Self-Evaluation 2005
Man, I hope nobody is depending on this blog for their entertainment needs. Year-end is the busy time for me at work, and I haven't had time to wipe my ass for the last couple weeks (which has seriously fucked up my game with the ladies, lemme tell ya). Unfortunately, entertainment will continue to be in short supply for the next two posts, as these are going to be the sort of personal shit that's of interest to no one who isn't...well, me.
Before I start in on my overdue New Year Resolutions, I'm going to evaluate how I did on last year's resolutions. Clearly, I think I do much better making a clear set of goals at the beginning of the year, as I did this past year. This is basic stuff for many people, but new territory for a fuckup like me. So, my goals last year, and how I did:
1. Acquire credentials to teach ESL and get a job doing so by the end of the year.
Result: Well, I did get the credentials, but I didn't get them until the last weeks of the year--the process took longer than I realized. So I don't have a teaching job yet.
2. Bike to work whenever possible, bike at least 30 minutes every day off.
Result: I did pretty well on the first half, although I've slacked off over the last couple months as the weather got cold. I have not done well on the weekends, however. Need to improve.
3. Play guitar 30 minutes per day (or, failing that, at least pick up the guitar and play it every day).
Result: Not often hitting the 30 minute mark, but I've been playing pretty often--maybe half the days?
4. Read 5 pages of Finnegan's Wake per week. Finish the last section of Ullysses before May. Beyond that, finish 12 books in 2005 (comics don't count).
Result: Ullysses, done. 12 books, done and then some (see below). Finnegan's Wake, well, I finished the year on page 150, so 5 pages a week may have been somewhat unrealistic, but it's foolish to approach that book with a racing mentality anyway.
5. Begin saving money for a computer.
Result: I actually went to Best Buy on January 1 (of '05) and bought one on a Best Buy card. Has resulted in a dramatic improvement both in my personal quality of life and my ability to run the family business.
6. I also made a list of 12 movies to watch in 2005. These were movies I was interested in seeing, but never actually felt like watching at any particular time, mostly foreign art films and classic Hollywood stuff--"eat your vegetables" movies. The list: 8 1/2; La Dolce Vita; Rules of the Game; Belle du Joure; Pather Panchalli; Tokyo Story; The Deer Hunter; Nashville; All About Eve; On The Waterfront; In The Mood For Love; Andrei Rubleiv. I did pretty well with this until July, then I fell off. I ended up seeing 7 of the films on the list (although I substituted A Streetcar Named Desire for On the Waterfront), mostly the English language ones (lame!). Although I actually started on the 1-a-month schedule in October of '05, watching The Bicycle Thief, Belle et la Bete, and La Strada in '04, so a fairly good run. Seen: La Dolce Vita, Rules of the Game, Deerhunter, Nashville, All About Eve, Streetcar, In the Mood.
7. Smoke less pot, spend less money on pot.
Result: on and off. Right now, I'm not smoking at all, but no promises.
Then I had a list of 5 things I wanted to do in L.A., and 5 places I wanted to eat. To do: Watts Tower, Museum of Jurassic Technology, drinks at Tiki Ti, miniature golf at the big course in Sherman Oaks, a weekend at The Madonna Inn (the last, I soon realized, was simply a logistical impossiblity this year). I did the first two, then ran out of steam. Of the eateries, the only one I ended up hitting was Phillip's BBQ. So I get an F on that count, but that's not really a self-improvement goal.
Finally, a list of books read in 2005. In addition to the last 3 chapters (the Ithaca section) of Ullysses, and reading up to page 150 of Finnegan's Wake, I read the following books in their entirity:
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
Kovacsland: A Biography of Ernie Kovacs - Diana Rico
The Underground History of American Education - John Taylor Gatto (Fantastic book, even when I don't agree with it)
A Whore Just Like The Rest: The Music Writings of Richard Meltzer (reviewed here, quick quotes here and here)
The Invisibles - Bernhardt J. Hurwood (discussed here)
Nightmare in Pink - John R. MacDonald
Pop. 1280 - Jim Thompson
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
Absalom, Absalom - William Faulkner
Louie Louie: The History & Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n' Roll Song; Including the Full Details of its Torture & Persecution at the Hands of the Kingsmen, J. Edgar Hoover's F.B.I., & a Cast of Millions; & Introducing for the First Time Anywhere, the Actual Dirty Lyrics - Dave Marsh (I'm going to write a long review of this on the blog soon)
Foucalt's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
Checkpoint - Nicholson Baker (Great book that can be read in about a day. The whole thing takes place in a hotel room, and consists of a guy trying to talk an old friend out of assassinating Bush)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
Not finished:
Last Call - Tim Powers
Non-fiction books I read enough of to get the idea:
Ledgends of Texas BBQ - Robb Walsh
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie (for class)
The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State - Isaac Kramnits and R. Laurence Moore
The Hero With A Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
Comics:
The Wake (Sandman, Vol. X) - Neil Gaiman
The Plot - Will Eisner
The Bradleys - Peter Bagge
Ice Haven - Dan Clowes (not as good as David Boring, Ghost World, or the Death Ray issue of Eightball, but still pretty great)
I tried to get into Grant Morrison's 7 Soldiers saga, but I just can't seem to get into the habit of going to the comic shop. I read the first 4, then dropped out. Also read the first issue of the new, quarterly Flaming Carrot. Embarassingly, it will probably take Joss Whedon writing post-Chosen Buffy to get me to show up regularly at the comic shop again (or a new run of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
Before I start in on my overdue New Year Resolutions, I'm going to evaluate how I did on last year's resolutions. Clearly, I think I do much better making a clear set of goals at the beginning of the year, as I did this past year. This is basic stuff for many people, but new territory for a fuckup like me. So, my goals last year, and how I did:
1. Acquire credentials to teach ESL and get a job doing so by the end of the year.
Result: Well, I did get the credentials, but I didn't get them until the last weeks of the year--the process took longer than I realized. So I don't have a teaching job yet.
2. Bike to work whenever possible, bike at least 30 minutes every day off.
Result: I did pretty well on the first half, although I've slacked off over the last couple months as the weather got cold. I have not done well on the weekends, however. Need to improve.
3. Play guitar 30 minutes per day (or, failing that, at least pick up the guitar and play it every day).
Result: Not often hitting the 30 minute mark, but I've been playing pretty often--maybe half the days?
4. Read 5 pages of Finnegan's Wake per week. Finish the last section of Ullysses before May. Beyond that, finish 12 books in 2005 (comics don't count).
Result: Ullysses, done. 12 books, done and then some (see below). Finnegan's Wake, well, I finished the year on page 150, so 5 pages a week may have been somewhat unrealistic, but it's foolish to approach that book with a racing mentality anyway.
5. Begin saving money for a computer.
Result: I actually went to Best Buy on January 1 (of '05) and bought one on a Best Buy card. Has resulted in a dramatic improvement both in my personal quality of life and my ability to run the family business.
6. I also made a list of 12 movies to watch in 2005. These were movies I was interested in seeing, but never actually felt like watching at any particular time, mostly foreign art films and classic Hollywood stuff--"eat your vegetables" movies. The list: 8 1/2; La Dolce Vita; Rules of the Game; Belle du Joure; Pather Panchalli; Tokyo Story; The Deer Hunter; Nashville; All About Eve; On The Waterfront; In The Mood For Love; Andrei Rubleiv. I did pretty well with this until July, then I fell off. I ended up seeing 7 of the films on the list (although I substituted A Streetcar Named Desire for On the Waterfront), mostly the English language ones (lame!). Although I actually started on the 1-a-month schedule in October of '05, watching The Bicycle Thief, Belle et la Bete, and La Strada in '04, so a fairly good run. Seen: La Dolce Vita, Rules of the Game, Deerhunter, Nashville, All About Eve, Streetcar, In the Mood.
7. Smoke less pot, spend less money on pot.
Result: on and off. Right now, I'm not smoking at all, but no promises.
Then I had a list of 5 things I wanted to do in L.A., and 5 places I wanted to eat. To do: Watts Tower, Museum of Jurassic Technology, drinks at Tiki Ti, miniature golf at the big course in Sherman Oaks, a weekend at The Madonna Inn (the last, I soon realized, was simply a logistical impossiblity this year). I did the first two, then ran out of steam. Of the eateries, the only one I ended up hitting was Phillip's BBQ. So I get an F on that count, but that's not really a self-improvement goal.
Finally, a list of books read in 2005. In addition to the last 3 chapters (the Ithaca section) of Ullysses, and reading up to page 150 of Finnegan's Wake, I read the following books in their entirity:
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
Kovacsland: A Biography of Ernie Kovacs - Diana Rico
The Underground History of American Education - John Taylor Gatto (Fantastic book, even when I don't agree with it)
A Whore Just Like The Rest: The Music Writings of Richard Meltzer (reviewed here, quick quotes here and here)
The Invisibles - Bernhardt J. Hurwood (discussed here)
Nightmare in Pink - John R. MacDonald
Pop. 1280 - Jim Thompson
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
Absalom, Absalom - William Faulkner
Louie Louie: The History & Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n' Roll Song; Including the Full Details of its Torture & Persecution at the Hands of the Kingsmen, J. Edgar Hoover's F.B.I., & a Cast of Millions; & Introducing for the First Time Anywhere, the Actual Dirty Lyrics - Dave Marsh (I'm going to write a long review of this on the blog soon)
Foucalt's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
Checkpoint - Nicholson Baker (Great book that can be read in about a day. The whole thing takes place in a hotel room, and consists of a guy trying to talk an old friend out of assassinating Bush)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
Not finished:
Last Call - Tim Powers
Non-fiction books I read enough of to get the idea:
Ledgends of Texas BBQ - Robb Walsh
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie (for class)
The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State - Isaac Kramnits and R. Laurence Moore
The Hero With A Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
Comics:
The Wake (Sandman, Vol. X) - Neil Gaiman
The Plot - Will Eisner
The Bradleys - Peter Bagge
Ice Haven - Dan Clowes (not as good as David Boring, Ghost World, or the Death Ray issue of Eightball, but still pretty great)
I tried to get into Grant Morrison's 7 Soldiers saga, but I just can't seem to get into the habit of going to the comic shop. I read the first 4, then dropped out. Also read the first issue of the new, quarterly Flaming Carrot. Embarassingly, it will probably take Joss Whedon writing post-Chosen Buffy to get me to show up regularly at the comic shop again (or a new run of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
posted by Chris Oliver at 8:19 AM
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