Resolutions

I posted my Archies list on January 1.  There aren't too many traditions I try to keep up with, personally.  But this is one of them.

For the past six years I've chronicled some of the things that have been important to me, good, bad, and indifferent, in a list at the year.  No commentary, but a lot of links people can follow if they want.

The best part about writing every day is that you are alert throughout the day to possible topics.  You notice things.  Gosh, that makes me happy, you think.  Or: That's a weird phenomenon. Wonder if anyone else sees that.  Some of those observations make their way into posts.  Others wait until the end of the year and find their way onto the Archies list.


A few other people find this exercise useful.  Or maybe they like summing up something about their experience this way -- in a list, a list that's as individual as they are.  Doc Thelma, one of my most vintage friends, always contributes one.  Doniamarie, a Ravelry friend and fellow devotee of theological minutiae, joined in this year.

Will you play this year?  It could be the start of a tradition.  Or just a lark to start 2012.  If you decide to participate, leave me a comment or shoot me a message on Facebook or Twitter.  I'd love to see the shape of your last 365 days.

You know karate now, from a show

Today's post about knitting for myself -- finally -- is at Toxophily.

 

Have you made your Archies list yet? It's a cherished annual tradition -- or will become one, if you start now!  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your version so I can see what was important to you in 2011.

The Archies: Sixth Annual Where-Do-We-Go-From-Here-Now-That-All-Of-The-Children-Are-Growing-Up Edition

The Archies, named after my son (or the pride of Riverdale High, take your pick), is a list of the Top ___ (your number here) Things in the World. Listed items must be things in the world, and must have played a significant role in your year. Significance, as will soon become clear, is to be defined solely by subjective criteria.


I refrain from mentioning the perennial Top Things in the World: Noel, Archer, and Cady Gray. To avoid tiresome repetition, immediate family members have been retired as members of the Archies Hall of Fame. Things done by said family members remain eligible for the annual list.


Previous editions: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. Remember: Much like Time Magazine's "Man Of The Year," these need not be your favorite things in the world, only the top things in the world. Play along at your own site or in the comments, anytime through the month of January.

The Archies: Top 60 Things In The World, 2011

1. Magic Springs and Crystal Falls
2. Janome Magnolia 7330
3. Conway roundabouts
4. La Huerta margaritas
5. mysewingcircle.com
6. Runkeeper
7. Panera shortbread
8. Breaking Bad
9. Knitwise
10. Canon refurbished cameras
11. Lego advent calendar
12. Qrank
13. A Very Special Episode
14. The Complete Little Orphan Annie
15. Dream in Color Smooshy
16. Louet Euroflax Sport
17. Green Bear Project
18. Jewel Moore Nature Reserve
19. Kirby's Epic Yarn
20. Can-Am
21. Tivo HD
22. origami-instructions.com
23. Cul-De-Sac
24. How It's Made
25. dizzysheep.com
26. Dark chocolate M&Ms
27. Hissho sushi
28. Flickr Pro
29. Google Docs
30. Watson
31. Reeder
32. DODOcase
33. Instapaper
34. Evernote
35. Ravelry
36. Pinterest
37. Sew Mama Sew!
38. Traeger Junior Smoker
39. Conway Locally Grown
40. The No S Diet
41. NewsRadio TV Club Classic
42. Cheers TV Club Classic
43. Clubhouse Confidential
44. Goldeen
45. Craftin' for CASA
46. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
47. 1951 Singer Featherweight
48. Company
49. Allen Meadors
50. Lu Hardin
51. Campbell Scott as Boris Kuester von Jurgens-Ratenicz
52. LastPass
53. The Ride
54. Gwyneth Lewis
55. IKEA
56. Kindle
57. Project Gutenberg
58. longform.org
59. Quiz Bowl
60. Music: What Happened?
61. listography.com

Take stock

The end of the year -- at least around here -- is the time to start thinking about all the things that meant to the most to us in the past 12 months.  They might be good, they might be bad, they might be uncategorizable.  All we know is that they had some effect on us.

Every year I make a list of those things.  I call it The Archies.  And this year -- the sixth (here are 2, 3, 4, and 5) will be an interesting one.  Most things that happened to me were very good.  I have a lot to be thankful for.  But for so many people, it was a really tough year.  Natural disasters, the bad economy, a toxic political climate, conflict everywhere.

Maybe putting your goods, bads, and indifferents in a list with a length of your choosing will help you sum it all up.  Will you join me in making an Archies list this year?

Five year itch

Is there any more fragile anniversary for an annual event than number five?  In the second year you've proved you can pull it off again.  Three and four, you're building your brand.  Then five hits.  It's like number one all over again.  Every five from now on, you'll be celebrating one of the big ones.  But this is the first step on that ladder.  You've got to get over this hurdle and into your next half decade, or nobody will take you seriously.  You'll just be another of the failed traditions that never got traction for the long term.

And that's where the Archies stand.  This is the fifth year of listmaking.  It's the only list that can be whatever you want it to be -- you choose the criteria, the length, the items, the significance.  The Archies are difficult to describe, but easy to master.

Each year the Archies have attracted more and more participants.  The number's still in the single digits, but  growing.  With each step beyond my personal circle of friends, the Archies become more of an institution.

But here we are in year five, on day five, and nobody's made an Archies list yet but me.  Now I know that some of you have them in the works.  Maybe a few of you are finding it hard to start -- or finish -- based on the stress of the moment or of the past year.

Others of you don't think you're going to make an Archies list this year.  Either because you never have, or because you're just not up for it at the moment, or because you don't think it's for you.

I hope you will.  The Archies needs you.  Last year it was on the cusp of becoming something real, something we do every year, something we urge our friends to do, something that orders and makes sense of our lives, something we look back on every year with smiles of recognition.  This year, it could all dwindle away.

Fifth year -- much like the first year.  Will the Archies thrive, or stumble?  If you're sitting on a partial list, or even a head full of ideas that you could let out if a friend depended on it, let me urge you to step up to the plate.  Traditionally you have until the end of January.  But traditionally there would be some nibbles by now.  I hope you'll play along.

The Archies: Fifth Annual We're-In-It-For-The-Long-Haul Edition

The Archies, named after my son (or the pride of Riverdale High, take your pick), is a list of the Top ___ (your number here) Things in the World. Listed items must be things in the world, and must have played a significant role in your year. Significance, as will soon become clear, is to be defined solely by subjective criteria.


I refrain from mentioning the perennial Top Things in the World: Noel, Archer, and Cady Gray. To avoid tiresome repetition, immediate family members have been retired as members of the Archies Hall of Fame. Things done by said family members remain eligible for the annual list.


Previous editions: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. Remember: Much like Time Magazine's "Man Of The Year," these need not be your favorite things in the world, only the top things in the world. Play along at your own site or in the comments, anytime through the month of January.

The Archies: Top 55 Things In The World, 2010

1. Snap circuits
2. iPad
3. Knit Picks Capra
4. Signature needles
5. Project Gutenberg
6. Terriers
7. Lucinda Guy
8. Starbucks venti black shaken iced tea, unsweetened
9. Command adhesive
10. DODOcase
11. Conway Cradle Care
12. Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman
13. Kapla blocks
14. Amazon Prime
15. Investigative journalism at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
16. Top Chef Masters
17. Evernote
18. Cul-de-Sac
19. Helloborous Yoke
20. Friday night margaritas at La Huerta
21. Olympic curling
22. Jon Hamm
23. UCA G.O.Y.A.
24. The Prayer Shawl Ministry
25. Hissho sushi
26. Pokémon: The Johto Journeys
27. Storage Wars
28. Minty, The Candy Cane Who Fell On The Ground
29. "Fly"
30. Service learning
31. Kindle
32. Instapaper
33. longform.org
34. Pinterest
35. Seesmic Desktop
36. The Red Scarf Project
37. Teach Yourself Visually: Crocheting
38. Parliamentary procedure
39. Rummikūb
40. UCA Trick or Trot Fun Run
41. Craft Wisely
42. The Sensible Seamstress
43. "California Gurls"
44. Luau Lounge Friday night chat
45. Gmail Priority Inbox
46. Wrapped Up In Books
47. Angry Birds
48. LastPass
49. Ravelympics 2010
50. Runkeeper
51. Mario and Peach
52. Bruce Springsteen
53. Little Orphan Annie
54. Charles Dickens
55. Craftivism

It was the same old song with a melancholy sound

Today's post about potholders in living color is at Toxophily.

The end of the year is almost here, and you know what that means?  It's almost Archies time.  The Archies are my own invention, a freeform list of things in the world that have some meaning to the listmaker.   Good things, bad things, troubling things, delighting things.  The things that were significant to you, for whatever reasons you might have.

Get the idea?  If not, have a gander at my lists for the past four years.  You can find links to others' lists in the comments to those and surrounding posts, too.

There's plenty of time.  Take until the end of January.  I'll be posting mine as this year closes and the next opens, and I hope that you'll post your own and let me know where to find it.

Archies ahoy

Not only did my dear friend The Secret Knitter make an Archies list ...

1. ... he made it the same length as mine (51 items), and ...
2. ... he alphabetized it.

Witness his concert-heavy, links-galore list over at Knitting Confidential. Make one of your own, and be sure to link to this blog and/or leave me a comment to let me know you did!

Me? I'm still trying to extract my brain from the cotton-candy happiness that was the musical number in "Girls Vs. Suits." Here's some links to explain why:

• "Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit"
• Behind the scenes: The making of
• NPH plays the Shoe Fairy on Sesame Street
• NPH and Jason Segal spontaneously sing "Confrontation" from Les Mis on the Megan Mullally Show

To see that twinkle in your eye

Today's post about chunky hats and perfect style is at Toxophily.

Ding ding ding! The first outside Archies list of the year has rolled in, courtesy of one of my oldest friends, Doc Thelma. You have to be invited to view her blog, but maybe if you're lucky she'll cross-post it on her cooking site -- with the food-related items appropriately bolded, of course.

Needling

Today's post about a very special gifted scarf is at Toxophily.

Meanwhile, I'll point you back to yesterday's entry and remind you to compose your own Archies list. If you do, please link back to the 1/1/2010 post (or to this blog in general). January is prime Archies season, so get cracking and spread the word.

The Archies: Fourth Annual Outlived-Its-Welcome Edition

The Archies, named after my son (or the pride of Riverdale High, take your pick), is a list of the Top ___ (your number here) Things in the World. Listed items must be things in the world, and must have played a significant role in your year. Significance, as will soon become clear, is to be defined solely by subjective criteria.

I refrain from mentioning the perennial Top Things in the World: Noel, Archer, and Cady Gray. To avoid tiresome repetition, immediate family members have been retired as members of the Archies Hall of Fame. Things done by said family members remain eligible for the annual list.

Previous editions: 2006, 2007, 2008. Remember: Much like Time Magazine's "Man Of The Year," these need not be your favorite things in the world, only the top things in the world. Play along at your own site or in the comments, anytime through the month of January.

The Archies: Top 51 Things In The World, 2009

1. Mario Kart Wii
2. Starbucks shaken iced tea (venti black unsweetened)
3. Signature Needle Arts straight needles
4. The Dizzy Sheep
5. Evernote
6. M&M's Premium
7. In-flight wifi
8. Chess club
9. Prayer shawl ministries
10. Coraline
11. James Franco
12. Meryl Streep
13. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
14. Quirk Classics
15. Vanilla bean scones
16. Sonic Route 44 Diet Coke
17. Malabrigo Worsted
18. Super Mario Galaxy
19. Barack Hussein Obama
20. Skip's Foreign Car Repair
21. T-shirt yarn
22. Tuesday Morning
23. Ice Cubes spearmint gum
24. The Sausage McGriddle
25. Google Wave
26. Lauren Knetzer Kopf
27. The four people I've taught to knit
28. Mr. Greenjeans
29. Running club
30. Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus
31. The No S diet
32. Strategic planning
33. They Might Be Giants, "Meet The Elements"
34. So You Think You Can Dance Season 5
35. Kimberli Pollard
36. The Luau Lounge Friday night chat
37. Shrimp fried rice! Shrimp fried rice!
38. Jason Segal
39. Paul Rudd
40. The Complete Little Orphan Annie Vol. 4
41. The iPhone
42. Portia Di Rossi
43. Neil Patrick Harris
44. Web Soup
45. Joel McHale
46. WIP Wrestlemania '09
47. KeePass
48. Google Chrome
49. Bronson Pinchot's Random Roles
50. Wrapped Up In Books inaugural Geek Love edition
51. David Copperfield

To grandmother's house we go

Today's post about socks for black light conditions is at Toxophily.

We're off on a whirlwind trip to the grandparents -- both sets -- and internet may be intermittent. If I don't get to post much or at all before New Year's, please remember that the Archies will be getting underway once 2010 arrives (here are the 2006, 2007, and 2008 editions). I invite you to compile your lists of celebration, grief, and puzzlement, and share them with me when you do!

A house is not a home

Noel's back from Sundance, and after a long evening of teaching, I'm heading home to see him.  It wasn't the same around here without you, honey.

In lieu of actual content, I will note with great pride that jenniechris has posted her Archies list!  40 items of 2008 goodness, just in time for the wave of Bush-era nostalgia that will be hitting next month.  And in case you were wondering, yes -- there's still time!  January is the traditional window for this addictive exercise in exhaustive compiling.  If you haven't participated yet, why not give it a try?  You know you want to.  And the first one's always free.

Distinction, illustrated

Another Archies list, and a particularly elegant and poignant one as well, from proactive bridesmaid. Don't be intimidated -- yours will be great, too, so get to listmakin'!

Today was the first day back at school for Archer (success! one good-as-gold!) and a special playdate for Cady Gray at her best friend's house. We celebrated this era of good feeling with dinner at Cady Gray's favorite restaurant. On our way home, as is their wont, the kids kept up two rarely-intersecting monologues from the back seat. One particular sequence seemed to me a particularly clear example of the difference between our two children.

Archer: In the Primes To One Hundred grid, the prime numbers were colored yellow, but 41 was accidentally colored red, but it is a prime number. And below the Primes To One Hundred grid, some people were carrying signs that said 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, and 17. Mom, the numbers that are not prime numbers are multiples of 2 except for itself, multiples of 3 except for itself, multiples of 5 except for itself, multiples of 7 except for itself, and so on.

Cady Gray: Remember the time when the lemonade tasted like water so I got blue Powerade and I really liked it? Remember that? That was a special day!

Lessons hard won

Another Archies list has rolled into Archie Headquarters, this one a whopping 53 items, many related to dog sledding and Germany. Unfortunately, you can't see it, because Doc Thelma's House is eyes-only exclusive.* But I encourage you to head over to the good Doctor's (public) cooking blog and bug her to let you in. Really, the mushing content alone is worth the trip.

Because yesterday was a big two-blog extravaganza, I'm letting myself off lightly today. But I do want to share something I learned this afternoon.

Don't try to take your kids on a Monday to any business set up to provide kid-play. No, let me stop you before you ask -- it doesn't matter if the local schools are not in session on the Monday in question. All kid-play businesses have colluded to take their weekly Sabbath on Monday, every Monday, rain or shine, holiday or ordinary time.

If your kids need to play on a cold, rainy Monday when there is no school, might I suggest turning your local Target into the setting for a vast scavenger hunt? Because that's what salvaged my unsuccessful attempt to get the kids out of the house today. If the employees of the store complain, refer them to the managers of Playworld, Jump Zone, and the roller rink.


*Or at least it used to be ... unless my cache is lying to me, this has changed without notice. I feel a bit less special.

Snuggle up and deal

Today's post celebrating triumphant sweater completion and head-over-heels passion is at Toxophily.

More and more people are getting on the Archies bandwagon! Three big lists of yummy 2008 Archie goodness today:

• An extensively annotated (except for Wall*E, which I agree is self-evident) 15-item list from apparent lurker Sonny;
• 30 toppers (many with pictures!) from our New York correspondent AD Allen;
• And winning the quantity prize for the day (as well as the UTC Friendliness Award for numbering her items rather than making me count them), Kerry with 51 med school and anime obsessed favorites.

Visit them, get inspired, and create a list of your own!

A few of my favorite things

The Secret Knitter has registered his perspective on 2008 with a high-quality 52-item Archies list. If you haven't posted your own, why not take a moment to compile one? (And if you've done so but I haven't acknowledged it, be sure to leave word in the comments.)

Last night we watched A Matter Of Life And Death, a 1946 film by my favorite filmmakers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Whenever I see a movie by the Archers (after whom we named our son), I am almost overcome with the exuberant, fearless belief in the power of art that is on display.

Why do I love these movies so much? I Know Where I'm Going!, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Tales of Hoffmann, The Red Shoes. What is it about their construction, their vision, their rootedness in British convention and their wild, unrestrained phototropic reach toward aesthetic romance?

It's not anything in my natural constitution, other than an Anglophilia born of teenage worship of Agatha Christie and the Beatles. The strange thing about my passion for Powell is that the films themselves produced it -- that and the memoir I casually bought at a used bookstore decades ago. They're not necessarily the kind of movies I naturally gravitate towards ... although they are now, now that they've worked their magic on me. Or is it just that there is almost nothing like them, anywhere, and so there's no way for you to know whether you have a taste for them until they appear in your life, sui generis?

Under their influence, I became a person who responds above all to a sense of aspiration in works of art -- in film, music, literature. Whenever I am in the audience for something striving toward the ineffable, struggling to transcend its time and place (best of all, if it doesn't reject that time or attempt to slip the surly bonds of earth, but instead embraces it with fondness while seeking to plumb its unseen depths), I am lost to it.

Powell's movies are among the best and most complete examples of that effect on me, but they aren't just examples, I think. Without them, I don't think I'd be that person. The Archers' movies created my artistic sensibility, and I feel so fortunate to have encountered them when I did, and to be able to immerse myself in their images and cinematic music my whole life through.

Happy New Year!

The Archies are rolling in! Check out Petunia Town Girl's photo-enhanced list of 40. Apparent lurker Ryan Wilkins checks in from the left coast with 50 items. Won't you join them?

We didn't go to a party last night, continuing a tradition for the last several years. I don't want to do anything on New Year's Eve than sit at home, have a glass of champagne, watch television, and go to bed as soon as the ball drops in our time zone.

Two observations:

1. For the second year in a row, we watched the ESPN crazy-motorcycle-stunt special, and I must say that last night I thought I was going to see stuntman suicide on live TV.
   
2. I love and respect Dick Clark as much as any godfearing American, but maybe it's time to stop trotting him out in Times Square, guys.

The Archies 2008: Third Annual This-Thing-Ain't-Going-Away Edition

See here for an explanation and instructions. Previous editions: 2006, 2007. Remember: Much like Time Magazine's "Man Of The Year," these need not be your favorite things in the world, only the top things in the world. Play along at your own site or in the comments, anytime through the month of January.

The Archies: The Top 57 Things In The World, 2008

1. Puffs Plus Lotion with the scent of Vicks
2. Spray-on sunblock
3. Sigg water bottles
4. Flip Mino
5. MacBook Air
6. Howlin' Tornado
7. The Kindle
8. Project Gutenberg
9. Hostess powdered donettes
10. Our new provost
11. Twitter
12. "The Grooviest Girl In The World" by The Fun and Games
13. Chuck Klosterman
14. Ravelry
15. Nalu mitts
16. Luau Lounge Friday night chats on Lingr
17. ZenPages
18. Existential-hayalogical theism
19. Phil Frana
20. Starbucks shaken iced tea (black, unsweetened)
21. Icebreakers Ice Cubes
22. My Antonia
23. The Welcome Wagon
24. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
25. The Condition
26. President-Elect Barack Obama
27. The American electorate
28. Early voting
29. Popless
30. The New Adventures Of Old Christine
31. I Bet You on DVD
32. The Small Back Room
33. Ice Road Truckers
34. Eloise
35. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran
36. Nicole Kidman singing "Somewhere Under the Rainbow" in Australia
37. Ruby Tuesday Conway's private club license
38. Trism
39. Skitch
40. Malabrigo
41. The Red Scarf Project
42. Our new garage door opener
43. Klezmer music
44. The Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino
45. Penn & Teller
46. ABC3D
47. Harper's Index
48. The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest
49. Paul Krugman
50. Moo mini-cards
51. Kirby's Pinball Land
52. Slouchy hats
53. Pocket Mod
54. University of Aarhus
55. Presbyopia
56. The Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume 1
57. Approaching the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel

Aw honey honey

Tonight's post (even though it was posted early in the morning tomorrow, as it were, once Noel and I got back from our National Treasure 2/Charlie Wilson's War double-feature) is at Toxophily -- join the Hatsies!

Meanwhile, the Archies lists are continuing to arrive at a furious trickle. Check 'em out!

• Meeshell listed hers in reverse order. Suspenseful!
• The Secret Knitter opted for a tidy alphabetical approach, placing the numerals thoughtfully before "A." (Can you guess what numerical item occupies the top spot?)

Read, comment, learn, and then scribble a few more items on your own Archies scratch pad. I'll be expecting your report by the end of January. Take your time, but hurry up already.