One-One: Remake, Remodel

Baby Shoes and Briefcase

Ok - So, I'm at the 10-year mark for the blog, which is pretty amazing considering that i've kept anything going that long (job, notwithstanding). Trouble is -uhmm, err.  I can't really prove it.  See - the first few entries have gone awol... I could have sworn I had a list of resolutions from pre-9/11 that were so shiny and reflective of the naughty oughties (you know, the post-election ennui that we had Dubya and crew, but not quite the forthcoming angst of 9/11 and the tech-bubble burst). I seem to recall most were not surprising and very cliched (beginning of my gym-obsession and to fit into overpriced denim. Oh, that and a constant need for recognition/meaning). Secondly, I did have fits and starts - so I can't technically tell you that I'm at 10 years - but I could be, well a few months shy? Oh well.   So, I'll not do any big fan-fair (not that I have any fans. I guess I do what every blogger has done for the last decade - self-sustain.)  So - no starlight parades, innaugural address or blingy banners to tell you that I've been blogging for way too long. 
To that end, what am I going to do for 2011 + this decade? Well - get a new job and career for starters. I've got to get some more professional blogging under my belt before I can start to enhance my - ahem - side projects. That said, you can expect some changes on my old, trusty website. (I've already made it more business like). Will this be business like? No - I'll still keep it to varied and strange interests, uninformed rants and eclectic nostalgia that only I could think was interesting.
In the meantime - to show you I'll remain true to my school - I just discovered this awesomeness of this animator. Check out this Recent profile on WENDY VAINITY in DIS Magazine. She's awesome in her unrelenting use of technology and persona - maybe this is the direction i need to go this next decade.

Noughtie Pine Retrospect

So with everyone wrapping up with a focus on the decade that's yet-to-be named (no "me"-decade as much as a "Generation OMG" or if you're over 30, the "I'm Still here-read my tweets!!!" decade).  It is, as Carrie Fisher described in an interview "googling yourself w/out lubicrant" - we're self-obsessed and self-promoting, so this is the decade where everyone has a medium of some kind where they go and "address their public" or "the haters....
it's been surprising that I've managed to hold onto this blog for nearly 10 yrs (having lapsed only once to the dark recesses of Livejournal between 2005-2006).   Like all things, I tend to go emphatically for a few months, lose the momentum due to real-time issues (aka - "real life"), so I won't do what alot of bloggers are doing in a "best of" because technically - this isn't a 10yr anniversary.   However, I will highlight my own milestones this year (if it's any interest):

• Started this blog and proceeded to join every single social app that was ever marketed to me in an attempt to get me to connect, sell, hookup, or just say a random hello.   However, as of this date - I have not tweeted once.
• I have had a dichotomy of work technology (all PC) and home/pleasure (all MAC).  This year, I  buy an iPhone and bridge the two - I get work email on my phone and have become 'one of those people'.
  
• Traveled to 2 major continents - Asia (JP) and Europe (UK, DE), went to NY, Chicago, LA a few times.
• Watched the twin towers fall on TV - visited ground zero a year later.  Still wondering why we've this paranoid nation of PTSD officials using it to justify everything from wars to wiretapping.
• Inspired by Stephen Merritt - start a band w/my friend Lyle.  Doesn't quite take off.  But it was fun.
• I buy a condo during the "bubble" and have knocked on all wooden surfaces for good equity at some point down the line. 
• I see Seattle boom, bust, boom again.  I see Broadway go vacant, Pike/Pine go hetero, 12th street go yuppie.   I see the Pine/Belmont block implode but not until a 5 month party of decadence makes it mark (and smart bars like Pony and Bus Stop return).  I see Ballard become hip, Georgetown and Columbia City places I want to visit more than Capitol Hill. 
• I see my own hometown become more cosmopolitan - almost in a strange capraesque nightmare, but also in some progressive areas as well.
  
• After years of being a skinny minnie my metabolism kicks in somewhere in early naughties, I gain 20 lbs of post-relationship/beer weight and in 2006 make an attempt to reclaim my youth.  I slim down to 150 with 8% body fat. 
• I also use bicycling as a means to both relieve stress and acheive said body weight goal.
• I returned to my theatrical roots and started doing crazy, exhibitionist things like this.   
• I still marvel that we don't have flying cars and we're not colonizing mars like they did in the 2010 of Blade Runner.   That said I still do suspect we're living with robots who emote better than we do.

Hoarding

I was in a training class yesterday when the instructor (who is European) made a remark that American's have bigger houses and spaces (than elsewhere in the world), and in those spaces they have garages and it's more common than usual to have their car parked outside of those spaces, hiding the years of hoarding that have rendered their garages large filing cabinets of waste and memories. I suddenly realized my own spare bedroom serves this purpose, and that I hoard a ton of useless half-started projects and attempts that are going into landfill at some point. Usually when I dwell on the crap I've accumulated, I have a shudder and think of a few deceased shut-in relatives who collected newspapers and tin cans. However, rather than feel like the dirty, trapped-under-my-own-weight Grey Gardens-like horror (that my life could become) - I started to think objectively and take stock: Single, Childless, No pets, No major intent to remodel. Hmm - even though it's a crappy time, maybe I should sell? I've often thought about it - and I've entertained the idea that renting during these troubling times gives one some flexibility in terms of moving, living, etc. I am not necessarily committed one way or another, but a relief kinda came my way with all my recent mortgage anxiety (yes, the rates are going up - sigh)... Where am I going with this? Oh yeah - paring down. Simplifying. Getting the fuck out of my particle-board 'faux-yuppie' spray-on life and having some forward (not upward) mobility...

Time Travel

Hot on the heels of being ambushed by friends from high school to make it to my 20yr Reunion, i decided to time travel back to teenage bedroom, circa 1984. It's part of the Miranda July assignment to draw a picture from your teenage bedroom... So here I am, drawing it... Hopefully, I won't pollute the timestream too much. The old 14yr old is asking me a ton of questions about the future... I simply nod and say nothing. I am trying to capture all of the 80's new-wave britmania I had going on at the time. I think most of it came from the English music tabloids (complete with lyrics and posters) and large scale posters I purchased from Rising Sun Records. I was prematurely convinced that these bands would change the world, as they did my hairstyle at the time... Little did i know then that the posters would change (some more obscure bands, giant photo's friends took at the time, eventually a chaotic mural i painted that would later be painted grey)... Now it's the southwest room (redone shortly after i left) probably going to be renovated into my parent's own masterbedroom at some point.