I remember New Years 1989. We were playing Dungeons & Dragons at a sleep over at my friend's house. I recall thinking, "There goes the 80's." At the time, that decade contained the majority of my existence. I think New Years Eve 1989 felt more momentous to me than the one of 1999. I don't recall where I was New Years 2009. 2019 sounds like a science fiction date. CNN's website looked better in 2004 than it does today. The New York Times' website looks better today than it did in 2004. Things are changing quickly. We are on a wild ride, although it's easy to forget. In the original 1989 Shadowrun game, the "Computer Crash of 2029" is what leads to the creation of The Matrix. The Matrix movie came out ten years later, in 1999.
I will always remember New Year's Eve 1999. Why? Because of my head injury. We were at a place called Clutch Cargo's in Michigan. A friend of mine had bought a bottle of champagne and we all took turns drinking out of it. When the clock was about to strike midnight, I could not find my friends and was wandering around the thousands of people looking for them. When people begin to count down I was by myself, among strangers. Still, I was overwhelmed with excitement for the century to be over and a new one to begin. Not just the century, but the millennium. As I contemplated what an amazing time we live in and celebrated the passing of the year, I felt a tremendous thud upon my head. I fell to the ground, momentarily in a daze and then regained consciousness to feel that my head was throbbing. It was slightly bleeding, and I had a huge lump formed on top of my noggin. I looked down next to me on the floor I saw a bottle of champagne. Someone had thrown a bottle of champagne into the air to celebrate at midnight and of the thousand people in the room somehow that bottle found my head. Later, I found my friends and told them about how if I ever found who threw that bottle in the air I would kick their ass. After re-telling that story, my friend Tim walked up to us, not having heard my story and said he felt so guilty because at midnight, caught up in all of the excitement he hurled his champagne bottle into the air. That's right, of the thousands of people he could have hit, his champagne bottle found me clear on the other side of the room. That's what I remember. I didn't kick his ass, but he bought my drinks the rest of the night. Happy new year everyone! Don't throw your bottles in the air tonight.
Edit: comment dictated to siri
Wow -- Siri transcribed all those words! -- but you went in and edited? or no. Speaking of New Year's Eves past, my current husband (who note: is somewhat older than me) was working on a computer the size of several Volkswagen buses, 15 miles outside of Boston at the air force base in Lincoln, Massachusetts. It is New Year’s Eve, 1969, and the spousal unit has hung a piece of mistletoe above the computer. At midnight, the computer suddenly crashed. This is interesting, he mused. He realized that when the computers were programmed in 1965, they had never been tested regarding the transition to a new decade. When the computer’s clock turned from 1969 to 1970, everything crashed. He considered alerting programmers everywhere to anticipate computer breakdowns every time the decade or the century turned over. And at that moment, his brain, which by this time was the size of a planet, envisioned the great Y2K scare of the late 1990s. Finding and fixing the Y2K bug could employ thousands and thousands of programmers. Universities would have to hire professors to train these programmers. He could have a comfortable professorial job for years. So he quietly turned out the lights and went looking for a party. He told me this story when the Y2K scare started in the late 1990s.
I edited a bit about 30 minutes later. Today was a frenetic day, full of car washes, clothes donating, Targeting, Trader Joe's-ing, Whole Foods-ing, Planetarium-ing, throwing a party-ing, and then... hubskiing. Favorite part? Yep.... planetarium. Second favorite.. Hubskiing.
That was probably not that funny to you at the time but right now I'm smiling and giggling just thinking about it.
I'm glad it made you laugh, honestly. I was pretty quick to realize how funny and ridiculous the whole thing was. Normallly, you see someone like that on film and think to yourself, "that would never happen." Well, it does and I used to have the scar to prove it! Happy New Year swedishbadgergirl!
Happy New Year thenewgreen! I guess that is the kind of situation were you can take solace in the fact that it will make a great story.
Happy new year Hubski. As is our tradition, tonight my wife and I will get dressed up and head downtown to one of the finest restaurants with no reservations on NYE. We've never missed getting immediately seated at the bar and having a great meal and drinks. It's actually more fun than having reservations IMO, -more of a casual fun vibe. Fingers crossed to keep the streak going, but there's plenty of nice joints with long bars so we're not worried. Gonna try a new place called Selden Standard tonight...all the chefs in the area are freaking out about it and I confirmed on Yelp that it does indeed have a good sized bar ripe for the crashing. Peace!
Signed up for my first powerlifting meet today! My friend and I had been on the fence about actually competing or not but today we kind of figured fuck it and just went for it. We still have a few more months to train so it should be a good time.
Good luck! My brothers friend from high school is a power lifter and from what I gather is doing well at it. Have fun!
It's New Year's Eve at the pubski or, in some places, already a new year. We've covered a few newyearsy topics here: Looking back: Best thing to happen in 2014 and Looking forward: Plans for 2015. I didn't post there as it would require reflection. Reflection is good, though, even necessary if you want to grow your life. It was great to hear about people's victories over the last few weeks. (galen, demure, _refugee_, OftenBen - there may have been more but those are the ones that come to mind). I recall one of the first hubski posts I read long long ago, which was about small victories - little things you've done that made you proud. I can't find it now, but a toast to the little victories and the big ones. I will sit back and listen to the pubchatter for now. Happy Merry Happy to everyone.
I recently finished Birth By Sleep and I liked it but I have mixed feelings. Not that it was a bad game, it was my favorite in the series, actually. But there are two characters - Terra and Ventus - and their relationship was weirdly similar to how my brother and I used to be, and it was kind of uncomfortable. My brother and I used to be super close when we were younger. I was the Tails to his Sonic, the Pikachu to his Ash, the Frog to his Chrono, or in this instance, the Ventus to his Terra. We went everywhere together and did everything together and were joined to the hip. That changed for reasons that I would rather keep private. But I do miss it. It is weird not having any close older male figure in my life - my dad is overseas, my brother is doing God knows what...my sister told me yesterday that she was lucky to have me to give her advice because I was older, and I idly thought how I didn't have the same thing when I was her age. I learned a lot of things on my own. I dunno. It was weird. I didn't expect to experience feelings playing Kingdom Hearts, but whatever. Happy new years or something
New Years Eve! As per tradition, it's the day to listen to the Top 2000 a.k.a. The Best (Dad) Music Ever and eat an appelbeignet or two: Most Dutch people eat oliebollen, which are deep-fried scoops dough. Imagine if pancakes were spherical and deep-fried and a bit more bland and you're close to oliebollen. In my opinion not nearly as good as appelbeignets, which also have some dough but the main ingredients are apple and cinnamon and amazingness. I hope everyone has a nice evening with as much artery-clogging food as mine!
I don't really care about New Years Eve/day...or any one day (maybe outside of Thanksgiving?) for that matter. Just another day, going to watch a bunch of Drunk History and clean up my pictures and music on my laptop. Trying to learn a song by Wilco on guitar intermittently while doing those things.
One year I was living with a boyfriend. It was New Year's. We were fighting. There was a party. He wanted to go, I didn't. He went, I went to bed at like 9 or 10 and slept through the whole thing. The next morning he was very distressed he had no one with him at midnight (to cuddle, probably to do that traditional New Year's kiss with) and not only did I not care but I couldn't relate. While I enjoy the nostalgia this holiday summons in me, I can't say I'm very attached to the actual celebrations. I admit I do go along with them...(sometimes)...because parties are fun, and because sometimes, I try to be nice because I know it matters to other people. (This year, for instance.) In short...I can relate! New Year's isn't that special to me except as yet another day in the year where I like to look back.
Parties when you're arguing with a significant other are the best, especially when one person wants to go and the other doesn't. Historically I've been the one who doesn't, kind of like you in that story. I don't get the need to have a huge blowout party or go to a bar and get destroyed with a ton of other people because it's the last day of the year. It's weird to me. I do the same thing as you with sometimes going along with it, but only when I care that other people are really getting into it. Sometimes that doesn't happen though (the being nice and going part).
This is not the flesh and meat of the pubski post I would like to make, but in the meantime, This Time I'm Really Going To Do It, I Swear - another post about New Years, but from last year lil , shamelessly mine, I know. The question I have is: Did you really do it? _____________________ Edit: Here is some of my flesh and meat. In 2014, I completed 313 submissions[1, 3]. I sent 77 distinct poems to 70 presses [2]. Seven (7) were accepted for publication, in six (6) distinct publications, although not all have been published in 2014 (a few slated for Jan 2015 I know for sure). My "acceptance ratio" at Duotrope is 2.6%, although that covers my entire history of use at Duotrope which goes back to 2012. I have appreciated everyone's support and encouragement this year. I've reached out to a few of you privately, and publicly vented, about submissions and rejections. You all have been wonderfully supportive and positive and have kept my head directed towards the right frame of mind, if not always squarely in it. I mention these statistics because I think it's a great, (depressing? frank?) indicator of what it can take to gain a measure of outside "success" at one's passion. This is a year's worth of work expressed in one set of metrics that, of course, doesn't really reflect a lot of the work/writing I've done, directly and indirectly poetry-related...but I like metrics, and I like quantifying things, and at times like this - anniversaries, New Year's, birthdays, etc - I like to note them. Work is hard. Keeping up your passion is hard. I imagine that successfully sustaining a long-term relationship is in its way just as hard as slogging through poetry submissions, and so on - what I'm saying is that I'm sure every single one of you has worked just as hard at something as I have at poetry this year. It's not easy. I hope for all of you it has been worth it. I admire and respect the hell out of all of you, sweating away at your own individual passions and pursuits. Best wishes, and LOVE, for each and every one of you in 2015 - muted or not, whether we agree on any single topic or not, hushed or not, in the USA, Hong Kong, and everywhere in between. (from ref - your secret sentimental) [1] This is confusing phraseology. This is a count of all of the individual, non-distinct poems that I sent to non-distinct presses. Often, I can submit, say, 5 poems to a magazine at a time, and I can submit the same 5 poems to multiple magazines for consideration, Hence, I sent out 313 poems, but the number is misleading because it reflects neither actual number of distinct pieces nor actual number of distinct presses. [2] There are a number of presses I submitted to twice in 2014, so while there were a discrete 70 of them, that does not mean I sent one submission to one press total over the course of the year. [3] These numbers as of 1:41 P.M. today. I know it's ambitious but I'm hoping I can send just a few more out...just a few more...before 2015. :)
I'm pissed off right now because I'm three pounds heavier right now than I was on my birthday, but that's still seven pounds lighter than I was on my last birthday. I run 8 minute miles pretty consistently. I don't exactly dust everyone I come across, but I'm pretty swift. Went running two days ago and was absolutely smoked by this kid. He was doing a sustained run at about the speed I can sprint. I then realized I'm old enough to be his dad. That's been my year in a nutshell: On the one hand, I'm getting older. I have officially slipped out of anybody's target demo. On the other hand, I make it look good. Hot wife, adorable daughter, bitchin' career and hyperexotic italian superbike. I got knocked across 4 lanes of the 405 this year and stood up to flip the other guy the finger. I made six figures pushing faders. And although it's galling to bail on Hollywood without having my name in lights, I can say I was there when the lights started going out. I got mixes to finish but first I gotta get over this cold.
I ate a 230 calorie Protein Fusion for lunch today. The UltraLean's taste better, but they made my pee the color of Kenneth's shirt all evening. I think I'll keep Soylent in the lunch mix for now. I've remained about 3 lbs lighter since my 72 hour fast. I also started one 'skip lunch day' each week. Since I just eat lunch and dinner, that's a 22 hour fast once per week. Until the baby, I was 144 lbs since I was 18. I am back there again, and I am staying. It becomes freakishly easy to gain weight as you approach middle age. Jesus Christ dude. That's what freaks me out most about motorcycles, the other drivers.I'm pissed off right now because I'm three pounds heavier right now than I was on my birthday, but that's still seven pounds lighter than I was on my last birthday.
I got knocked across 4 lanes of the 405 this year and stood up to flip the other guy the finger.
I tortured my metabolism through pernicious anorexia as a teenager. As a consequence it's super-efficient. If I eat three pieces of pizza I gain about 4 lbs and keep it on for about a week of calorie restriction. The disturbing thing was comparing my calorie requirements through MyFitnessPal with my daughter's calorie requirements through Babycenter. MyFitnessPal says that I need 1800 calories a day - 2300 calories if I'm going running. I'm 6'0, 195 lbs. BabyCenter says my daughter needs 1300 calories a day. She's 2'3, 24 lbs. That'll fuck with your perspective: "If you want to maintain your weight, eat one more meal than your toddler but eat about the same thing."
Yeah, a few pubski's ago: https://hubski.com/pub?id=193148 Oddly, I haven't gotten sick, despite my wife and daughter getting sick, and some of my colleagues. I am not sure if it gave me an immune boost, but it seems possible. I think I might do it every fall.
Psh, a fit 20-year-old is commonplace. Sexy, maybe, but they've got a hell of a wind on their backs. A fit 30-year-old is on a good track. A fit 40-year-old is impressive in my book. I fell out of running after 3 ankle injuries in a year (2/3 from walking down steps while spaced out), but I miss the days of setting myself in a random direction and passing through cities and towns without a care in the world.
I change it up. I run, but I also bike (the two hours it takes me to Torrance Beach and back, all within a stone's throw of the ocean, is one of the few things I will miss about SoCal). I also longboard, although I haven't in too long. I used to do a lot of rowing on an Ergometer but I sold it because we had one at the health club here, but I don't go to the health club all that often. Shit, I even did spinning for a while. Only thing I really hate is weight machines and free weights, which is a damn shame because I could sure stand to use 'm.
With you on the former, against you on the latter. Picking up free weights after putting down running did wonders for my posture in a way a hundred of miles of road never could.Only thing I really hate is weight machines and free weights, which is a damn shame because I could sure stand to use 'm.
My "last serious boyfriend" - broke up over 3 years ago, used to live together, whatever - interloped on my New Years celebration by means of a mutual friend. He proceeded to both get wasted and try to get me wasted. He then told me he "knew my current boyfriend wasn't the one" (implying it was because said boyfriend and I have broken up and gotten back together), that he had been stalking me and could remember exactly when I blocked him on Twitter (which I personally couldn't even remember doing), and started telling me that a year ago there had been a rumor that I had slept with someone. I'm not sure there was actually a rumor but I'm sure he was trying to figure out if I had. He also wanted us to start talking and be friends again. He did not present these topics in this exact order. It was immediately after he started talking about how he knew my boyfriend wasn't "the one" for me that I walked over to our mutual friend, relayed the deterioration of the conversation, and began to dodge him for the rest of the night. This ex? I haven't so much as talked to him for more than a minute in about two and a half years. Where he gets off thinking that he has any iota of an idea what I want/need in a significant other and what would make a person "the one" or not (putting aside for the sake of discussion all my OTHER objections about such phraseology) I have no fucking idea. I'm pissed and feel my privacy has been seriously violated. Apparently he also likes to ask our mutual friend how I am doing. Me? Our relationship ended three years ago, bud, and you were a creeper 35yo sleeping with an emotionally screwed, drug-addled 20yo. Frankly he's the ex I think about least and whom I like to pretend I didn't date the most. Oh, and he also told me that he thinks I've "packed on a few pounds" since we broke up when in reality? Since I stopped living with a directionless, anti-motivated stoner and smoking an eighth every three days (oh and quit eating double cinnabons/day etc) - which I did because frankly I was so bored and stifled in the relationship and lifestyle I had to stone myself blind in order to be okay with it - I've lost 2 pants sizes and 20 pounds. He just happens to remember me as the sickly, food avoidant stim freak I was when the relationship started, not the fatass who left it. (By the way - I am around the same weight/body shape as that 20yo girl was now, anyway.) To put the cherry on top, after telling my boyfriend about this, said boyfriend then found said ex and friended them on Facebook. In the meantime, I'd blocked the unwelcome fuck. When I asked current boyfriend why he had done this, he began to talk about how he would message my ex and tell him to back off. Sorry, buddy, not your right, your job, or even a good way to handle the situation. If you won't even tell me your last ex-girlfriend's name because I want to check if she actually does or doesn't have a criminal record, I don't know where the living FUCK you get off thinking you can step in and 'handle' my ex for me. Plus, the correct move here is to block and ignore the ex on all media, not stir up more shit, drama and potential rumors by needless, sophomoric posturing. This isn't a pissing contest. My ex is my ex and has already 'lost' a million times over (I mean, depending on your take, ha ha ha). There is nothing to prove. So now I'm lying in bed stewing, pissed, and unable to sleep. In need of venting so here it is, Hubski. fuck idiots.
I had literally the best new years of my life last night. It was amazing. Great fireworks, great energy. Kevin had to go to the bathroom and while I was waiting, I hear a guy behind me speaking English. My semi-drunk and socially inept ass turns around and goes, "English!" That's it. No explanation or, "Hi, how are you" - just "English!". We all ended up talking for about an hour about Hong Kong, traveling, etc. Turns out he's a screenwriter living in Hong Kong, originally from Washington. The girls he was with were from Philippines but had just come back from NYC. We ended up at two bars and danced the night away until about 4am. The first bar had a band playing Highway to Hell and awesome rock songs like that. The second bar we went to had the weirdest band I've ever seen singing the best songs ever. Call me maybe. Best Day of my Life. Wonderwall. Livin on a Prayer. Etc. Etc. The lead singer (who wasn't actually singing 99% of the time, the guy behind him was) was such a phenomenal performer. He brought guys and girls up on stage. Let the crowd finish the line. Polished this bald guys head. It was just one a night full of the greatest vibes. Here's a FB & Instagram link because I don't feel like turning my VPN on again to upload these photos. http://instagram.com/p/xR8bl9zg8R/?modal=false https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153452195389348.1073741832.710994347&type=1&l=70cae8a069 http://iconosquare.com/tag/tayandkev2015 It's about 2pm now. We just got back from wandering and eating and playing games at the arcade. We're going to go wander more. Man, my legs are beat the fuck up. We've probably walked about 40 miles so far.
T-Dog happy new year Al! Look what just came on when I put my music on shuffle: Great song!
That's great news, I'm glad you guys are working on new material. How is your solo album coming along?
Right now i'm working on weeding out the songs that aren't the strongest so i don't waste time recording and mixing songs i won't use. Hopefully i can keep working on them and include them in later releases. I have one more song to record from scratch and a couple revisions to make on the other four tracks. Initially, i wanted to do six or seven songs, but now that i'm getting down to it, limiting myself might be smarter. I had the idea to release a b-sides of the other songs as i-phone Voice Memo recordings. What do you think about that?
It's always nice to be in a place where you have more songs than you need for your album. It's a luxury that a lot of musicians don't have. As for the iPhone voice memo recordings, you're asking the wrong fella. I'd never consume music that way, but perhaps people do? I'm actually not even sure what you mean by it. Yep, I'm old. But, if they're strong songs, don't treat them as some sort of castaway, use them in the future as a gift to your fans. But yeah, I'm the wrong guy to ask about that particular media. I'm excited to hear your work. Feel free to send me tracks etc if you ever need any feedback, I'm happy to do so. I like your music.
Ah... I do that often. I'll be driving and will have an idea and will sing it in to my voice memo app. Sometimes, I'm away from my studio with my guitar and will record a bit on my VM app too. I like that you tend to pick up more sounds: traffic, a laundry machine or in my case a kid playing, in the background. Yeah, I say share them unless you plan to record them properly.
there is #newtohubski, as well as the Hubski Primer, and this newbie post list, if you haven;t seen any of those. Good to see you here, pull up a stool at the bar.
I grew up with 1E and then 2E AD&D. After some time with 2E, we moved to a skill-based d20 system that was of our own devising. Eventually, I took that system as a seed for the creation of Wayfarers. If I play now, it is usually Wayfarers. Mongoose still sells the PDFs, but not the book anymore. I am working on a final revised version of the game. I wish I played more than I do. PM me with an email if you'd like comp copies of the PDFs. I'll send them along.
For my last fast food experience ever, I figured I might as well go and get the worst possible thing:
I haven't eaten McDonald's since... 2010. A line producer I enjoy no longer working for brought us McMuffins for our morning meal. Only about a third of them had any meat in them. Excluding The Habit, Wahoo's and Malibu Fish Grill, I haven't eaten fast food since the shite McMuffins. It was a pretty fun project, McMuffins aside.
My last McDonalds was when they came out with the new/different nuggets (the last time) - I was still living with my ex so it was probably the spring of 2010. My last Taco Bell was later than that but still, thankfully, no more recently than 2012. I think as a West Coaster you are woefully unaware of Wawas, but they have revolutionized my life. It also is not hard to eat relatively healthily, worries about the effect of mass processed food aside, at Wawa as long as you are able to make the right choices. Sometimes I'm bad, sometimes I'm good, but I'll take a Wawa over any other fast food any day. I appreciate at least knowing the option to not eat "terribly" is available at the food stop of my choice, whether or not I take it. I almost got McDonalds the other night starving and stuck in very bad traffic with an hour ahead of me, but I opted out. I was ravenous when I finally arrived - that persistent hunger that doesn't abate, carbonated drinks filling your stomach and all nicotine sails to the wind regardless.
There is no doubt that fast food will Rune you.
Had that been nearby, and an option, I would have gladly partook.