Web Logs
12/31/2004 - 2004 Year End Summary
I think these year end summaries are my favorite entries. They're the ones I most often go back and read.
In My Life
This last year had a lot of transition. The continuation of a large line of changes which began in 2003 and looks only to accelerate in the coming months. The entire team at my job, who had labored on the same project for many years, dissipated after Anna's departure. The band I've been working so hard to get started for 1 1/2 years now looks poised to finally get moving. Will's career began picking up, my mother prepared to retire, and numerous other things that had been stable for many years, seem poised to change. I don't see at this as a good or bad phenomena, but one likely to be more interesting. Fodder for the blog if nothing else. :)
So, I spent my last 12 months doing these things:
- Got a band together - This was the big effort of the year. With Jay and later Peter I:
- Outfitted a studio
- Recorded a 4-song demo
- Found a drummer
- Built the first two stages of the Website
- Got everything prepared to record the first album including all songwriting, arranging, and rehearsing.
- Designed & Built Many Websites - This is what paid for the year. Efforts include building or revamping:
- Took trips to beaches
- Also:
- Was given a boat.
- Threw another successful Pumpkin Party
- Took up drawing, but didn't get to far with it.
- Really improved both my photography and skills as a graphic artists.
and the best pictures I took are...
What Needs improvement
There's a tendency to wax poetic at year's end and focus only on the positive, but in fact, there was plenty of the negative as well. I not going list out all my flaws and try to fix them (believe me, you don't have enough free time to read such an entry), but there are a few of the bigger ones I'm going to try and work on:
Time-Pits - Last year I took up too many little projects that I never finished. Did you see the Space: 1999 episode guide I started? How about the adventure story featuring a character named Adam Oddrain? Did you ever see me play any of those magic decks I spent so much time constructing? No, you didn't - and odds are you never will. This year I really need to avoid such distractions.
Too Little Exercise - I notice my speed, balance, and strength are all not what they were just a few years ago. The fact is that two days a week (and often less) at the gym just isn't enough to stay in shape. I need to get another bike, or take up the martial arts again.
Of Friends and Family
- Jay and Laura bought a new house.
- My parents bought a beach condo down in Captiva Florida.
- Tom, my ex, moved back into the area.
- My brother bought a new house.
- Sean Nibert found me and I found Tim Brooke
- Sam got his new band, Brood X, up and running.
- And sadly, Keith, a friend since the 8th grade, earned himself a year in prison.
In Passing
- Ronald Reagan - 40th President of the United States.
- My Uncle Gene
- Jaffo - Mike and Scott's Dog
- Scott's Father
- Also: Yasser Arafat, Marlon Brando, Julia Child, Christopher Reeve, Peter Ustinov, Ray Charles, and Jerry Orbach
In the World
If the overly religious tone of the US concerned me last year, it downright worried me. George Bush was swept back to power largely thru religious zeal and anti-gay bigotry. Despite his blunders in Iraq and poor performance in the presidential campaign, Americans embraced his mysticism and prejudice to reelect him. I can only hope that others with reasoned secular values are also working harder against this tide.
- Gay Marriages first in California, and later in Massachusetts.
- The periodic 17-year cicadas, Brood X, emerged in our area.
- The New WWII Memorial opened on the Mall in DC
- George Bush was reelected on concerns about the war, a wave of religious fervor, and anti-gay bigotry.
- The War in Iraq continued to go badly.
- Afghanistan held its first elections.
- A massive tsunami, caused by the fourth largest earthquake since 1900, ravaged South East Asia.
- The first cloned pet, a cat, was sold in the US.
- The iPod soared to become a cultural icon and digital music sales finally began to get moving.
- SpaceShipOne, the first commercial manned space ship, flew twice into outer space.
Films & Shows I'll remember
This was largely the year of television boxed sets, favorites include:
- Batman the Animated Series, season 1
- Firefly
- Kung Fu, season 1
- Spiderman, The 67 Collection - I really loved this collection and was surprised how well it held up after all these years.
- Star Trek the Original Series - Season 1
And no, I didn't get thru all of them. Also of note:
- TNT Jackson
- Spider-man 2
- Pink Flamingos - a masterpiece if ever there was one
- Donnie Darko
- Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
- Bubba Ho-tep
- Taxi
- Midnight Cowboy - A damn good film.
Books on the Nightstand
I can't say my reading habits were the best this year. They seem to have reverted to those of a 15-year-old boy. I suppose after a long day's work my mind more often seeks simple diversion over cerebral challenge.
- The Golden Age Green Lantern, Volume I - various
- The Golden Age Starman, Volume I - various
- The Golden Age Plastic Man, Volume 2 -
- The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
- Prey - Michael Crichton
- The Great Pulp Heros - Don Hutchinson
- The Hey Hey Club - Laura Ridgeway
- Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Shunryu Suzuki-roshi
- The Land That Time Forgot - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The People that Time Forgot - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Out of Time's Abyss - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The Underground City - Jules Verne
- The Lost World - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- So you Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star - Jacob Slichter
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday
- Exploring Space: 1999 - John Kenneth Muir
- At the Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Pellucidar - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The Gods of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The Warlords of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Memorable Music in the Player
- The Shadows
- Propellerheads
- Lots of early Beatles
- The Zombies
