2004 - Classic or Dud?

Me in general = not *hyper*-classic but pretty good. I have strong hopes for 2005.

Best bit = Euro2004. All of it, from moving into my fantastic flat with my best friend on the first day of the tournament, right through to the frankly unexpected scenario of watching Greece win the thing in a muddy field in Denmark. This includes Sunday at Glastonbury, AKA The Most Fun Day Of My Life Ever, from stumbling bleary-eyed into a Wagner opera right through to dancing to Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy for the first time around a flare in the early hours of the morning with half of London ILX. Not to mention seeing my favourite band of all time (Orbital) play their last ever big gig, and seeing my second favourite band (Television) for the first time. It doesn't get much better.

Also, December has been unadulteratedly fantasatic. The signs for the future are looking very, very good indeed.

Worst bit = My birthday, and the month and a half that followed. I never want to repeat that ever again.

YAY: Going to MUTEK in Montreal. Partying like crazy. Having lots of fun.
BOO: Getting hit by a pick-up truck while crossing the street in Montreal.

YAY: Going to London. Partying like crazy. Having lots of fun.
BOO: Eating bad oysters, then getting the chills, fever, horrible gas & explosive poos.

YAY: Having an editor at a big publishing house ask me to write a book
BOO: Remembering that I can't write.

YAY: The Warriors Halloween party was a success
BOO: All the stress that went into it

I think 2005 is going to be better.

2005 is promising, in some respects

slow start followed by suddenly running a club and djing more than ever, romantic life kicking off again in a big way, making lots of friends with new club and getting a great job in the middle of the year.

basically since I started working in a record store my life has been so much better. SO much better!

I played tonight and the promoter of our night, as drunk as he was, was talking to me at the end "nownorreveryone can programme, or play the right tracks, but YOU HAVE GOT IT! YOU HAVE IT! YOU'RE GETTING THE KNACK OF IT!"

mildly amusing in a way but bodes well for the future. and I'm playing tomorrow 10-11.

I rang in the new year in rome and then got proposed to, wrapped up a pretty stellar and fulfilling career, got married, moved to the city, worked in politics. It's a bit of a mixed blessing being unemployed now--something I haven't been able to enjoy since I was 15 but I'm a bit sad it's taking so long to find something. Lots of big changes in my worldview, I never planned on getting married and I'm really surprised that it's so right for me. I hope I have more lovely discoveries.

For the rest of the world: Big Fuckin' Dud (Bush re-elected, Iraq quagmire deepening, Biblical Tsunami)

2004 was kinda meh, although it really shouldn't have been. I'm not sure if 2005 will be much better, but we'll see.

Although, I'm not floating in the Indian Ocean, so things are pretty good really.

(Yeah. Things could be lots worse, as Adamdrome has pointed out.)

Ill try and begin my war against cliche next year, there is hope for me yet, I WILL learn to write.

Peace and Love

Fairly unavoidably a collossal dud on extrapersonal stuff (republicans, Peel, Howard, tsunami, etc)

My personal life has been stellar.

Beginning of the year: Living in Michigan in a crappy house, with crappy roommates, and a job I hated. The glory days of Detroit techno were over, I was old and over it. There was nothing going on that I was interested in being involved with. Life was dreary and hopeless in a particularly Detroit sort of way. I stumbled into a delivery job that paid 40 grand a year to start, and you could move up quick. Not a great job, but for a labor job you could not beat it. I saw a lot of guys who were getting older who were stuck there because nobody could match the pay. They had houses and families and were completely trapped in the daily grind. I talked about making music, but I never actually had the time or energy to do it. I would get up each morning at 5am in a room without heat, do my 40 minute commute, work 10-14 hours, do my 40 minute commute back, go home and eat dinner, listen to music for an hour, and go to bed in a room with no heat. The thought of carrying on doing the same for another 40 years seemed very oppressive to say the least. The thought of packing it in crossed my mind more than once.

On one of the few nights I actually did go out during this time, I met my ex-girlfriend. We dated briefly, but she had plans to move to Austin before we met. Eventually she hits the road, finds a place, and we stay in touch. Yadda Yadda Yadda... She knows I am miserable in Michigan, she invites me to to stay with her for a month while I find a job and place to live. I had a fat bank account from working constantly at a good wage and saving it all. I took a week and a half to sort of my life and say my goodbyes, and I was on the road. I arrived in Austin two days before my 27th birthday.

Within two weeks I had a job and an apartment. It took me a few months to get on my feet and find a decent job that would not force me to dip into my savings, but that was about the only real struggle I had. The nice part about it was that I got to be underemployed in a new city. I had so much time to read, listen to music, and take long walks. I started doing collage work and mail art. It was like summer vacation.

I found a good job at a local printing company, and the party sort of ended. ;) I never thought I would ever find a job that I liked, but I really love the job I have. I make enough money, I work with great people, and I am learning all the time. I am more creative and productive than I ever was in Michigan. I used to talk about doing things, now I just do them. I live a weird little hermetic life and I mail out weird packages to people in my spare time. My music studio is finally in order and I am making progress on that front. Everything is coming together for me, and for the first time in my life I can say that I am truly thankful to be alive. On a personal level I think 2005 holds a lot of promise. I am happy and healthy and everything is going well.

2004 was about conscientiously ending the worst period of my life, and starting the best.

My only worry is that even years tend to be better than odd years so I have to be extra careful in 2005.

Fortune's wheel d00dz

but on a personal level, it's been the first year of my life with no job problems/threats, the first time i left Europe (i.e. i finally went to America and had a fantastic voyage in addition to meeting some beautiful ILXors over there and doing private karaoke with some of them and witnessing two people i hadn't known too long but liked a lot tie the knot on what was probably the freakishly sunniest day i have ever experienced...you get the idea...), the year i took as many flights as i had in all years previous (not saying much but still), hooking up with a nice lady (on my birthday) and making a really good friend in the process, the exhilirating rollercoaster of Euro 2004 (inc. watching England crash out in a big field at Glasto on a gorgeous day with more people around me than i'd ever experienced before), countless FAPs, some truly great music and other art and entertainment re-assuring me that it's not over yet and may never be, discovering i may be getting money BACK from the taxman now after a torrid time recently with annoying debts, getting to know my own city that little bit more, DJing once or twice including a set on XFM, the people close to me didn't 'leave' and i'm more grateful for that than anything now and pray this relative roll continues for a good while longer...

I got married, and now we're living in our first proper flat, I have a fairly decent job and have paid off debts left from being unemployed for 18 months, I've been to more gigs than I normally get to, discovered tons of great music, lots of plans for next year so 2005 should be another classic!

World at large, well that's somewhat different...

highlights: becoming dr gee. getting the job i really wanted. being made a fellow of my old college, so i'm guaranteed to have a job doing research for the next six years. living in a great flat with my best friend. giving a seminar in harvard in front of some of the world's leading experts in my subject. loads of great nights dancing. one great relationship which ended amicably (the first time that's ever happened to me!), and the beginning of another. seeing lightning bolt four times. too many other things i'm forgetting.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/jel2004/sun.jpg

happy new year ILX.

2005 will be better for the simple reason that it can't get any worse. New job, new band, new connection which may turn out to be romantic but at worst will turn out to be a wonderful friendship with a dazzlingly brilliant person. When I think about it, I have a lot of things to be hopeful about. If only I can abandon the nagging doubt and terror in the pit of my stomach.

If anything, the bad shit that happened in 2004 (fucked up personal crisis, terrifying violent misogynist pervert ex-flatmate, making a close friend and then losing them through my own blind stupidity, being screwed over completely at work) has shaken me out of the complacency of the past couple of years, in almost every area of my life. A lot is going to change in the next twelve months, I'm not going to let any of this happen to me again, and its going to be fucking brilliant.

That's it now. Enough emo. I'm going to go and sleep all afternoon in preparation for tonight.

you bastard

which will result in lots of girls wanting to sleep with me

erm, you bastard!

Didn't work for me, but then I don't have your swarthy good looks.

The year started on an extreme down turn. Just before Christmas the house we were buying fell through. Decided to bide our time in the rented house we were in, only to be told that the landlord was selling the house & that we had to get out.
Found somewhere else to move to, got the keys & when we opened the front door (ahead of moving) we found that the agent had done nothing to sort the house out as promised, so we decided not to move there. Managed to find somewhere else to live within the space of an afternoon. Moved in the following week to an overpriced god awful place. The move (& expense) was a nightmare!
2 days after moving house we put an offer in on our own house. In the 3 tense months that followed I had 2 of my favourite UK ILXors to stay & went punting with many more - much fun was had!
Evenutally the sale went through & we finally moved in to our new house. We then adopted 2 of the cutest little kittens. A few weeks later the house flooded. (which incidentally we are still waiting for the insurance company to sort!) We have worked around it, but it is really tough.
Then on the day of my boss' wedding I found out that my mum had breast cancer. At this time I was also trying to study for an exam I had to sit at the beginning of December. We have recently had the best news ever, that is my mum has finally been given the all clear. We had a great Christmas & I am really looking forward to 2005. Hopefully it will continue to be filled with good health, weddings & baby making! The future is certainly bright. (Of course now I have just totally jinxed it!)

I feel like I've grown up considerably in some respects this year, i am taking care of myself better, and try my best to (and feel more able to) help my friends when they need it, and i am better at standing up for myself, although there's still work to be done. I'm getting really good now at staying calm even when bad things happen (although i've always been okay at this) and not apologising for everything.

all of this coming right after 2003 (the worst year yetever) helps too. Things are back on track. definitely.

filling up my life
with crap detritus so as
not to have to deal

drifting slow away
from the people I love best
hiding in a shell

in 2005
I had better bust it out
might be my last chance

Dud: My Uncle Bill's death and funeral. Death of Peel. 1000's dead in SE Asia (and Iraq). Discovering that one of my best mates has a brain tumour, hopefully operable. Bush getting re-elected. Having to get a new roof. General feeling of drift, especially around my gut.

Overall 7/10 - could be better.

*Twice rejected, and by the same two finks later pursued

*Drunken phonecalls, fence climbing, nail-biting

*Alcoholism at turns avoided and embraced

*Proposed to after two months of dating by someone on mexican quualudes kneeling on a bar room floor with a mouth full of tater tots

*Applauded by sorority types when I, also on ludes, accepted

*Toured with my adolescent heroes of Rock and Roll, bathed in elaborate rock star bathtub, jerking off, drinking beer

*Did not get drunk and fistfight in a KY parking lot

*First semi-legit publication of crap poetry

*Broke a fish tank at NYE 2004 party, pretended I didn't, left party

*Dumped same boy repeatedly; been dumped by same boy repeatedly

*Fell in love with my diabolical match

*Still shitty inability to get over ego, nervous in groups

*Ah, something else: posting to a message board alone v.v. close to midnight while my match, and the dumper/dumpee left me OhighO and dry

LET 2005 BE BETTER, LET IT BE WORSE, fuck it, I've got good tits

Me - I left a good job and have become even more of a hermit than I already was. That's ok. Looking forward to an early summer. Perhaps I'll paint a few houses and spend some time on my boat.

The world - why do ya think I'm a hermit? Things can only get better, I hope.

-Bush re-elected with his so-called "mandate"
-Iraq war turning into shit
-Near-deaths and deaths on my wife's side of the family
-Dec. 26 tsunami and the realization that probably a million people or more may day as a result of this simple stupid act of nature

On the plus side, I got a new job that has alleviated some of the job stress I was going through, and I got a new car that I love. Plus a myriad other little small things that made the year more pleasant than it otherwise would be.

But, measured as a whole, my outlook on this planet has diminished significantly since a year ago, and that's never good.

(If I sound pissed off, I ain't, because I just blew through the first disc of the "Arrested Development" season 1 DVD.)

Best years for me were 2000, 2001, and 2002. 2003 was a mix of bad and good, and 2004 was mostly sucky.

I'm thinking 2005 will be meh.

I really have high hopes for '06, though.