Two Pointless New Year Memes, 1000 views, and some Comments

Apparently this little blog has over 1000 views now. Pretty nice for a site I don’t advertise, is only linked from maybe 2-3 external websites, and rarely tops 5 views a day.

Anyway, I’m back in the apartment, working on winterproofing the place and trying new food. Adam and I have been learning to paint miniatures and I will document my results soon. A long time ago I painted some DnD minis… looking back at the attempts… I’ve improved a lot. Not to mention this time we actually PRIMED the figures and I’ve learned several new techniques since then. Oh yeah, and we’re now using premium Citadel paints. Testors are nice of course, but they don’t have the versatility that I’ve been able to harness with the Citadel washes.

Other good art news; my A+P professor finally got the cadaver print I made for him this semester thanks to my brother’s mad delivery boy skills and he now gives me permission to go into a field other than science. Yay!

I’ve been looking around for some sort of New Year meme, just for fun. None of the ones I’ve found have been that great, so I dug up some old things from my dA journal. It is interesting looking at what I wrote for those years. I’ve never been big on resolutions, more on reflections, and I’ve been in a very reflective mood lately. Both memes I dug up are after the More Tag so that they don’t clutter the page with their silliness and pointlessness.

First meme, “new year outlook” slightly modified to fit my current schedule… since “school” and “college” are kind of the same now…

Currently list for the new year:
~Currently playing: Vader- Impressions in Blood- Between Day and Night
~Currently Reading: I’m actually currently reading no less than five books and no more than ten. I had Hume’s Natural History of Religion in my backpack this morning but it pissed me off so I put it away.
~Currently feeling: kind of good, actually…
~Currently wearing: Hypocrisy Osculum Obscenum shirt, skull and crossbones knee high socks, pretty old grey/black camo cargo pants, usual rings (wolf, celtic dragon, claddaugh), Scarab Beetle Necklace, Thor’s Hammer Necklace, glasses, DnD hat (lots more than last time I filled out this meme apparently)
~Currently eating: Nothing, just ate frozen berries for dessert though.
~Currently talking to: my friend Mat I met on the bus, and Adam of course
~Current windows open: Songbird, Firefox, Two iChats. Surprisingly sparse for me.

New Year Outlook:
~School: By this time next year I’ll be a junior in college. I’m currently a sophomore starting my second semester, which I predict may possibly perhaps be… kind of really super busy seeing as I’m going to be taking 15 credit hours / 7 courses, plus working, plus this and that. In. Tense. I’m also going to have to start looking for student loans *gack*
~Summer: I will not be going home this summer, I will be looking for a second job here, hopefully at Blick or Raven or something… NOT foodservice. My goal of the summer will be money, money. And of course, some personal work.
~Music: I do intend on practicing my horn a bit more, getting back into shape finger and ambature-wise, and work past stupid-amateur on guitar and bass, which I can’t seem to put enough time in to get past…. *SIGH*
~Friends and relationships: I don’t expect many changes. Increased time with Adam over the summer will be very nice, and I hope to continue to meet interesting people in random classes. I would like to get to know some of the current freshmen, seeing as I’ll be graduating with them and all.
~Art: This is a big one. This year I’m going to take the hammer to my art, so to speak. I need to figure out what is meaningful, what deserves to be on my canvases and plates, and why. I am going to work on stories and find out what I have to SAY through my work. Its no longer about technique.
~Reading: I’m going to finish the last Horseman, Daniel Dennett, get more Hume done, read a few fiction books (gasp!!!), and try and get the “currently reading” list down to under 5 at a time. I need to stop starting books before I finish others.
~Material wants: I will get my finances in order, whipped and tamed. I want a Mercedes too, to help with laundry and groceries. I will ride my bike constantly as soon as the roads are no longer slushy. I will learn to cook/prepare more creatively and stop trying to live on leftover mac, instead exploring this amazing new world called… nutrition.
~Philosophy/religion/etc: I would like to start biting into the books on my shelf in a very serious way, but additionally to that I really need to start writing a sort of mini-treatise to collect my thoughts. I’m in a time of transition, and I need a pretty hefty hammer to proceed. I would also like to get on top of some ACP articles that have been floating in my head for nearly 9 months now…

List for the Old year:
~Best month: Absolutely no idea.
~Best accomplishment: one word: APARTMENT
~Favorite (visual) artist 08: Howard Pyle, Wayne Reynolds
~Favorite (musical) artist 08: I honestly can’t say…
~Favorite book 08: Soul Made Flesh by Carl Zimmer. HANDS DOWN.
~Favorite movie of 08: Iron Man, also hands down.
~Best present: mp3 player (ironically I got an mp3 player last time I filled out this meme as well)
~Best purchase: disarticulated skeleton or PSP
~Art reflection on old year: My technical abilities have exploded. I discovered printmaking, my new passion. I also began to think more critically about art in general, and discovered new ways to approach illustration and artmaking in general. I have decided that Illustration is without a doubt the profession for me, and I have also come to the conclusion that I really do appreciate a lot of commercial art, more than fine art sometimes.

SECOND MEME. More straightforward, stolen from me who stole it from Teacup, who stole it from someone on LJ probably…

1. WHAT DID YOU DO IN 2008 THAT YOU’D NEVER DONE BEFORE?
Printmaking

2. DID YOU KEEP YOUR NEW YEARS’ RESOLUTIONS, AND WILL YOU MAKE MORE FOR NEXT YEAR?
I never make resolutions, though I do have a few loose goals?

3. DID ANYONE CLOSE TO YOU GIVE BIRTH?
My cousin’s wife

4. DID ANYONE CLOSE TO YOU DIE?
Not to my knowledge?

5. WHAT COUNTRIES DID YOU VISIT?
Just my own

6. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE IN 2009 THAT YOU LACKED IN 2008?
A mercedes, as stated above. I can never seem to find one…

7. WHAT DATES FROM 2008 WILL REMAIN ETCHED UPON YOUR MEMORY AND WHY?
Working with the cadavers in July. I think that’s pretty self explanatory actually. Also the time spent with Darwin, I wish he could have come to Boston with me. And, my Freshman final crit, where no one believed I was a freshman, and I nearly died due to a gigantic wall divider of my own artwork crashing down right next to me. Dethklok with Nate, Watain with Adam. Meeting Wayne Reynolds at Gencon. There were many other memorable times, this was a pretty good year overall, minus about 4 months of the Bob’s.

8. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR?
Even though I’m not too big on the whole grades thing, I am pretty pleased at my current GPA. Despite the insane 18-credit hour schedules, working 19 hours a week, going to Adam’s almost every weekend, reading and studying a good deal outside the curriculum, extensive forum activity, living on my own for the first time, and the other road bumps… none of this has affected my performance. Actually, I’ve kicked everything up a notch, and I’m performing better than I EVER have in the past.

9. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST FAILURE?
Letting my hormones control me for a few weeks in late November. I said and did a lot of things I should not have and succumbed to total irrationality.

10. DID YOU SUFFER ILLNESS OR INJURY?
Aside from a few bumps and bruises, not really. Thank you, Vitamin C.

11. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING YOU BOUGHT?
I made a number of nice purchases. I think my backpack takes the cake though.

12. WHOSE BEHAVIOUR MERITED CELEBRATION?
Uh what…?

13. WHOSE BEHAVIOUR MADE YOU APPALLED AND DEPRESSED?
I don’t know?

14. WHERE DID MOST OF YOUR MONEY GO?
Rent, Bills, Food. \m/

15. WHAT DID YOU GET REALLY, REALLY, REALLY EXCITED ABOUT?
Gencon, Apartment, Classes, Cadavers.

16. WHAT SONG WILL ALWAYS REMIND YOU OF 2004?
None in particular.

17. COMPARED TO THIS TIME LAST YEAR ARE YOU:
I am more independent, more surefooted, more driven, a little bit happier, and more capable

18. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU’D DONE MORE OF?
Learning and playing instruments

19. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU’D DONE LESS OF?
I wish I had been on the internet a little bit less, I suppose.

20. HOW WILL YOU BE SPENDING CHRISTMAS?
Hopefully in Boston… not likely though.

21. DID YOU FALL IN LOVE IN 2008?
No.

22. HOW MANY ONE-NIGHT STANDS?
0

23. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE TV PROGRAM?
I watched LOST on DVD, but I really haven’t been following any tv.

24. DO YOU HATE ANYONE NOW THAT YOU DIDN’T HATE LAST YEAR?
Yeah, because I recently met them.

25. WHAT WAS THE BEST BOOK YOU READ?
Soul Made Flesh by Carl Zimmer. There were a number of other notables though; God is Not Great and Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens, Art of War for Executives, all the Dawkins I read, and I think all the Nietzsche I read was last winter… Lots of others though.

26. WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST MUSICAL DISCOVERY?
Nothing groundbreaking, just building on past interests.

27. WHAT DID YOU WANT AND GET?
Mp3 player

28. WHAT DID YOU WANT AND NOT GET?
A different job over the summer

29. YOUR FAVOURITE FILM OF THE YEAR?
Iron Man.

30. WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, AND HOW OLD WERE YOU?
I didn’t tell anyone it was my birthday, went to class as usual, had an obligatory phone call with my parents. Got a hug from Dominik since he remembered, I was very surprised he did actually. Turned 20.

31. WHAT ONE THING WOULD HAVE MADE YOUR YEAR IMMEASURABLY MORE SATISFYING?
NO BOB EVANS

32. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONAL FASHION CONCEPT IN 2008?
Uh… poor-artist-metalhead?

33. WHAT KEPT YOU SANE?
Going to Adam’s on the weekends, video games, roleplaying in the Summer.

34. WHICH CELEBRITY/PUBLIC FIGURE DID YOU FANCY THE MOST?
None

35. WHAT POLITICAL ISSUE STIRRED YOU THE MOST?
Probably the Creationism/Evolution “debate”. I spent a long time this year reading about it, saw the atrocity of a “documentary” Expelled as well as the more reasonable Flock of Dodos. I also actively participated in debate and discussion on this topic. It was also the only reason I showed any interest in the election, because when Sarah Palin became the VP nominee…. grrrghgh

36. WHO DID YOU MISS?
No one.

37. WHO WAS THE BEST NEW PERSON YOU MET?.
Isabella and Ares. I hadn’t bothered to get to know them much until this year.

38. TELL US A VALUABLE LIFE LESSON YOU LEARNED IN 2008:
Embrace who you really are.

~ by Anath on January 7, 2009.