Happy new year, shitfucks!
(amazing web magazine.. its very much eclectic mineshaft you have to hand-stretch.i am very much horrible and degenerate.thanks for pwning me. if any want more information about the cock jokes so please mouseover)
xin nian kuaile!
Take your pick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uo0JAUWijM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvDMyMFDn8g
I predict that 2015 is the year games journalists will finally become ethical.
Remember how we had a post about how 2009 was the last year of New Years number eye glasses? It crossed my mind seeing some aquaintances on FB wearing 2015 glasses, with the 1 just awkwardly wide enough for the other lens. Is there a word for missing the point of a joke if the original gimmick doesn't qualify as a joke with a point, or even a joke at all?
Happy New Year. I hope that you closed 2014 last night as I did, ending a wretchedly impecunious year by being treated to an insanely lavish meal.
5. Too bad I won't be around to see what they do in 2111.
6. May you have a lucrative 2015, Premier.
We were on a plane when the new year ticked in. A delayed plane, with two uncomfortable kids, but apparently we were on the first plane to land at O'Hare in 2015, and that's something, god damn it.
In some ways 2014 was a very good year, in other ways it was rough. Thankfully I'm heading into 2015 on a good note, but I would be happy for this year to have a little less intensity.
My first metro ride of 2015 was with the train driver who talks like a robot, so I think things are off to a good start.
2014 had about five bad months in it, but at the end, our son was born alive and adorable. So I can't be upset about the year. Aside from the personal, I've been surprised at the toll the drought landscape took on us. Having the backdrop of our river trips be parched and burnt or dormant was always dispiriting.
The end of 2014 feels like a bright line in the sand for my life - the end of child-bearing years, and good fucking riddance. Such a huge ongoing presence/obstacle/thing for the past six years. I am very happy with the outcomes, but very glad to be on this side of things.
(Someone asked recently if we would have spaced things out more if I weren't on the BRCA clock. For me, the immediately implication is that I'd have more pregnancy left in my future, which is such an awful thought that I couldn't otherwise consider the question.)
11111011111 looks to be a very balanced year.
I assume the NYC contingent were at pains to put themselves in a position to experience the orectic cry.
... the savage and beautiful noise the
town makes at midnight of December
31st. This roar is inaudible if you're
in a noisy room yourself. To hear it
you have to get to a window, or out on
a roof, or in the streets somewhere not
too near the core in Times Square. In
all life there is no sound like it--the
orectic cry of millions of partially lost
souls, grown a year older hating death.
A great common sound, full of all the
wild want that lies between a drunken
kiss and a child's prayer.
--EB White
I am arging with my three year old about whether we can read all the Amulet graphic novels. I may win, but "you're too young" isn't working. Happy 2015.
Hey, I was at Torrey Pines (state park, not golf course) a couple of days ago. Pretty place. But San Diego, a bit like Phoenix, seems like way too many people living off borrowed water in the desert.
I was kinda looking forward to 2015 as a marker to stop moping and perhaps do some living. Then LB couldn't get the pin out of the gear. It's been downhill so far. Bah.
That was in 2014. She may yet succeed in 2015!
I have had an end-of-year that has been too busy to do much in the way of reflection, reset, or even reading year-end best-of lists. Last night was a nice-enough party but maybe not worth the babysitter. Today my hard drive failed, and the baby's sick so we're not going to Palm Springs (though we've paid for the house), though we may head out if she revives. 2015, I am not sold on you.
Also we have fleas in the house. On the other hand I just cracked a bottle of Ardbeg and it's very, very nice.
2014 was a mixed bag with high highs and very low lows. My wife and I bought a house, we had a nice overseas vacation, and I've made and strengthened a bunch of friendships. But that's overwhelmed by my mom being very ill, and 2015 isn't going to be any better on the front.
I tried Ardbeg for the first time last night! Highly recommended.
16: The kid won. The job of enforcer was handed to me and I completely abdicated. She pronounces the book "Omelet" but seems to understand the scary stuff scarily well.
2015 is the year my dad has been dead for two years, which still seems unbelievable to me.
Here he is up at Frobisher Bay, on the very outskirts of the Arctic Circle, and he's the handsome young man on the right. He said that he just went out west and presented himself to the Office of the Geological Survey, and they hired him on the spot. And then directed him to buy several items, including those boots and that jacket, and then told him to come back for transport for the north. And that guy on the left? Well, I have no idea who that hoser was.
http://s8.postimg.org/5c55qndvp/dad_frobisher_bay.jpg
26:
That takes me back: when I was a kid half the dads I knew looked like that at least some of the time. Many had jobs that took them into the NW Territories on a regular basis.
Lots of Canadian intellectuals have written about "The idea of North," which was the actual title of a radio documentary Glenn Gould put together in the 60s, using overdubbing, "counterpunctual" technique.
For me, and I just realized it this morning, 2015 is the first year for some time we will not have to compile a FAFSA, for student aid. It means you have to do your taxes as early as you possibly can, and sweat whether anything you report will effect your kid's financial aid. We'll be helping them out for years to come, of course, but our income will no longer be a factor in their aid.
Yesterday was inventory at the shop, and I was released to bake cookies instead. That was a great beginning to the New Year; here's to another 364 days of better than expected.
29: we've been throwing all that shit out of the files. Generally infuriating; maybe everyone is one FAFSA now but there used to be another (CSS?) and then schools ahd their own supplements. CMU fount of unexpectedly awful admissions website back in that day, I'm looking at you. (My experience overall with CMU admissions--IIRC 2 of my kids applied and were admitted--was so wretched that I was loath to encourage attendance.)
CSS is worse, much more intrusive. We only had to deal with it the last two years for my son.
CSS is worse, much more intrusive.
What do you have against Cascading Style Sheets? Or Cansei de Ser Sexy?
Yes, the CSS Profile is next. To be completely honest, my ex-wife filled out the FAFSA since she's the custodial parent and it didn't inconvenience me in the least. But the CSS has both custodial and noncustodial parent forms and it looks to be a right pain in the ass.
My year ended on a strange note of ups and downs. The day we were to drive home from the annual Chicago holiday visit, my grandpa went into the hospital. We drove home the next day; he's still in and has apparently had a series of small strokes and a heart attack. So I'm flying back on Sunday to help my grandma deal with everything. On the days home back in Virginia, my band went to the recording studio and had a great session. Now it's like BOOM back to reality, happy fucking new year. But I'm glad I'm on winter break and able to be potentially helpful. Fucking cancer, man.
I'm hoping that 2015 is the year I finally manage to extract the passive-aggressive spouse, who -- an embarrassingly long time back -- announced he wanted a separation and then neglected to leave. In January I'm meant to begin a large new project, which would allow me to present a new life/ new condo narrative to our 10-year-old.
So on NYE at midnight I was drawing up sketches for a new studio space, meanwhile firing a piece in one of my kilns. First artwork of the next life, et cetera. Except I opened the kiln to peek in with a flashlight at 12:05, the front cover softened with the heat, and the whole innards (including the battery) fell into the oven at 1400 degrees. Smoke! Flames! Alarm blaring!
The extinguisher worked, the 10-year-old was at a sleepover, the alarm wasn't wired to alert the FD. Right now the house still smells like ammonium phosphate but there's nothing like a near disaster to re-set the bar low. Happy 2015 to all of y'all, and thanks for being so consistently yourselves, for all of us lurkers.
Maybe your kiln was trying to get rid of him the hard way?
And now that you need a new kiln, you might as well set it up in a new studio.
I assume a kiln is a heavy thing. Never tried to lift one myself.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner. I hated that old kiln anyway -- a colleague wanted to get rid of it and I was the sucker chosen. Next week I'll ask my landlord about moving a new one into the expanded studio. Code has prevented this so far.... but landlord may wink.
Yeah, Moby, I thought the same. Two old beasts gone in one stroke! I am eeeevil.
You just need a new kiln that's outwardly identical to the old one and some strong movers who work late at night.
Best wishes on your new studio, but between you and me, "I'd like to install a new kiln that doesn't meet code because my old one started on fire" isn't the kind of argument that appeals to most property owners.
Yay! We have a lurking potter! How awesome is that?
It's totally awesome! I love pottery! Are you a professional potter? Is your work viewable online???
2014 sucked, and the next few months will give me a good idea as to whether 2015 will suck in the same way (all largely work-related). Meanwhile, I came down with another horrendous cold a couple of hours after midnight on January 1, and am praying that the worst of the symptoms disappear before I board a transatlantic flight tomorrow evening. Bad omens aside, I actually have a tiny bit of hope that this will be a better year.
It didn't catch fire. A bunch of plastic flashlight parts and a 6V battery dropped straight into its red-hot maw, thanks to my own impatience. No way I'd confess to the landlord...that's what you lot are here for. And all I have to do to meet code is buy a big-ass ventilator hood. Thanks for the good wishes, it's going to be quite the year.
Having a potter is great but what good is a kiln if it can't destroy a flashlight? I'd have thought that in addition to the necessity for the craft etc it would be awesome to have a super powerful hot oven that could destroy things in fire. Maybe that's not how a kiln works.
One time, my weirdo cob-logger wine-making friend had us all over to play with clay and then fire it all by placing the clay objects (various bowls, sculptures, etc.) in the bottom of a steel barrel, which he then filled with straw and set on fire. As I recall, we ended up with some good results. Several items were cracked, but proof of concept, anyway.
Whatever happened to your blog, anyway?
We need "clay bars" - play with clay while you drink, maybe make something, have it fired before you leave if you like it. It seems perfect for hipsters.
Julianna, good luck to you and the kid. Hope you make lovely art in a place that is entirely yours in 2015.
Stanley, best of luck with travel and being a help to your grandparents. I hope it's not too hard.
52: Neither of us kept up with it, I guess. He's keeping bees now and still making wine (and still in the band, from afar, in a song-writing capacity) but not blogging about any of it. Me, I got busy with school stuff.
The kiln finally learned that the proper phrase is "kith an kin" and lashed out in anger.
Best of luck and best name to Julianna!
The proper phrase includes a 'd' after 'an'.
53: They have the places where you paint pottery. No liquor though.
59: My FB feed is replete with people (usually laydeez) doing wine-and-design-type events, where they drink wine and paint together. It seems kinda weird, maybe potentially kinda fun. An excuse to go out, anyway.
60: The apostrophe makes all the difference.
No liquor though.
C'MON, I HARDLY KNOW 'ER!
TRO, you are right -- at full temp, a kiln might have incinerated the flashlight. Unfortunately this load was at about half-temp. The flashlight battery burst and sprayed carbon black and assorted chemicals all over the coils, and I finished the job with the fire extinguisher: ammonium phosphate is going to be corrosive on hot metal. Done and done.
The clay bar sounds great but I can't weigh in as a potter. I'm actually a conservator of ceramics and glass, who moonlights in glass fusing. If you have a Tiffany window that's been vandalized, or a shelf of Staffordshire incense burners that crashes to the floor, I'm your girl. (Speaking loosely.) I melt and bend glass for fun. No website yet, and my work is not online except for a couple of links at the Corning Museum of Glass. I could post a googleproofed link if anyone is really interested... it's pretty dry stuff. Thorn, thanks for both!
I can't think quite what to say about 2014. It had some non-negligible awful but not like loved-ones-dying awful, keinahora, and I'm quasi-resolutionarily trying not to get so invested in Everything Is Terrible narratives. The first three or four months were not a fun time--I'll say that. But it begins to strike me as unhelpful to think of bad times as some kind of exceptional circumstance. I was reading back over some old journals today and I very often feel like I've made it through something rough. That seems pretty unlikely. Eh, it's worst in winter even where it's warm. The short days make me think everything's crashing down on me. Hi, 2015.
2014 was a pretty rough year for the world, but a pretty good one for me personally. Unlike the previous few years, there weren't any major changes in my life, which seems to be settling down a bit for the time being.
I've seen a bunch of posts similar to 67, but I've never been totally clear on what the reference is -- what was so bad (or particularly bad) in 2014 for the world? Serious question, I just feel like I'm missing something. For me personally the year had one overwhelmingly great event and the rest was just one more year of the vaguely depressing mediocrity that is life.
On another topic, has everyone seen this thing yet? It is one of the most amazing legal documents I've ever seen, and while you generally hope that allegations of sex abuse aren't true there's a small part of me that hopes that an unambiguous allegation of sex abuse by both Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew is true (though, of course, who knows). What makes it genuinely amazing is that one of the lawyers on the pleading is both a Volokh conspirator and a former federal judge. Talk about playing for high stakes and going all-in on a case.
68: ISIS, Ebola, three mysterious plane crashes, Ukraine, Gaza, continued chaos in most of the other places that have been chaotic recently. More US-specific, in addition to all the Ferguson/police related stuff, there's been all the rape-related stuff, the midterm elections, and the continuing lack of any progress on income/wealth inequality despite more attention to the problem. Not that there haven't been good things too, and not that any of the past fifteen years or so has been a walk in the park, but I at least had a sense that this year in particular the news was mostly just a series of one depressing thing after another.
The collapse in the price of oil is more ambiguous from a national or worldwide perspective, but for me personally it's mostly bad.
I generally don't think about things in terms of calendar years, but since I've ended up with some unexpected free time this week to think about it, I'll say that 2014 was good for me professionally and familially, but my move back to the west coast gradually - and somewhat inevitably - has led to the loss of a friendship that was really pretty important to me. We never got close enough for it to make sense to stay where I was, not least because we also didn't live in the same city anyway, but things seemed to be moving agonizingly slowly in that direction, and we kept finding excuses to meet up in places somewhat distant from where we each lived (though not as often as I'd have liked) and we'd talk at length on the phone when we had time. But that wasn't something we could keep up cross country and we've drifted apart, as can happen. I like where I am now a whole lot more than where I was this time last year, but I sometimes wish the job search hadn't moved so quickly. I was going to see her more in March when I had some vacation time planned, but ended up canceling it because I had too much to do with moving/finishing my old job and because the only remaining days I could have had free were days when she had other commitments.
I'm actually surprised by how much I've been thinking about this lately; I think it's partly a side effect of how my life is (potentially) going to be geographically stable for a while now. My last job was a limited term and I spent a lot of time thinking about/working on getting ready for the next job, but I figure I'll be here for a few years now. I've moved so much since I dropped out of history grad school that it made it difficult to stay close to people but also easier to be ok with not doing that (or doing the social media aspect of that).
Plus, I really am ok with being alone most of the time - not humanities grad student level alone, but fully employed outside the home while living alone alone - so it's kind of rare that I meet someone who leads me to go against my generally reclusive nature. I guess in 2015 I should make an effort to talk to more people I don't already know, but who already live in my general vicinity, have some time on their hands, and don't plan on moving far away anytime soon. And by "people", I mean single women. Or even multiple women. I'm a feminist, after all.
So that ended up being a longer comment than I realized it was going to be.
65: Ooh, I love the Corning Museum. I'd like a googleproofed link to your stuff, and I'm sure other people would too.
