It was two years ago today that I first started writing this blog. A lot has happened since then. In fact, I think there may well have been more changes in my life in the past two years than in the four years before that. Some of it has been good. I have a decent job making decent money. I finally got a new PC after my old one was threatening to give up the ghost. For the most part my family is doing well. Of course, that is not to say that my life has not had its share of sorrows. Two of my aunts passed on (although it must be pointed out that one was in her eighties and the other was in her nineties). We've had our share of family crises. And one dream I'd held for a few years (the one closest to my heart, in fact) just came crashing down in flames. I haven't quite been happy ever since. Life, as ever, is a very mixed bag.
I suppose many of you might be wondering where the title of this blog comes from. I got it from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage canto iii stanza 113, which is below:
I have not loved the world, nor the world me;
I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bow'd
To its idolatries a patient knee,
Nor coin'd my cheek to smiles, nor cried aloud
In worship of an echo; in the crowd
They could not deem me one of such; I stood
Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could,
Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued.
As with last year, I thought I would give you a list of what I think are the best posts I have made over the past year. The exception is "The Blonde Mystique." I do think it is one of the best posts I've ever written, but technically it belongs to the first year of publishing A Shroud of Thoughts. That having been said, I made it right before the first anniversary of the blog and didn't include it in last year's "Greatest Hits" for that reason. Anyhow, here are the best posts of the past year (and one week, counting "The Blonde Mystique," I guess) in chronological order:
The Blonde Mystique
A Night at the Movies
Simon and Garfunkel
The Rise and Fall of the Independent Televison Station
Words From Pop Culture
Les Belles Dames Sans Merci: Elf Maidens and Men
From the Small Screen to the Big Screen
The Fleischer Superman Cartoons
Blondie Turns 75
Forty Years of The Wild Wild West
The Name Game
Dracula on Film
Roald Dahl's Critics
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons
Days in a Life: John Lennon Remembered
The Week of December 18, 2005 (one of my better weeks this past year)
The Nostalgia Wave of the Seventies
The Week of January 8, 2006 (another good week)
The History of Heavy Metal (all five parts and another entry thrown in for good measure)
Vikings on Film
Mary Ann Versus Ginger
The Week of February 26 ("The Dramatic Roles of Gene Kelly," "Great Expectations," and eulogies for three of my favourite actors)
The Music of the Monkees
Star Wars
The Harry Potter Movies
Kellogs' 100th Anniversary
Men and Musicals
And Now a Word From Our Sponsor...
Anyhow, I think I've done fairly well with this blog over the past year. I hope to do better in this next year. And I hope this coming year is even happier than the past one!
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