The Average Blogger

Year(s) in Review, 2009

We are back from Hawaii.  I'm six days too late to make any resolutions about blogging every day, or any of that, so I'm not going to bother. 

I will post at some point and probably at some length about our trip, which was fantastic and wonderful and I want to go back RFN and get a job as a cab driver, a waitress, I don't care, just so I can be where it's warm.

So, it's the end of the decade.  I guess some people are glad to see it go. It seems like a lot of people I know had a very unhappy 10 years, culminating in a miserable 2009.  Understandable. On the geopolitical level, things certainly were a mess, even before Sept. 11.  On a personal level, though, I did pretty well. Along the way I seem to have lost a few friends, but I've gained a bunch more, and up until 2009, nobody particularly close to me died. All in all, that's a good 10 years.

2000 -- moved to DC
2001 -- got married
2002 -- got pregnant, went to Israel, Angels won the series.
2003 -- had a baby
2004 -- bought a house, Sox won the series
2005 -- Visited the Pacific Northwest.
2006 -- We went consumerist and got an HD TV.
2007 -- Had first non-kid vacation since 2002, a week in Chicago.
2008 -- Facebook reconnected me with people I thought long gone.
2009 -- Got promoted, NYAB decided to try working from home

Meanwhile, here is a meme I started doing back in 2004 when I was a member of TomTom Club, and have resurrected each year since -- though I'm not sure why, since the answers don't seem to change much. I always remember something I left out after I've posted it, maybe this year I'll bother to add those in the comments.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Went to Hawaii.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't keep any of them. I should quit on these. Though the bathing suit photos from Hawaii, dear god, those should help with the perennial this-year-I'm-really-going-to-diet idea.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! Hi, Jessica and Owen!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
NYAB lost both his parents within a few months of each other.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just other parts of this one.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More time. More sleep. Less self-imposed stress.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I don't remember dates very well. But I'll remember my company's blood-letting as a painful turning point. And I'll remember the day NYAB finally decided to call it quits on journalism.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not losing my job, I guess?

9. What was your biggest failure?
Failing to meet the YP's academic needs.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, knock wood.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our trip to Hawaii.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Those colleagues who lost their jobs but managed to do so without acrimony and public brouhaha.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Other colleagues.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Stuff. Trips. Outings.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Hawaii -- do you see a theme here?

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
B-52's Funplex.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    i. happier or sadder? Happier.
    ii. thinner or fatter? Fat-fat-fatter.
    iii. richer or poorer? Richer in every sense.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Gotten really good at something other than woring.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Work.

20. How (did) you spend Christmas?
The day was at home. We left the next day for Hawaii.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Over and over.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Lost.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No, but I am less fond of a whole lot of people.

24. What was the best book you read?
I read a lot of books this year. Most of them were brain candy. But I liked.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Am too old and busy to be making discoveries these days.

26. What did you want and get?
I think I got absolutely everything I wanted this year. How freaking awesome is that?

27. What was your favorite film of this year?
Heavens. Did I see any non-kid movies this year? I liked Up. Or was that last year?

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I should remember this, shouldn't I? But I don't. 38.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Well, attending fewer funerals would have been nice, I think.  And having a jillion dollars, same as previous years.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Working around fat.I did buy some new suits. Then it got cold and I stopped wearing skirts that short.

31. What kept you sane?
Family. Co-workers with shared opinions.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
Health care and pointless, irritating weekend and holiday sessions of Congress.

33. Who did you miss?
No one, really. That's pretty awesome too. 

34. Who was the best new person you met?
Did we meet anyone new? I guess the new-new neighbors?

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
I haven't really learned this lesson yet, but I'm starting to accept the fact that no matter what I try to do to nudge them along, some people are just going to be colossally disappointing, for whatever reason -- their priorities, their attitudes, their lack of dedication to mission, their inability to see beyond themselves, whatever. What I have learned is that it isn't necessarily anyone's fault -- they are what they are, I am what I am, and if we are still at loggerheads after repeated failed attempts to converge, there's nothing more I can do but be disappointed and then get over it and find something else to do. 

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Don't you know we're living in stolen moments
You steal enough it feels like we're stopping time
These days are gold we're living in stolen moments
Just grab hold and feel these days are yours and mine

Musical Meme-age

Two very similar memes are making the rounds on FaceBook:

Think of 15 (one says albums, one says songs) that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.

Thinking about all this really hammered home again the huge debt of gratitude I owe my parents on a musical front. They never flinched at buying me new stereo equipment, from my first tiny, tinny turntable up through a 5-disc CD player after I graduated from college. Music was inescapable in our house, and there were times when friends of mine were horrified to learn I wouldn’t listen to something or other because, “Oh, god, my parents have been playing that for months. SO sick of it.”

Songs are easier. Songs first.  And apparently I am a relentlessly cheerful person, given the majority of these are major-chord 4-4 fasties.  Is it odd that there are artists on this list not on the album list and vice versa? I hope not.

Silly Love Songs (McCartney)– You have to admire McCartney thumbing his nose at Lennon. And this song was on the radio every single time my mom drove me to swim lessons when I was five, so it is indelibly synched up with my mom, her orange Camaro, the San Fernando Valley, and the smell of chlorine.
Something About You (Level 42) – not all that great a song, but it has sentimental value.
New Song (Howard Jones) – Always cheers me up.
Morning Fog (Kate Bush) – Hope. Renewal. Nuff said.
Long Gone Long (Rainmakers) – Resonated with my small-town high school experience.
Standing There (The Creatures) – For when I want to be fierce
Here Comes the Flood, (Peter Gabriel, acoustic version.) For sort of the opposite reasons as Morning Fog, but I still find it a song for bravery.
Can’t See (Oingo Boingo) – Always makes me cry.
Only Makes Me Laugh (Again with the Oingo Boingo)– When I couldn’t stand myself in breakup misery mode any more and was done with the crying already, this song was good for what ailed me.
It Must Be Love (Madness) – Meant to be sung loud and offkey.  (Curtsies to Heather H. and John B.)
Rosie (Jackson Browne) – I just love this song. It’s perfect on so many levels. 
In My Life (Beatles) – Best day of my life up to that point.
I Will (Beatles) – Pretty much the only lullaby I ever sang to the kid.
Danny Boy (Erm, yeah. Frank Patterson? Chieftans?) – Pretty much the only lullaby JB ever sang to the kid.
Dunford’s Fancy (Waterboys) – If my kid gets married and there’s a mother-son dance, this will do.

Albums of personal relevance is a tricky category, because I don’t necessarily interpret that to mean “albums I love.” These are not all albums I love, by any stretch, and in fact some of them I don’t listen to at all anymore. But they all marked turning points in my development as a human being.

Tales From the Ozone -- Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
An early childhood memory. The album cover was so incongruous with what I thought the music looked like. I know that makes no sense, but that is the best I can articulate it. This might have been the first album to which I memorized all the lyrics. Honestly – and yes, this is shallow, -- discovering what Commander Cody and Bob Dylan actually looked like were two of my biggest disappointments in early childhood.  I still like Western Swing. Am not so much on the Dylan. (Curtsies to parents)

That Was the Year That Was
God bless him, Tom Lehrer taught me more about 1960s history than any schoolteacher ever could have hoped to. I listened to this album over and over during summers at my grandmother’s house, and then I’d go up and ask her random questions about it, yet she never seemed to miss a beat. (Like, what’s a Good Humor Man? And what’s he got in common with an usher and a nurse?) And another generation is sopping it all up as we speak. (Curtsies to parents and grandparents.)

Double Fantasy -- John Lennon
I think this and Blondie’s Autoamerican are the first two legitimate music albums I remember specifically requesting my own copies of rather than cadging from my parents or studiously ignoring. The Beatles and assorted afterwork was pretty much always the domain of my dad and sort of absorbed by me as just part of the safe and cozy landscape of home. But it was sort of hard to be alive and listening to music in December 1980 and not know the significance of this album.  On a personal level, this was the first album where I first really understood that song sequencing – pre-CD, anyway --  was really a manipulative little bugger. It was hard to skip the needle over that Ono crap, but it was even harder to sit there trying to listen to it.  Watching the Wheels is still a great song.

Sports -- Huey Lewis and the News
I’m amused and somewhat embarrassed to admit that Huey Lewis was the object of my junior high crushdom.  So bland and square and Is That Your Dad. And yet MTV ate him up with a spoon and so would have I.

Then again, I met him years later in the parking lot of the USF Sundome one night when his concert had let out and I’d had a late class and my car was being cranky about starting, he was a perfectly wonderful gentleman and warm human being, going so far as to offer me a ride home. So maybe my instincts were right ….

Hounds of Love -- Kate Bush
One of the first albums that I listened to over and over again and found something new in each time, rather than listening to it for comfort. Also notable for being one of the first albums my mother absolutely hated and wanted to pitch through a window.  This and Laurie Anderson’s Home of the Brave were touchstones around the same time. (Curtsies to Troy D.)

So -- Peter Gabriel
I am always proud to announce that In Your Eyes was one of my favorite songs before it was made popular by Say Anything.  And Mercy Street sent me on a poetry reading binge that probably made my teen angst unbearable but also got me fairly high marks in all those stupid wimminz lit classes I slept through in college.

Madness -- Madness
So many lovely songs. And my entrée into the discovery of so many lovely British pop culture things, including the Young Ones.

Vocalese -- Manhattan Transfer
Intricate, clever, and helpful when you’d rather have lyrics than hum. This was what set me in the way of thinking that covers should never be simple rehashes where the song is performed exactly the same way it was originally, they should bring something new, they should be whole different songs, with different tones and experiences behind them. (Curtsies to parents)

Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
I saw Blue Bell Knoll pop up on a lot of lists, and that one is good, but this was one of my favorite albums for illicit-substance-partaking. New Year’s Eve 1990, playing on a small boom box as I sprawled on top of a construction-site freeway piling and stared at the full blue moon with this huge ice ring around it. I didn’t see God or anything, and can’t vouch for his existence, but I did get as close as I probably ever will to feeling like I had a tenuous grasp on a broader celestial plan.

Of course, then my dickhead psychotic boyfriend got so drunk he passed out and that left me with the choice of staying with a bunch of drunken buffoon college boys in suburban Whittier in a house that for all I knew was not owned by anyone present, or try to find my way home despite the glitter trails each of the highway reflectors gave off. I spent that whole hour-and-a-half-long drive bargaining with that God I hadn’t seen that I’d never be so stupidly irresponsible again if he’d just let me make it home without getting dead or arrested, and am pleased to say that both ends of this bargain were honored.

OG: Original Gangster
The first time it occurred to me that I might not be quite as liberal as I’d always assumed. We were driving through parts of Los Angeles in April 1992 to pick up a friend who’d gotten stuck on campus and seeing buildings on fire, people running around with looted furniture and televisions, and police and fire trucks being obstructed.  This Little Blonde Girl was appalled.  And while my Korean Boyfriend still claimed sympathy for the oppressed, all I could think was, “Hm. Here we are together in a car in a dangerous area and gee, could we be bigger targets? And for what? A Toyota? Get a grip, folks.”

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
Making the discovery that alt-country was smart and funny was almost as big a shock as discovering that not all male high school athletes grew up to be categorically stupid fuckwits. I discovered this album after Road to Ensenada came out, but I like it better.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
A culmination of many fond hopes – the discovery of a place and a band devoted to the resurgence of swing music, swing dancing, and Manhattan cocktails. And then Jon Favreau came along and made it all trendy and shit.

Rock Spectacle -- Bare Naked Ladies
My introduction to BNL, and my soundtrack for adjusting to life in Sarasota, wherein all the good things I thought would happen didn’t, and all the good things I was sure would never find me did.  (Curtsies to Mark P. and John B.)

Running on Empty -- Jackson Browne
The first road trip I took as a married woman (ahem, that would be my honeymoon,) had this CD in heavy rotation. As has pretty much every roadtrip since. (Curtsies to John B.)  

Ta-Dah -- Scissor Sisters
I’m not sure I should really include this, as there was nothing particularly life-altering about the music on the album. More, it marked a determined end to my self-imposed exile from buying music and starting to dip my toe back into more current streams. And, there was nothing funnier to me at the time than hearing my kid croon to himself at odd times, “I can’t decide whether you should live or die…” (Curtsies to Mary H.)

Speaking of Traditions...

Here is one that I started back in 2004 when I was a member of TomTom Club, and have resurrected each year since. I'm rather bad at these because I can't really remember all the stuff that got crammed into any given year. And this year was more crammed than usual, what with surgeries and kindergarten and political conventions and blah, blah, blah. So here's the year in review as best as I recall it.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Attended a political convention.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
One out of three. I think next year I'm going to try to stop swearing so much. And lose weight, because I can't omit that one, in case it actually happens.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yah.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just other parts of this one.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Better time-management skillz.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Celebrating our anniversary in a press tent in Denver.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not missing the YP's bus more often than I did.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Missing the YP's bus.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Only in other people.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Am guessing the YP would say it was a DS. I would say bacon cheeseburgers.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Strong Role Model Colleague whose husband had a stroke days before Thanksgiving. Voters who managed to get over themselves, celebrants or vanquished, without having a big fat prolonged hissy.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Certain other Weak Colleagues. Much of the electorate for much of the year.

14. Where did most of your money go?
A lot went to day care. A lot went to the house.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
NYAB's back surgery doing what it was supposed to do.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Adelaide's Lament. The YP became a big fan of show tunes.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    i. happier or sadder? Happier.
    ii. thinner or fatter? Fat-fat-fatter.
    iii. richer or poorer? Richer in every sense.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Taken more pictures.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Work.

20. How (did) you spend Christmas?
A nice cozy weekend at home. Eating turkey and loading CDs.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Over and over.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
House.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Bats.

24. What was the best book you read?
I read a biography of Harper Lee that was pretty interesting.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That my new iPod has more memory than my desktop computer.

26. What did you want and get?
I think I got absolutely everything I wanted this year.How freaking awesome is that?

27. What was your favorite film of this year?
Dark Knight was pretty impressive.

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Opening Day! 37.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Previous years' answer still applies. Having a jillion dollars. And if the automotive version of the dustbuster had actually worked. Short of that, my year was pretty darn good.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Lazy but clean.

31. What kept you sane?
Family. Chocolate.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election.

33. Who did you miss?
No one, really. That's pretty awesome too. 

34. Who was the best new person you met?
The new neighbors.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
That in order to sleep at night, I have to do what I think is mannerly and appropriate regardless of outside opinion. If my behavior is above self-reproach, it is a lot easier for me to blow off other people's lousy attitudes. 

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
(Having seen this on Broadway this year...)
I am not dead yet,
No need to go to bed.
No need to call the doctor,
Cause I'm not yet dead.

Soundtrack of My Sex Life

Yes, I am ignoring USC's dreadful performance last night. Moving on.

A meme, of sorts and modified:

First slow dance: True, Spandau Ballet
First kiss: Out of Touch, Hall and Oates
First public humiliation in front of all my friends at a school dance: All Night Long, Lionel Ritchie (why, yes, I am glad I disliked that song anyway...)
First REAL kiss: Something About You, Level 42
First makeout session: Dr. Who theme (why, yes, my parents did think we were innocently watching the show...)
First heartbreak: Why You Treat Me So Bad, Club Noveau (Why, yes, I was maudlin...)
First unrequited: Shinedown, Sandi Patti (Except, not that version. We were playing it in marching band. Don't ask.)
First song sung to me: Fragile, Sting
First trip all the way around the bases: I Can't Wait, Nu Shooz
First song turned up by boyfriend's roommates to drown us out: New Years Day, U2
First song used to emotionally manipulate ex-boyfriend: In Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel
First (and, thank god, last) tragically bad relationship with complete psychotic: The whole stinking album of Ritual de lo Habitual, Jane's Addiction
First returning home after college and wowing the hell out of that unrequited back in high school: Love Is, Alannah Myles
First Live-In: Romeo and Juliet, Dire Straits (Why, yes, that probably should have been foreshadowing...)
First (and so far, last) Move-Out: Useless, quickly followed by Only Makes Me Laugh, Oingo Boingo
First "Hey, this will go nowhere but it might be fun in the short term": Could You Be Loved, Bob Marley
First NYAB concert: Ice Cream, Sarah McLachlan
First NYAB gets that look I'd been waiting for: London Rain, Heather Nova
First NYAB fight: Hey Jealousy, Gin Blossoms (Why, yes, that did of course instantly stop the fight when it came on the car radio because we both cracked up)
First (and last )Wedding: In My Life, Beatles
Quickest Reminder of All That's Good: Better Days, Bruce Springsteen

Pleasing All the People, All the Time

It is nice that our jobs allowed us to loll around in a stupor for the past week -- and into next week. By working from home, I managed to spin a four-day weekend into six days I didn't got to the office (even though my "weekend" was punctuated by posting a few files and updating a few web pages.) It is even better that this week has become a 2-day workweek that will be followed by another four-day weekend -- again punctuated with some work done from home on New Year's Eve. By the time we actually have to resume actually working, I'm not sure I'll remember how....

But that did get me to thinking. There's been a lot of pushing and shoving in recent years about the "holiday season" -- about how you should say "season's greetings" instead of "merry Christmas;" disenfranchised non-celebrants; Festivus; Pagans; Christians who want that manger out in front of City Hall, by golly; Kwanzaa -- and yeah, does anyone know when that is without looking it up? -- etc. etc. And yet ... nobody has gone with the totally obvious and logical solution: Ditch it all and make New Year's the big celebratory thing.  Oh, sure, you lose that extra federal holiday, and nobody gets Christmas trees or menorahs or baskets of fruit or what have you, but it would shut up all the PC-meisters, it's more or less non-denominational and universally observed.

Well, unless you're Chinese. Or Bahai'i, apparently.

OK, never mind. As you were.

But since it is the end of the year; I'm pulling out my old chestnut  that I started back in 2004 when I was a member of TomTom Club, and have resurrected each year since.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Saw Wrigley Field. Spent a week away from the kid.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Hahahahaha. Not hardly. Not by a long shot. I'll try making the same ones again next year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Uh. Define close. Some people I know gave birth.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just other parts of this one.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
More willpower. More backbone to say no to people who deserve to be told no. More time with NYAB.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I'm not so good with dates. But I'll remember dinner at the Willard.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
My career.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Taking too much time for the job and not enough for my family.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No worse than usual.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
An Illini flag, apparently. And new couches.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The YP's day care teachers, who got him over the humps on swimming and reading.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Certain colleagues. Larry Craig. William J. Jefferson. Roger Clemens.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Traveling and furniture.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to Chicago without the kid. Coming back from Chicago to the kid.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
The YP doing the whoo-hoo parts of Sweet Escape.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    i. happier or sadder? Happier.
    ii. thinner or fatter? Fat-fat-fatter.
    iii. richer or poorer? More income, more outflow, richer overall because the YP keeps aspiring and achieving.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Taken more pictures.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Work.

20. How (did) you spend Christmas?
A nice cozy weekend at home. Eating turkey and watching DVDs.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Over and over.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
House.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate? Possibly. Definitely flashes of rage, but probably not hate. Feel disappointment toward? Yes.

24. What was the best book you read?
Ha. Did I finish a book this year? I can't even remember.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I was out of the musical loop this year.

26. What did you want and get?
A new drinking water filter. Another year's service out of the cars.  The YP learning to read.

27. What was your favorite film of this year?
Uhm. Wow. I suck with the pop culture stuff. No idea. I saw The Notebook and liked that OK.

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I'm ashamed to say I don't remember. 36.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Previous years' answer still applies. Having a jillion dollars. Short of that, my year was pretty darn good.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Easy to clean, easy to wear, out the door in 15 minutes but still looking office-appropriate.

31. What kept you sane?
Family. Chocolate.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
The war.

33. Who did you miss?
No one; for once I feel like I got to see everyone a good amount. 

34. Who was the best new person you met?
Foodie staffer.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
Even if you know beyond a doubt that someone isn't listening when you explain something, you should get their attention by saying, "I don't think you understand," as opposed to "Hey! Stop talking and listen!"

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
(Another song the YP learned this year...)
And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo
Every day you see quite a few
So you see it's all up to you,
You could be better than you are
You could be swinging on a star

You Want Me to Do What?

So, ardentdelerium did this job meme thingy, and I was sleep-deprived and waiting for a page to load, so I did it too.

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post your results.

Interestingly, the first thing to come up? I had no idea this job still existed. Apparently the term now refers to someone who erects and dismantles large pieces of machinery. Like, in factories. I find it hard to believe this is what I am best suited to do and I’ve never even heard of it as a vocation.

1. Millwright
2. Curator
3. Industrial Machinery Mechanic
4. Stationary Engineer
5. Elevator Installer and Repairer
6. Sports Instructor
7. Printing Press Operator
8. Automobile Assembler
9. Multimedia Developer
10. Office Machine Repairer
11. Archaeologist
12. Professor
13. Machinist
14. Tool and Die Maker
15. Coach
16. Race Car Mechanic
17. Miner (Underground)
18. Anthropologist
19. Farm Equipment Mechanic
20. Heavy Equipment Mechanic
21. Crane Operator
22. Diesel Mechanic
23. Automobile Mechanic
24. Aircraft Mechanic
25. Motorcycle Mechanic
26. Production Woodworker
27. Computer Support Person
28. Carpenter
29. ESL Teacher
30. Website Designer
31. Foreign Language Instructor
32. Film Processor
33. Sheet Metal Worker
34. Welder
35. Boilermaker
36. Tilesetter
37. Historian
38. Industrial Designer
39. Power Plant Operator
40. Technical Writer   

Then I noticed there was a little “education” button. When I listed the most advanced degree I’ve earned, the list changed to become a tad more accurate. I find this emphasis on sports interesting, however. Given that I am a clod who can jump maybe six inches off this planet, I find this a non-starter. Also, activist? Not really a job, imho …

1. Curator
2. Sports Instructor
3. Multimedia Developer
4. Archaeologist
5. Professor
6. Coach
7. Anthropologist
8. Computer Support Person
9. Website Designer
10. ESL Teacher
11. Foreign Language Instructor
12. Technical Writer
13. Industrial Designer
14. Historian
15. Computer Programmer
16. Computer Network Specialist
17. Editor
18. Desktop Publisher
19. Lobbyist
20. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator
21. Animator
22. Computer Trainer
23. Model Maker
24. Criminologist
25. Director of Photography
26. Set Designer
27. Director
28. Costume Designer
29. Conservator
30. Lighting Technician
31. Film Editor
32. Video Game Developer
33. Biological Tech
34. Camera Operator
35. Archivist
36. Political Aide
37. Home Inspector
38. Artist
39. Business Systems Analyst
40. Activist   

Wherein I Show Myself to Be Dated AND Limited

A "concert meme thingy" from TigMode. I think this makes it painfully clear that I need to go to more concerts and start branching out in my musical tastes...

Here is how it works: Copy this list, leave in the bands you've seen perform live, delete the ones you haven't, and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list.
1. Depeche Mode**
2. Violent Femmes**
3. The Cure**
4. Siouxsie and the Banshees*
5. Peter Gabriel
6. David Byrne
7. B-52s
8. Go-Go's
9. INXS
10. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
11. Jefferson Airplane
12. Allison Kraus
13. 10,000 Maniacs
14. Lyle Lovett
15. They Might Be Giants
16. Jane's Addiction
17. Reel Big Fish
18. Save Ferris
19. Huey Lewis and the News
20. Bob Dylan
21. Chemical Bros.
22. Laurie Anderson
23. Cocteau Twins
24. Barenaked Ladies
25. Billy Vera

Eight Random Facts

Kbee tagged me for this, and I have to say, I really wish I had thought sooner of just being “A. Blogger” instead of the Average Blogger, because it is so much simpler and more elegant!  Thanks, Kbee!

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and that they should read your blog.

Eight random facts:
8: I eat things on my plate one item at a time.  Usually I eat the meat first, then the vegetables, then the bread.

7: I like to be spontaneous when I am alone or part of a small group, but I hate being part of a large, directionless crowd where I don’t know quite what to do or where to go and have to make a decision about what my next move is.

6: I lobbied pretty hard to name my kid Asher. I lost. Alternately, NYAB lost his lobbying to name the boy Koufax.

5: I like ketchup and marinara sauce and all manner of tomato-based products. I loathe tomatoes. And I pretty much only eat fruit at gunpoint.

4: I have a hard time leaving the house without checking absolutely every single room one last time for … something. Everything. Is everything turned off? Is the bed made? Are the fish fed? Do I need to buy anything for this room while I'm out?

3: I sometimes rehearse conversations – out loud – in private before I actually initiate them. I try to find the clearest path from A to Z, and economize on word choice.  I also practice inflection. Usually I do this in the car. I almost never do it in front of a mirror.

2: I hate the idea of living in a city but I love the idea of living in a hotel. Preferably one with a good pool and excellent room service.

1: I used to be able to play the USC fight song on the flute in my sleep.  Now all I remember about it is there are a lot of B-flats.

Eight people I am tagging:
Raphaela
Maliavale
Sparkling Cipher
Nabbalicious  (When you're back from hiatus!)
Darren (You didn't delcare your hiatus. Thus, you are tagged.)
JoeW (I have no idea if this is your kind of thing. Maybe you'll just want to list 8 random facts.)
Editor's Note
ArdentD

I Guess I'll Have to Make It Clearer

Janked from Maliavale, who is at least third in the progression: Here are 15 things I’ve never said, each to a different person -- in fact, some of them could be directed at several persons. And I am betting maybe four people I'm thinking of actually read this blog, so I'm not sure it's worthwhile, but it's a fun exercise. Sort of cathartic.

1: Thank you for showing me how to live happily no matter where life takes me.
2: Your driving scares the everloving bejeezus out of me and I cringe at the thought of you ever having to drive the YP somewhere.
3: I hate it when you are right.
4: I hate it when I am right.
5: I am afraid of the person I would be if we had never met.
6: You seriously need to bathe more often. And not in perfume.
7: A different time, a different place, under different circumstances, who knows what might have happened?
8: You are a breathtakingly intelligent person, but it's clear you never applied that big brain to dealing with people, and I can see why very few people will put up with you.
9: I am sorry for how I treated you. You tried to apologize and I couldn't see that it was anything other than a drunken attempt to make yourself feel better, but now I think you might have been sincere, and I'm sorry I didn't let it happen.
10: I think you lie about stuff sometimes.
11: I am so glad you are around, because I know I can count on you for absolutely anything I might need. And I feel guilty for being the weaker link.
12: When are you going to grow up and stop being such a spoiled brat?
13: You are one of the nicest people I have ever met, and I am constantly surprised by your thoughtfulness.
14: I dislike almost everything about you, but I appreciate the example you are setting and the incentive you are unwittingly giving me to be different and better.
15: You consider that appropriate office attire? Really? And think you'll get taken seriously and promoted?   

Five by Five

So, there’s this five-question interview meme thingie making the rounds. And by rounds I mean, lots of my friends have done it, and I’ve been interested to see the questions that all of them would ask. And since I like talking about myself only slightly less than I like my friends, it’s just obvious that this meme went from five questions to 10 in the blink of an eye, with questions from Mommie Diarist and from Nabbalicious. I should probably mix them up so it doesn't look like I'm playing favorites, but I'll just answer them in the order in which I read my e-mail.

First, the rules. You all already know the rules. You’ve all already answered five questions. Why am I bothering? I don’t know. But here they are:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

On with the show. 

MD-1.You can change or create one law without any regard to the majority vote.  What do you do?
Wow. Knowing me, I freak out and do something really lame like declare a Day of Free Shoes where any and all stores have to just give away footwear.  Seriously, this is a hard question.  Do I overhaul the income tax? Ditch entitlement programs? Declare war on the planet? I can’t handle this kind of power.  I think maybe I would try to go for the smallest change that would have the biggest impact and require that people have to pass some kind of assessment test in order to have kids.  I think there are a godawful lot of ignorant people out there and an even bigger number of willfully stupid people out there, and this would cut down on both those groups making irretrievable errors in judgment that would screw up the circumstances of a lot of lives beyond just their own. I know it sounds arrogant, but hey, I’m arrogant. I know it veers dangerously close to eugenics, but I honestly think that the world would be a better place if we injected everyone at birth with something that made them sterile, and then after they passed their “can you handle the consequences of screwing” test they got the baby option back. And I know it seems to fly in the face of my libertarianism, but  I would argue that the exercising of one’s individual rights stops when those rights intrude on the rights of another – so a woman’s right to get knocked up and then abort or go on welfare or what have you has a direct impact on the father, not to mention the rights of the fetus/kid. Plus, fewer low-income people breeding would also play into that whole ditching entitlement programs thing, so hey, bonus.   

MD-2.What is the most valuable advice you’ve gotten from a movie?
The snark in me says it would be “Go back to Bulgaria.”  Answering the question seriously? It will sound flip, but I really do think the best advice for me was in Risky Business: "Sometimes you just gotta say, 'What the fuck'. Make your move."  That whole “if you can’t say it, you can’t do it” scene with Miles and Joel is dead on. I used to spend a lot of time trying to suss things out and figure out every angle and play the chess game 6 moves out and being afraid of failure. Now? Not so much. I probably swung too far in the other direction of “Do something, anything! Even if it turns out to be the wrong thing, at least you took a stand.”

MD-3.You must choose one of your own characteristics, and it will be genetically engineered into every other person in the world.  What is it, and why? 
That's easy, because I think I only have one truly admirable characteristic: my work ethic. A sense of responsibility and obligation to do well and quickly any job I take on, getting it right the first time if at all possible and fixing it the instant I find out something went wrong. Can that be genetically engineered? As for why, well, I just have to think this world would be a better place if there were more people giving a damn about doing a good job, whether the job is making sure my fries are cooked or saving the planet from annihilation.

MD-4.You are given a 12 month, full paid sabbatical.  What do you do?
Oooh, I love this question!  Does NYAB get the sabbatical too? I'm going to assume he does.
January: Sleep in every day. Be slothy. Watch lots of TV. Read lots of books.Spend every day playing with the kid.
February: Visit family. I intentionally do this in Feburary. It is the shortest month, meaning we can't spend too long with any one relative. This is the best way for us to continue getting along.
March: Baseball spring training tour in Florida.
April-October: Get a big comfy car and take an extended baseball/sightseeing tour of the nation. Go to the World Series. Blog all about it. Get a book deal based on the blog.
Halloween-New Year's: Hokey as it is, I head back home and do up the house and yard and have everyone I know around for the holidays.

MD-5. What size bowling ball do you use?
I don’t bowl.  But like Heather No. 1, I am always red in croquet.

N-1: Who is the BEST roommate you have ever had? Was her name Nabbalicious? Just kidding. But who is the worst? (I really hope the time I left the potato to rot in the cabinet doesn't qualify me for that title.)
Not counting NYAB, I would have to say the best roommate actually was Nabbalicious, because we had similar tastes, similar cleanliness tolerance levels, similar "OK, Leave Me Alone Now" levels and similar interests. I sorta wish she was my roommate now because God knows I’d find myself at the gym more often. (And Nabbs, my mom was the one who found the four-month-old potato in that drawer, not me, so you might be her worst roommate, but she can do her own memes.) The worst roommate I ever had was probably a guy I knew in California.  Everything that worked between Nabbs and me was diametrically opposed with him. And it wasn’t that he was a horrible person; he was actually a great guy. I met him when we were in college and we had been very close friends for five years pre-boarding. And post-move-out, after a few years we got over the trauma and e-mailed enough times to forgive each other our trespasses. But as roommates it was a disaster. He was a vegetarian who loaded on the curry, and I hated how the house smelled.  He was jobless for part of his stay, which meant he was ALWAYS hanging around – an aggravation compounded by the fact he did not feel constrained to pitch in much on domestic upkeep such as yard work or dusting -- which really irritated me even though I was the one who was the neat-freak and the dog owner. Eventually there was some weird drunken sexual tension that also didn't help and made all that other stuff infinitely more annoying. Plus, all those qualities that make an entertaining friend can translate to a very bad roommate: He was, as another friend of ours put it, “always on.” A meaner way to put it was he was a huge attention suck who rarely shut up, who talked over TV dialogue and who needed constant validation in the form of someone laughing at his jokes or debating his policies. All perfectly acceptable and even fun and amazing and endearing in small doses, but as a constant diet he Drove. Me. Crazy.

N-2:  What talent do you wish you had?
I want to play the violin. I even HAVE a violin. But I have yet to find time to take lessons. I am determined to learn in my retirement if not sooner.

N-3: If you could have the power to mind read, whose head would you like to get inside of? (I know this was phrased poorly, but you get the gist).
Speaking of arrogant, I was sort of stumped by this question too, mostly because I don’t generally CARE what other people are thinking.  But then I realized that I yell “What the hell are you thinking?!?” at pretty much every moron driving a car around Washington Circle. And then I realized I have an answer that's even more bitchy, but it pertains to certain faraway persons in NYAB's circle and since it's not really my baggage, I'm not unpacking it here. Let NYAB get his own blog. So yeah, I’ll stick with Bad Drivers.

N-4: Who is your favorite person in history and why?
My favorite person in history? Ever? Damn.  I am assuming this is a celebrity-type question and not an “Errrm, the guy I’m married to/the guy I gave birth to” kind of question, because that would make the answer way too easy.  As a purely practical answer, I would say “the guy who figured out fire.”  As a purely selfish like-to-read-about-them-and-would-have-them-over-for-dinner answer, I’ll go with Winston Churchill.

N-5: Where haven't you traveled that you would like to go?
Topping the list this week are Hawaii and Alaska, so I can check "see all 50 states" off my list of things to do before I die. This is closely followed by Barbados, partly because it looks beautiful and partly because I just really like saying the word. But really, to turn the question on its head, I would like to go just about everywhere I haven’t traveled. If someone dropped in and said, “Let’s go visit X,” and I’d never been to X before, I’d be packing my bag. Well, unless it was "Let's go visit Abu Ghraib and pretend we're terrorists." I might have issues with that.