2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 10,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 17 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

Mercury in Sagittarius

I haven’t been able to get to a computer to log in in the past week, much less write a post in time for Mercury’s retrograde station in Sagittarius.

Between Hurricane Sandy and the US elections and the general state of perpetual crisis we seem to be in, not to mention two upcoming eclipses this month, what can I say about Mercury retrograde at this time?

This current retrograde spans most of November and crosses from fiery Sagittarius to watery Scorpio (6 to 26 November 2012, 4+° Sagittarius to 18+° Scorpio), creating the potential for some steam. As Mercury moves from outward-looking Sagittarius back to inward-looking Scorpio, we may be asked to consider what relationship or impact the wider world (Sag) may have on our inner psyches (Scorpio).

Here’s a summary of what Mercury feels like in Sagittarius; and here’s Scorpio.

• Communicates openly, truthfully, optimistically, enthusiastically, and tolerantly
• The need to learn is expressed through restless aspiration propelling one toward an ideal
• Thinking and reasoning are guided by long-term goals rather than mundane details
• Interest in teaching others what one has learned; learning and teaching are seen as closely related
• Need to establish connections with others by being direct, truthful and broad-minded
• Coherent thinking can be blurred by the over-generalizations that idealistic aspirations motivate

(Stephen Arroyo, Chart Interpretation Handbook, CRCS, 1989)

 

One more week

One more week before Mercury stations direct. Hang in there! Though maybe not quite like London mayor, Boris Johnson, here.

Lots of Olympics replays in more ways than one, ranging from lost keys to retroactive disqualification to a Twitter fracas.

Outside of the Games, Lynn Hayes sums up other events here.

Image: Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! (1923)

 

North, South, East, West

Among the other issues that have plagued the London Olympics organisers in the past weeks, this whimsical incident takes place: during the women’s football (soccer) match in Glasgow between North Korea and Colombia, some official mistakenly displays the South Korean flag on the big screen instead. Perhaps not so whimsical to the people on the wrong end of it, I acknowledge, and especially since the two Koreas are still officially at war.

And then US Presidential election candidate, Mitt Romney, walks right into it on his visit to London with several high profile gaffes, which London mayor Boris Johnson manages to capitalise on in front of a crowd of 60,000.

It would be funny (and nice) if London were actually galvanised to pull off the event flawlessly, though with this clanger, and a few more hours to go, I’m still holding my breath!

 

Safari, and no cigar

In an inexplicable move, Apple has decided to remove the RSS functionality from the latest version of its popular browser, Safari 6, as part of the Mountain Lion upgrade. As an RSS reader, it was simple, no-frills, and (for me) not Google Reader.

The online community is swift to respond. There have been numerous complaints and calls for its return, and a host of quick solutions, in the form of browser extensions, and automated workflows.

Reviewing and revising are the themes of Mercury retrograde, but it doesn’t mean remove what is useful. Fire signs can act too hastily. How are our own life-edits? Have we been throwing out the baby with the bath water?