Well, here we are nearing the end of 2023\u2026. I guess, to be honest, 2023 has just worn me down. It\u2019s been a trying year \u2014 personally as well as on the world scene. Ongoing wars continued and new ones erupted. Meetings between heads of state seemed to generate only headlines \u2014 and little, or no, progress. All years are good years, but it sure seems like this year good news has been in short supply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not into numerology, but I wonder if 2023 means anything\u2026.. I know that if you\u2019d like to write the year 2023 in roman numerals, it\u2019d be MMXXIII. And although I haven\u2019t thought about it for a while, I used to be a little proficient in binary numbers \u2014 if you\u2019re interested, in binary it\u2019s 11111100111. And while we\u2019re at it, 2023 is a Harshad number. A Harshad number is a number that can be evenly divided by the sum of its digits. If you add the four digits of 2023 it equals 7. Now if 2023 can be divided evenly by 7, it\u2019s a Harshad number. Turns out it can 2023 \u00f7 7 = 289.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course according to the Chinese calendar, 2023 was the Year of the Rabbit. And because the Chinese calendar works from the lunar cycle, Chinese New Year for 2023 didn\u2019t start on January 1 \u2014 it started on January 22nd and won\u2019t end until February 9, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So this year was full of ups and downs \u2014 seems like there were more downs than ups this time, but now that we\u2019re closing out the year, we should try to put the past years mistakes and regrets in the past.
Let\u2019s welcome 2024 with optimism, goodwill and high hopes for the year and try to not let the current gloom dampen our enthusiasm for the future.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, here we are nearing the end of 2023\u2026. I guess, to be honest, 2023 has just worn me down. It\u2019s been a trying year \u2014 personally as well as on the world scene. Ongoing wars continued and new ones … Continue reading