With 2016 drawing to a close and 2017 about to begin, I decided to take a look back at 2016 and spotlight the best (or most significant) blog post of each month. Some months — July, quite notably — were more difficult that others; there were a few months, like March and August, where I only posted two or three times in the month.<\/p>\n
Meaning in Life and What Atheism Is Not<\/a> – NPR had a story about how atheism doesn’t offer a positive vision for humanity or a meaning to life. Whihc, frankly, misunderstands atheism entirely by attempting to fit it into a paradigm that it doesn’t belong in at all.<\/span> January<\/em><\/p>\n One World, One Sky<\/a> – In January I went to the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles for their annual open house. While there, I saw a planetarium show with Big Bird and Elmo of Sesame Street<\/i> about how, no matter where we live, we share the same sky and stars.<\/span> February<\/em><\/p>\n Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: Castle Clash<\/a> – I bought a LEGO-compatible castle set one day, and I spent the weekend building it.<\/span> March<\/em><\/p>\n Unfairy Tales<\/a> – UNICEF created three animated shorts to raise awareness of the plight of Syrian refugee children. I made the mistake of watching them at my desk at work. They are harrowing and powerful, and I wept openly.<\/span> April<\/em><\/p>\n A Breakdown on the Expressway<\/a> – My Beetle died.<\/span> May<\/em><\/p>\n Brexit and the Scottish Independence Question<\/a> – My birthday coincided with Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. I had immediate thoughts on what this might mean for the prospects of Scottish independence. I wasn’t in favor of the IndyRef two years earlier, and I’m not sure that independence for Scotland is the right move now<\/i>, but if Theresa May continues on her “bulldog in a china shop” path to invoking Article 50 and ignoring the wishes of Scotland and Northern Ireland, Scotland should look to its interests.<\/span> June<\/em><\/p>\n An Irish Weekend<\/a> – Shore Leave and the Annapolis Irish Festival fell on the same weekend, and to some extent I did both — Annapolis on Friday and Saturday, Shore Leave on Sunday. I also met my cousin Amber for the first time, and I managed to catch a summer collegiate baseball game. Busy weekend!<\/span> July<\/em><\/p>\n Star Trek Beyond<\/a> – I quite enjoyed the new Star Trek<\/i> film.<\/span> August<\/em><\/p>\n The Little Prince<\/a> – I imported the DVD of The Little Prince<\/i>, Mark Osborne’s animated adaptation of the French novella, from Canada because I really wanted to see it. It’s a deeply affecting film — when I watched it again on New Year’s Eve I sodded uncontrollably — and it benefits from a second viewing. Undoubtedly the best film I saw in 2016.<\/span> September<\/em><\/p>\n Playoff Baseball, Thwarted!<\/a> – I went to DC for a baseball playoff game that was rained out. That didn’t stop me from playing tourist, though. And I don’t think my feet fully dried out for a month.<\/span> October<\/em><\/p>\n Travels with Google Navigate<\/a> – I was trying to get from Philadelphia’s New Jersey suburbs back to York. So why did Google Navigate send me deep into Maryland and then into gorges off the Susquehanna, one-lane roads, and Amish country?<\/span> November<\/em><\/p>\n An Angel Tree Package for the Office<\/a> – I participated in the Angel Tree program at work for the third time this year. I knew it was something I wanted to do, so I started buying items in October for an eight-year-old boy. I had a lot of fun doing it, and I know it went to someone who really needed it.<\/span> December<\/em><\/p>\n There you have it, the year that was 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With 2016 drawing to a close and 2017 about to begin, I decided to take a look back at 2016 and spotlight the best (or most significant) blog post of each month. Some months — July, quite notably — were more difficult that others; there were a few months, like March and August, where IContinue reading “On the Year that Was”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[236,4104,359,4451,93,4103,53,4401,160,4275,4501,1023,24,4124],"class_list":["post-30665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-angel-tree","tag-atheism","tag-beetle","tag-brexit","tag-carbon-leaf","tag-lego","tag-philcon","tag-sesame-street","tag-shore-leave","tag-star-trek-beyond","tag-the-little-prince","tag-unicef","tag-washington-nationals","tag-work","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}