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Archive for December, 2009
Forgetfullness
Dec 31st
On Facebook, a friend just posted that 2009 sucked, but 2009 and her did have some good times. I am pretty sure I had some GREAT times. I just don’t remember it well. I am pretty convinced as we get older memory is designed to be faulty and forget details about recent events. This is why time seems to move faster and faster. So no matter how you think things are now (cold, sucky) there was plenty of good points you just don’t remember. Thankfully, I keep a journal.
This year, I:
- Discovered how amazing Biking is and changed my life by having physical fitness a cornerstone of my daily activities
- Discovered how amazing public transportation is, and used that to explore downtown and other metro areas I have never traveled any other way than by car before
- Had a fantastic July 4th party, Halloween Party, December Hotel Party, Hotel with Jacuzzi party for Kyla’s mom’s wedding, F1 web challenge, and work Christmas party
- Started and Ended 2 Romantic Relationships, good times had by all
- Traveled to Texas (via Kansas City), Chicago (via Milluakue) twice, and Las Vegas for the oh so fun Defcon, and to my aunts in South Dakota
- Discovered a spiritual side through philosophy, and a non mainstream political stance in Libertarianism
- Made some awesome new friends, notably Clay, Carrie, Craig, “The Crew”, Cammie, and Altof
- Went boating with family, taste of Minnesota with friends, irish fest, ground zero with ‘girls night’, pride,
- Built a badass new computer which runs mac os x, as well as badass machines for Katy’s brother and my little cousin
- Saw Watchmen, Star Trek, District 9, and Harry Potter 6 in theaters, all winners, as well as The Day The Earth Stood Still, Zombieland, and 9, which both sucked
Also, I just got offered a job making more money than I am now in St Paul. I think I am going to take it!
I’m sure there is alot more minor stuff, but this is sort of the highlights! 
Having your cake and eating it too
Dec 22nd
Maybe its just the girls I hang out with, but a common theme I run into with women is their tendency to think they have feelings and their boyfriends (or ex boyfriends) don’t. These girls are content with the decisions they make with seeing other guys after the relationship is over (or even when it isn’t over), but get extremely jealous and pissed off of ex boyfriends who show interest in other girls. I’m not saying I don’t understand why my friends do this, I get it, I just sympathize for the guy.
I suppose most guys understand this tendency, and thats why they create jealousy to retain the girls they really like. Regardless, its really hard to be sympathetic to my friends that are girls that leave someone for someone else and are annoyed when their exes (who they no longer control) even touch a girl, almost as if they are running two relationships at the same time. Probably because I have been cheated on, and Katy also thought it was justified when she did so. It wasn’t a happy time in my life, and I sympathize for guys that girls do that too.
I wish people were fair. If you want to leave a relationship for someone else, by all means do it, but do it properly and stop treating the previous relationship like you are still in it. Don’t do what you wouldn’t want someone to do to you. Be a good person.
If you must screw around, don’t be suppressed or angry when someone you care about also does it. You should yell at yourself first.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends, and everyone can live their own life and make their own morals. My morals are based on honesty and fairness. But remember, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Like Father Like Son
Dec 21st
I find it interesting how much, as much as we don’t want to believe it, parental example creates a model of expectations on how to run life. It hit me today that while my personal life differs a whole ton from my dads (probably as a result of random chance – it is very possible I could have never met Tyler and his ilk) my comfortable groove on how to live my life is pretty much the same. I have a job, not unlike his, and commute every day, and generally have the same expectations about what to expect out of life he does.
I see some friends which are more or less burnouts, when their dads are burnouts. Or just sort of holding in there, when their family is sort of holding in there. Or an entire family on welfare who consistently dropped out of high school and all have similar jobs working at Holiday Gas Stations. An entire family of christian fundies. A family of Marine soldiers. Or, at my sisters army party, entire families of dog show people. How do those kids in dog shows even get into it? The dog show kiddies think they are living a life of rock stars – they sort of are, fancy banquets with drinking and co-ed teen parties behind closed doors, following in the footsteps of their parents. And they will raise more kids just like that.
So, even though my beliefs and social skills differ greatly (maybe thats just a fault of age difference?) I still have set the bar for career and motivation unexpectedly at the same level as my dad. It sort of makes sense to me now why some people I know lack motivation or are in the boat they are – because, as a result of their parents, this is what they thought life is.
I sometimes envy my sister. I theorize my mom pushed so hard to live vicariously through my sister, that my sister snapped and now is living a very passionate and independent life. She is one of the exceptions of someone who is not modeling their same gender parent. She (my sister) recently signed up to join the Army reserves (this is unheard of in our entire living ancestory) and is leaving in about a week. Its been one hell of a practically constant party for her for about a month, including a official friends and family going away party this last weekend. I love her, and I wish her good luck and best of wishes in her adventure.
People get worried and scared when familiarism ends. I did when High school ended (very depressing time). My mom is not looking forward to my sister moving on with her life (empty nest syndrome). But is it really so bad? Its the end of beating a dead horse, the start of something new. All things were meant to end, so they can be replaced with better things.
So, what can I do with my life to break out of the groove of living in my dads shadow…
On a side note, I am thinking of moving my journal to labythan.com completely and just synchronizing it to here via RSS. These new full screen best buy adds must suck for any readers I have. I am glad I use adblock. You should too!
I wonder…
Dec 14th
I wonder what its like life living as a slave to a job. Skipping events which are unique and will never happen again for a measly thing such as money or uncertainty. Money which you won’t spend on anything but debt. Uncertainty to try to find a new way to have fun. I tell you what, during my freetime when I wouldn’t be doing anything better, I have no problem working, but I would rather be a bum with nothing and all the freedom to do anything than a person like yourselves who work 24/7 without making accommodations for life events while the countdown that is your mortality ticks away. Tick, thousands of things you could have done. Tock, thousands more. Things that are usually free or close to free that only rely on friendship and some freetime. You guys enjoy your weekend jobs. You lie to yourselves and say this is the life you’d like to live, where you hear about all this stuff going around you that you’ve missed. Well, you can’t see it all, right? It must have been much more importantto work those extra 3 days to get $200 or so bucks and to get a little bit ahead on the mortgage or whatever than go on that cross country road trip, or a unforgettable weekend party, or just a quick pop in to say hi. Whats that new new carpet going to do for you when you’re dead anyway? Wouldn’t you have rather spent that time fishing or enjoying the outdoors, or spending some time with people in your life?
A year’s passed. What have you done in the last year? What’s next?
I wish you’d trust me and let me show you how to live a little, try something new, have some fun while you’re still (relatively) young. Maybe we can learn from eachother.
Edit: This is by no means bashing on parents. As parents, raising your family is its own reward. I’m talking about the childless among us or the parents who’s kids have moved out who still volunteer to throw their lives away.
(to some family and a few of my friends)
Redo
Dec 14th
From what I have been reading on Everything2, it takes a certain special kind of talented person to write something that is little more than a general recap of events. This is not that kind of post. This is me recording what I did recently.
Its cold! Its snowed much more this December than any December I recently remember. Its caused snowmageddon in commuting and lots of people to stay inside, but that doesn’t harm my resolve for wanting to do things in the city still. Besides, trains don’t get affected by snow. They cut through blizzards like a hot knife through butter. And I can sit on them and play video games or watch movies on the 2 or so hours I am sitting on some kind of bus/train a day. (Recently finished Black Snake Moan, which was great, and Ghost Town, which was OK. Got about 5 hours into SNES Chrono Trigger!)
Cold means more indoor parties get planned to pass the time.
Work held its Christmas party, which is the second time I have been privy to this event. Open bar, snacks, and fake gambling was pretty cool, and I won a He-Man DVD, which is going straight to a White Elephant party in a few weeks. Later, Annah (who was at the Christmas Party and got plastered) and my sister went to the 90’s and everyone danced in a big bubble fountain with a bunch of other people. (This was played at the 90’s, which I reallllly liked. Did I mention I’m a Lady Gaga fan lately?) By the way, my sister leaves for Basic Training with the Army Reserves in a few weeks, so this is part of her last hurrah of screwing around before she leaves.
Saturday, I held a party at Residence Inn Marriot Downtown, which was pretty snazy if I may say so. The price was high, but we easily slept 12 people in the room (well, 3 rooms connected together) I believe without incident. The room was very cool – it had a stove, full sized fridge, microwave, dishwasher, and all the pots and pans one would need to cook anything they wanted. While there, we took the Northstar to the city, the Light rail to the MOA, I met briefly with a church group I sometimes hang out with, then we later treked to Ground Zero and had a great time. Shawn got plastered. We returned and everyone stayed up till 5 AM getting more screwed up.
I saw the “Klingon Christmas Carol” with my dad the weekend prior to this, and that was pretty neat as well. The entire play is a recap of the Christmas Carol Story narrated by a Vulcan (Picture of what this Vulcan might look like – for real, I think this is the same girl) and acted by Klingons speaking in Klingon (with subtitles via projector). The story was adapted with silly puns (like instead of the Ghost of Christmas Past it was the Ghost of Khaless Past) and the plot was changed to focus around the restoration of Honor onto Scrooge (Sou’Ja). Also, right before this, Joe and I went to a bar and had a beer in front of my dad, which was as far as he says “the most time he’s ever spent in a bar at once.” Overall, this was a very good father-son sort of day.
Gut powers ACTIVATE!
I also saw the Hollidazzle this year. Christmas lights and floats for 30 minutes. Its very pretty against the snow all over the city.
So this past few weekends have been non stop crazy. And that’s not even counting the at least 3 parties that I missed this weekend. Now its back to work, I’m ready. 
Dec 7th
Today is a new week! I need a clever facebook status for this…
I put my birthday into a website calculating days since born. Turns out this is week 1234. I know its an arbitrary number, like the turn of the millennium or 2012, but still, a cool number anyway. Sounds like cause for a mini celebration and an LJ entry.
Turns out I can’t just update my fb status at work. I had to do this to block FB so I don’t keep using it at work:
(This makes it so facebook.com doesn’t resolve to the right IP number, it resolves to 4.2.2.1, which is not in fact facebook’s computers but something random owned by verizon. Basically, facebook.com can’t be looked up.)
It’s already stopped me from browsing it about 5 times this morning. I think I have a problem.
Well, long storys short, Josh got a job, I got repremanded at work for task prioritizing, and this Friday and Saturday promises some really really badass parties. I’ll write about them after they happen.
Random time to set goals for myself:
- Get Kim’s car ASAP (walking to the park in ride in 20 degree weather is COLD)
- Recover reputation at work
- Trips next year: Defcon 18, HOPE, European vacation, Chicago TARDIS, Florida to see relatives in April. I know I can’t do all of these, but I can dream.
- Jetskis!
- Put a fence up around yard by next fall.
- Buy a new fridge.
- Pay off all debt but house by next Christmas.