" if you had one chance to sum it all up, what would you have to say? "

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it's the end of the year again. like i could stop it.

i would like to think that a lot of great things happened to me this year, and surely they have, but isn't it always that in the end of a year, you sort of feel like you spent too many idle moments wasting time?

i can't pin it down, but especially now, being here in bangkok and alone again, it's just as odd as it is normal. i have no clue what i expected. in fact this past year was the best in terms of setting aside time to grow as a person, an artist, and a potential filmmaker; every year always is.

there are things in the works, and even though bush is still in office, there are world-wide catastrophes at present happening, and the earth is off it's axis, one cannot help but feel the need to be oddly optimistic.

so get out there people; be good to everyone that deserves it, and spread it on thick. if you want to hit me up in bangkok, do it. i'll set you on course i will.

i know that tomorrow is going to be no different at all, except for the fact that everyone just tends to get more drunk than ever on this night.

so, in light of that, let's try and drive safe, keep our dirty fingers off of other peoples' significant others, leave the lamp shades on the lamps, try not to 'slip-the-tongue' to someone you like, but that doesn't like you just because it's new years and you're snackered (or do, what do i know?), and then we can wake up to a delicious brunch.

hmm? can we try that? this way, hopefully by the time you actually wake up, you'll be sleeping next to someone that you actually intended to wake up next to.

and now the lists i've prepared.

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the things that happened to me this year:

[ reference daily planner; links when available ]

january 7th - i turn 24 and i hate it
january 9th - i meet a soon-to-be-a-part-of-the-corps-de-ballet ballerina and feel not quite myself
- [oddly, time passes and nothing happens] -
february 3rd - optic nerve #9 comes out, i shit a brick in the greatest way
february 7th - eat gyros with yea-ming, then catch a show at the stork club
february 12th - adrian tomine comes into my ex-work and peeps my zine, then orders a scone; i pass out discretely
february 20th - i get rejected from the NY underground international film festival by email
february 22nd - lost my ------ ring only to find it later
february 29th - march 18th - super trip to LA, not as crappy this time at all: protests against the man, telecine pick up, film done, MOCA, baskin robbins, westwood?, oo masa in japan town, thai town!!, the peak show, getting lost on the freeway, beer and scrabble, family guy dvdvd, visit ------, greg's sister, sushi, uci, cdm, swap meet supreme hotdog, burbank, nicole n' barry n doggie dog, alana, vanessa, yanez momma's cookin', christine photog, cousins and LA fam, patrick and --- roscoe's chicken and waffles, laura, shar, banjo, the long drive home alone along the i-5, cows aplenty
march 19th - saved a dog's life expecting nothing in return
march 20th - sf protest
march 30th - passed bunk traffic school test @ 100%
march 31st - button-maker mania!
april 4th - midnight merritt bakery chicken and waffles with a cuppa girls and greg
april 7th - parkway theatre w/kristen and kim, triplets of belleville
april 21st - pick up last paycheck from a cuppa tea, quit my berkeley/oaktown jobby job

april 24th - move to bangkok, thailand
may 17th - i write a short story (c)
may 21st - get a year-long visa approved to stay in thailand
june 11th - start a relat'nship with a girl named apple
june 12th - haircut at barbershop, #6 in entire life, i hate it
august 10th - i get dumped in a really shitty way, no biggie, inquiries within
august 13th - swim in the ocean @ hua hin, maids first time swimming in the sea
august 27th - visited extended family in trang province
october 28th - spent the day at a home for handicapped kids
november 2nd - vote at the U.S.embassy
november 7th - ran a 5k mini-marathon
november 16th - second haircut, i hate this one less
november 26th - loy krathong festival under the rama X bridge
december 9th - dylan comes to thailand from japan, korea, china, tibet, nepal; we lose him on arrival and then find him again, we eat 'pork waterfall with sticky rice' for dinner
december 17th/18th - meet up with sarah manson and hit the town; siam, lido shopping, green tanktop at mbk, stepmom diane, massive software steven, drinking ourselves silly, asoke bar show, bear-garden, q-bar, talking to myself in the lobby of the amari hotel clutching a bottle of indistinguishable liquor @ 4am and being okay with it, strange cell phone man talking to my left, unknown beeping sources, crazy bangkokian taxis driving in a circle, 4-person tuk-tuk ride of craziness
december 26th - i play santa at the weirdest christmas party ever, ever
december 26th - the earth takes a breath and causes the most destructive tsunami in 300 years; everything that includes selfish thought suddenly seems vastly unimportant in its wake and subsequent aftershocks
december 31st- i have no plan at all to celebrate and here i am in bangkok

- i swear some other stuff happened there in between, at least i think they did

movies i saw:

[ star scale out of 5 ]

january 1st - girl with a pearl earring, 11:30am, albany twin ****
january 4th - triplets of belleville, 1:00pm, berkeley act I/II ****
januray 9th - lord of the rings:ROTK, 10:30am, emery bay 16 ******
january 12th - touching the void, midnight, albany twin **
february 12th - 50 first dates, 9:27pm, irvine spectrum 21 ***
march17th - eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, 9:30pm, piedmont cinema ******
march18th - goodbye lenin, midnight, california theatre ***
april 7th - triplets of belleville, 10:00pm, parkway speakeasy oakland ****
june 24th - tropical malady, 2:15pm, major rachayothin, bkk ******
july 7th - spiderman 2, 9:45pm, major rachayothin, bkk ****
august 1st - i, robot, 4:15pm, sfx cinema, central ladprao, bkk *
august 2nd - the chronicles of riddick, 5:30pm, sfx cinema, central ladprao, bkk **
october 12th - beautiful boxer, night, dvd, office ****
october 18th - film festival thai shorts program, 11:00am, major egv metropolis, bkk **
november 14th - farenheit 9/11, noon, lido multiplex, siam, bkk ****
november 14th - nobody knows, 2:00pm, lido multiplex, siam, bkk *****
november 15th - ong bak, night, dvd, office ***
november 27th - last life in the universe, night, dvd, office ******
december 11th - the incredibles, 6:30pm, lido multiplex, siam, bkk *****
december 12th - blade trinity, 4:20pm, siam cinema, siam, bkk **
december 19th - ocean's twelve, 7:15pm, sfx cinema, central ladprao, bkk *

- yes, i realize some got six *'s, but they really did deserve em, honest!


tonights homework:

kick old man 2004 in the pants, and kiss baby 2005 on the forhead. but remember to put down the champagne bottle long enough to take a moment for the tsunami victims and their families, then dance a little jig at the right moment.

until next year, i said good day sir.

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