Month: December 2005


1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before?
Got out of debt. Became a full-time manager. Started wearing a suit daily for work. Matched lies with lies to get my heart removed via my ass, and played like a sucka. Hung out on a beach with nothing to do. Flew in to Albany. Cried at a book. Backed off from a relationship out of fear. Lost friends because of anger, made friends (tangentially) via pain. Moved to the West Side.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I never make resolutions – they seem a weak self-serving idea.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. Not hanging with a particularly preggers crowd.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
“Close” as in family, no. Did put three more notches on the belt this year though, two for people I’ve hung with in person. One was someone I talked to for years, and never met in person. No suicides this year. That is a plus.

5. What countries did you visit?
Didn’t pond hop this year, but hope to make that change soon!

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
Stability, financial security, forward momentum.

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
August.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got out of debt, at great personal cost to what I have always hoped for my future.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Trying to rekindle a past relationship with someone, assuming they wanted the same things I did without knowing it before applying spark to kindling.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not horrible.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Probably my new puter with twin 20″ monitors (#2 returned yesterday).

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
and , for returning to the coast with the most, despite their avocado-driven desires and palm tree pipe dreams.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Only a couple people I know personally. Most of it is based on politics, the majority of it connected to the executive branch.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Debt, rent, and a little bit of splurging on some furniture.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
See #9, #11, #12.

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
The remix of “Goldigger” using “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? about the same
iii. richer or poorer? less total debt, same month-to-month situation (for the short-term foreseeable future anyhow)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Writing, editing.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Sleeping, being depressed, and probably drinking.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Um, was with my fam and L. – things went pretty well!

21. What LJ users did you meet?
,,,,,,,,,

22. Did you fall in love in 2005?
Yup.

23. How many one-night stands?
More than there should have been, ironically, in a very short period of time.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Family Guy. Lately, Boondocks.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nah, the people I hate are VERY few, and haven’t changed much.

26. What was the best book you read?
The end of the Dark Tower series, The Dark Tower

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
MC Frontalot

28. What did you want and get?
A new computer, out of debt, and most recently, a Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2!

29. What did you want and not get?
A new bed/mattress (coming soon!), a desk and chair.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Toughie. I didn’t see too many movies. Sin City.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Not much. I believe I sat around on my duff. I was old enough not to care, or make it a big deal.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not having shadows of the past hanging over every step I take forward.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
WTF? Fashion? I bought a lot of tshirts online from Tshirthell and Topatoco if that counts.

34. What kept you sane?
Tom Waits and Jack Daniels.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don’t fancy celebs. Sorry. I did get to see Tom Waits this year though, which was pretty fucking awesome.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Katrina, and how that links to the gross mismanagement of our country via current paramilitary exercises, and the spin those powers have use to keep and increase their powers.

37. Who did you miss?
Some old friends long gone.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
L. The rest of the posse she is a part of (most of which I met through and before meeting her) is pretty damn cool.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005.
Even if you are the most sober in an emergency situation, you can still be dumb enough to walk into a police station with a switchblade in your pocket.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
“She said Mister anywhere you point this thing
Has got to beat the hell out of the sting
Of going to bed with every dream that dies here every morning
And so drill me a hole with a barber pole
And I’m jumping my parole just like a fugitive tonight
Why don’t you have another swig
And pass that car if you’re so brave
I wanna get there before the sun comes up in Burma Shave”

Well, L. got me a Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2 for xmas. Once i get me an uber memcard for my PSP, I will start wearing a funny hat and a hook-hand all the time. Yarr.

I also got some great books, and lots of new ties. Now I can get rid of some old ties. I am very very tired, with little to no end in sight. I have a feeling this week may suck. Just a hunch.

A couple amusing antecdotes:

  • On xmas day, hanging at my folks place watching TV, caught “Pulp Fiction” on Encore. The satteltie TV guide thinger had it listed as
    “Family”. Does that mean it is finally O.K. to explain Marcellus Wallace to my grandma?
  • Speaking of Sam Jackson, I caught up on The Boondocks yesterday. Between “The Adventures of Black Jesus” episode, and “The Xbox Murderer” episode, I m completely in awe of that series. “The Xbox Murderer” was the most brilliant piece of political sattire on the current war situation I have seen to date.
  • Reading the next WoT, then Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches : The Riddles of Culture, then A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down. That should get me through to my upcoming trip, during which I will probably tackle some of the longer stuff in the queue (like Mornings on Horseback )

Keep it safe, keep it secret!

EDIT:according to the state mediator, this is what is going to happen. the TWU still hasn’t said anything definitive.

http://wcbs880.com/topstories/local_story_356112222.html

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_356054551.html

http://ny1.com/ny1/NY1ToGo/Story/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=55803

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/22/nyc.transit/index.html

they are goin back to work during negotiations!
whee

is it wierd that i only like swiss cheese when it is melted? i can’t stand the stuff otherwise. go fig.

had a very sucessful brunch yesterday. hapiness is a full livingroom, stocked bar, and more food than everyone can eat (barely)!

most likely walkin to work tomorrow. can’t wait!

i just got my present.

i’m gonna go to the dmv next week. i am eligible for e learner’s permit as soon as i pass the damn tests. i will schedule my road test that same day.

i may not get this by the end of december, but i’ll be dammned if i don’t get it by the end of january!

in the words of team america: “fuck yeah”

now i just need to survive my other woes, and i will be a fully mobile human once again.

i am in a bad mood today, and i have about ten point seven billion things to do.

lj can really stop sending me emails of comments posted over a week ago. really. stop. i already feel like a shit for having ignored 30+ people’s replies to my wit and idiocy, you don’t need to keep adding to it.

yet you do.

sorry to all i didn’t comment back to. i definitely don’t have the time for the concerted effort, but i never look at/read my own journal, so the only way i get comments is email, and, as many of you might now, that is fubar.

***
in other news, i have no idea what i am doing this weekend. i know i have stuff i am supposed to be doing friday night. other than that, i am at a loss.
***

tenants moving out month early, using security as last month’s rent.
this, of course, happens the first and only year i ever break from my holiday mantra of last-minute shopping.
fuck me with a chainsaw.
happy fucking holidays.

gah!

, you must must must read more about helacyton gartleri. I am trying to work it into my theory of goldfish immortality the more I am learning!

This of course, assumes you don’t already know about them. If you do, that is something you knew before I did, and the reason book learnin with a tuition is sometimes better than my tried and true shotgun method.

A year ago, I figured I’d die never having seen you play. New Orleans had to leave the planet for that to happen. I can’t say I’d be willing to pay that price premeditated, but fuck all if you didn’t work your magic at Radio City.

A year ago 29$ was just another song, not it has more meaning than most of your other tunes put together.

Thanks for being you. Keep on keepin on.


A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Murkatos.

If you don't hear from me again, it is because I died of gluttony. I can't believe I made a dessert, with some sherry to chase for fuck's sake!


A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Murkatos.

I just cooked for two hours… For myself! Weiner schnitzel with sauerkraut, and potato pancakes with sour cream and apple sauce.

“Well met, well met”, said an old true love.
“Well met, well met”, said he.
“I have just returned from the salt, salt sea.
And it’s all for the love of thee.”
“Come in, come in, my own true love,
And have a seat by me.
It’s been three-fourths of a long, long year,
Since together, we have been.”

“I can’t come in and I can’t sit down,
For I’ve only a moment’s time.
They say you’re married to a house carpenter,
And your heart will never be mine.”

“I could have married a King’s daughter, fair,
And she would have married me,
But I have forsaken her crowns of gold,
And it’s all for the love of thee.”

“Now you forsake your house carpenter,
And go along with me.
I’ll take you where the grass grows green.
On the banks of the deep blue sea.”

Then she picked up a darlin’ little babe,
And kisses, she gave it three.
Saying “Stay right here, my dalrin’ little baby,
And keep your pappa company.”

They had not been on the ship two weeks,
I’m sure it was not three,
Till his true love began to weep and to mourn,
And she wept most bitterly.

Sayin’: “Are you weepin’ for my silver and my gold.”
Sayin’: “Are you weepin’ for my store?
“Or are you weepin’ for your house carpenter,
“Whose face you’ll never see no more?”

“A curse, a curse to the sailor,” she cried.
“A curse, a curse,” she swore.
“You robbed me of my darlin’ little babe,
That I shall never see no more.”

They had not been on the ship three weeks,
I’m sure it was not four,
When there came a leak in the bottom of the ship,
And sank them for to rise no more.

When I was in high school we had a vigil. It was years ago today. I wrote, then read a poem, and burned it later that night, in memory of one of the friends I had already lost to AIDS. There had been two others by then, who I had already commemorated in my own way, and three more since then. This song is the closest mix of loss and futility I feel when I ponder their departure. I hope someday there will be a world where nobody knows this feeling.