Perspective

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2011 In Questions

I got the idea for this from my friend Leah Cevoli's blog. She's been doing it for years and it's cool to see how the answers change from year to year. I'm going to attempt to begin this tradition starting with  my sayonara to 2011.


1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

Taught myself how to swim. Wrote a novel in 30 days.

2. Did you keep your 2011 resolutions? Will you make more for 2012?

I never really finished making them last year...so that was pointless. I did complete several goals such as my reading goal, my grades goal, and my NaNoWriMo goal. This year, I DID make 12 for 2012.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope...I don't know any babies right now.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, no. Not this year. Sad about Jani Lane, Heavy D, Steve Jobs and Amy Winehouse though.

5. What countries did you visit?

2011 was a depressing travel year for me. I never left the state this year. Staycations all 12 months.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

More creative people in my life. More travel experiences. To fall in love.


7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory and why?

December 4, 2011- Guns n' Roses at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville!!! My ultimate concert experience of the year and a perfect way to end 2011. After that, Christmas was pretty anticlimactic.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Completing my first novel EVER for NaNoWriMo in November, and teaching myself to swim over the summer which has been on all of my New Year's lists for 25 years. Ha ha!

9. What was your biggest failure?

Still working in retail. Still broke. Also still no guy :(

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Had a couple of head colds and a toothache...that's about it. Thank you, God!

11. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My mother for finishing her Master's degree at age 63! My sister for learning to swim with me! The Occupy protesters for giving apathy the middle finger and standing up for the 99%

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

The mainstream media and their irresponsibility in general. Almost everything to do with politics...all parties. The appalling level of vitrol & venom by the general public on internet message boards. Where's the love???


13. Where did most of your money go?

Specialty food items like sushi, Red Bull, Starbucks coffee, and fancy teas and ingredients like toasted nori sheets. Textbooks. A new laptop after mine DIED. Android phone. Gas for my car. Concert tickets. (there wasn't a lot of money to go anywhere)


14. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Guns n' Roses coming to Nashville!!! Finishing my Novel. Poison, Motley Crue, NY Dolls show. Really swimming in my pool...laps. Bikram yoga. Rachel Bolan & Scotti Hill joining twitter.


16. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder?

I feel about the same...generally happy, but very discontented. I want things to be different so I can be beyond happy...so I can be ecstatic.


b) thinner or fatter?

I was thinner after my very ACTIVE summer, but the cold weather and holidays are causing a creep back. Time to nip it in the bud!!


c) richer or poorer?

Same broke-ass girl, same bad credit. Well actually NO credit. I need a lightbulb moment for wealth.


17. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Go out...date. I'm not going to meet the man of my dreams sitting at home on the sofa on my laptop. Job hunting...for something great. Write.


18. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Eating burgers and fried chicken (damn southern living). Complaining. FInding excuses to stay home. Cancelling plans w/guys who I decided weren't "the one".


19. How did you spend Christmas?

At Mom's house with Mom, Julia, David, and his girlfriend Shandry in Tennessee. I worked in the morning and went over there after. It was nice.


20. Did you fall in love in 2011?

Sadly...not even close. At least not with anybody I actually KNOW. Normal guys have a really hard time competing with the complexity, world-travelled wisdom, and self-actualized swagger of the famous crushes I have. *sigh* #hopeless


21. What was your favorite TV program?

The Vampire Diaries, The Voice, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls, Supernatural, The Mentalist


22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don't HATE people!! NOH8! I try to be like Jesus in this area. But if there's someone who's negativity or aggressive behavior puts me off, I just avoid them.


23. What was the best book you read?

I can't pick one! I was having a big year of celebrity autobiographies and Young Adult fiction. I'm hoping to read more substantial books in 2012, but who knows. *shrugs* Here, in no particular order, is my top 5:

My Horizontal Life~Chelsea Handler

Mustaine: A Memoir~ Dave Mustaine

The Mummy Case~Elizabeth Peters

Heist Society~Ally Carter

Divergent~Veronica Roth


24. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Korn w/Skrillix, dubstep, The Pretty Reckless, Ellie Goulding, The Avett Brothers, Spotify, Revolver Magazine, Alter Bridge

25. What did you want and get?

Guns n Roses tickets, Paid my car off, As in all my classes

26. What did you want and not get?

To meet Axl, Dj etc..., Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame tickets, to attend my cousin Kyle's wedding to Sara in a ZOO in Tacoma Washington, a big royalties check from Warner & BMI, a boyfriend...or even a date I don't have to work at enjoying


27. What was your favorite film of this year?

Final Harry Potter Movie...Hanna, Super 8, and Black Swan (I saw it late...in January last year)


28. What did you do on your birthday? How old were you?

I don't remember...I know I stayed in downtown Nashville the NEXT weekend for Motley/Poison/Dolls and 4th of July fireworks. I turned 39. I can't even believe that, but I'm in really sexy company-DJ Ashba also turned 39 this year. :)


29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Location, location, location!!! Living in a more interesting, creative neighborhood.


30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Pretty safe...jeans, layered tanks, tees, rock tees. Yoga pants & tanks. flip-flops in summer, uggs in winter, chucks in the middle. Ponytail hair or down w/sideswept bangs.


31. What kept you sane?

My sanity is debatable, but ...Music & Writing, Creative long distance friends on social networks. Truthfully, I'm not sure that stuff worked at all..


32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Axl Rose, Dave Mustaine, DJ Ashba, James Michael, Skid Row guys, Blake Shelton, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki & Mischa Collins (Supernatural), Roger Howarth & Trevor St. John (OLtL),Robin Tunney, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Taylor Momson, Daisy DeLaHoya, Josie Stevens (I like wild girls. Ha!)


33. What political issue stirred you the most?

Trying to abstain from politics these days. I support equal rights for everyone. NOH8.


34. Who did you miss?

All my family out West, especially for Kyle's wedding :(


35. Who was the best new person you met?

My brother's girlfriend Shandry.


36. What valuable life lesson did you learn in 2011?

It's never to late to be what you might have been. I have achieved things this past year that I tried to make happen for decades. I've watched my mother do the same. It mainly takes focus and the decision & dicipline to follow it through.


37. What song lyrics sum up your year?

"I'm like a puzzle
But all of my pieces are jagged
If you can understand this
We can make some magic, I'm on like that

I wanna fly, I wanna drive, I wanna go
I wanna be a part of something I don't know
And if you try to hold me back, I might explode
Baby, by now you should know

I can't be tamed
I can't be tamed
I can't be blamed
I can't, can't, I can't, can't be tamed"

See entire song & video HERE


38. Post a favorite picture of yourself from 2011.

This is taken right before going to see Slash and Ozzy Osbourne at the Bridgestone Arena February 16th, 2011. Did kind of a rockabilly thing :)

The Mighty Resolutions! Here's 12 for 2012!

Here is a list of Resolutions I saw online that I thought was pretty great. It sums it up for the most part, give or take a few. Below it are my actual specific goals for 2012!!

New Year's Resolutions

12 for 2012

 1. I resolve to nom nom on fruits or vegetables or both with every meal and snack.

 2. I resolve to escape to 50 new worlds this year. Follow my progress at Goodreads.com 

 3. I resolve to pound out 100 pages of cinematic genius in April during ScriptFrenzy!

 4. I resolve to start breathing in a group, while sweating profusely, on a yoga mat. Twice a week.

 5. I resolve to scribble something silly and nonsensical each week. Follow my blog Inkblot to see what I do.

 6. I resolve to share the products of my demented mind with the world via E-Pub.

 7. I resolve to smell the roses, maybe sketch them & then write poems about them...or make-out with them.

 8. I resolve to go watch the Predators annihilate the competition in Smashville...LIVE!!

 9. I resolve to get to know where I live...and love it (NowPlayingNashville)

10.I resolve to get up and sweat  to Ke$ha, Flo-Rida, & LMFAO unless I'm sick or we get snowed in.

11.I resolve to learn the lyrics to songs so that I can belt them out freely without mumbling over parts.

12.I resolve to travel (out west!) this year. A whole year land-locked in the middle is too long!

**BONUS #13 for LUCK & LOVE I will do something new. Something I have never done before...I don't know what it will be yet, but undoubtedly something outstanding!!

2012 Day #2: Reflecting on the new year...

I decided to do a retrospect of the new year so far...

     After the indulgence that was New Year's Eve 2011...I began the new year yesterday with a clean slate and full of great expectations & good intentions. I had a fairly indulgent breakfast with eggnog panettone french toast, bacon & eggs, however I did offset it with fresh fruit and a southern traditional new year's dish of black-eyed-peas and collard greens  and I went jogging out on my favorite trail. I did some cleaning/organizing, and I did some loafing around and goofing off. In other words, it was a well balanced day. I even blogged, did a writing exercise for fun, read, and had a day well spent.

   

The only down side is the cold I managed to pick up somewhere along the way. This morning, after a satisfying breakfast of baby quiches, fruit and a caramel macchiato, I began a downward spiral which started with sneezing, morphing quickly into a runny nose, which is causing a furious sore throat. Booo! Feeling under the weather has put a cramp in my plans to make today productive.
 
  Now I only managed to confirm my spring enrollment and finish some blogs...oh and begin watching the new BBC Sherlock...which is quite awesome, I must say, for bookish anglophiles like myself. It's a very modern adaptation, but the two leads are nerdishly charming in that British way. I'm going to have to get back to that now as I am losing the energy required to type or even sit in front of a computer screen.

 Happy New Year 2012!
Cheers (and sniffles)!

The Year Is 2012!!!!

     Welcome to the year two thousand and twelve. It sounds like the future and yet, in terms of this century we are still taking baby steps. Travelling back in time, to the turn-of-the-last-century, in 1912, the first of the World Wars had not yet happened, America was still a bright young upstart, (not at all the fully realized superpower it was later to become, at best it was more like a social ingenue) the flappers, the bootleggers nor the Great Depression had happened, and only the very rich (and progressive) had electricity in their homes. I can hardly imagine what they would think of our modern day working poor all using smartphones.The defining event of 1912 was the sinking of the "unsinkable" mighty Titanic.


     It's hard to know where we are in on the timeline right now, and without a time machine (TARDIS or DeLorean) all we can do is work with the limited viewpoint we have. It's impossible to know if we have hit rock bottom, where the only place left to go is up; or if all of our troubles are only beginning and the worst is yet to come. I suppose the nation could be headed in one direction, but that doesn't mean that the individual could not go in the exact opposite.


     This year we have the added drama of the apocalyptic predictions for the end of the year. Since the Mayan calendar ends in December 2012, we may have reached the last epoch of our age. I can't pretend I have complete faith in scholars to read the calendars of dead civilizations perfectly so I must say, I expect it could end early...or possibly later than predicted. It's so hard to pinpoint the exact day or hour...I suppose Jesus did try to tell us that ("But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."), I mean, HE didn't even know. I know I think I'm pretty smart, but I don't think I'm smarter than Jesus and ALL the angels of heaven! So...yeah...just always be ready, I guess.


     For myself I am going to take this New Year's restart and begin with letting go of dramas and disappointments of the past year...or lifetime...and pick up with a brand new day. If you notice small children, they don't carry a lot over from day-to-day let alone year-to-year. Each day is brand new in and of itself, full of possibility and opportunity. They don't have a lot negativity or doubt, and they're pretty successful in everything they do...eventually. So I'm going to try that approach this year and focus on adding good things to my life instead of focusing on eliminating the bad. I just don't really want to give the bad things much attention or energy. I think adding all the good stuff in will leave very little room for any lingering negativity. I'm going to make some NY Resolutions and maybe do a Q & A as well this week.


Thanks for reading and Happy New Year 2012!

     Cheers!