer than average says for all of New Zealand. NIWA meteorologist Chris Brandolino told RNZ’s Morning Report that "Overall, the theme will be that we'll see warm days will outweigh the cool days, and warm will certainly be a theme over the next three months." NIWA also expects a La Niña weather pattern to develop later in the summer.

In any summer, tropical cyclones are a potential threat, and back in October, NIWA said that “tropical cyclone activity for the coming season indicates normal to below normal activity”, but also that they were expecting “normal or elevated activity” for northern New Zealand. Most years, we don’t get a direct hit from tropical cyclones, just the remnants, if anything, but sometimes those remnants can be almost as bad as a cyclone. The normal tropical cyclone season runs from November through April, but they can occur out of season.

I’m hoping for a normal summer—warm, dry days with plenty of sunshine, and no cyclones. But, really, the weather will be whatever it’ll be. It’ll be summer, regardless.

The graphic up top is what I posted on my personal Facebook Page today.