Sober blogging

Hey guys. I think it's my turn to do one of those "It's been too long posts."

I got a chance to catch up with some of you, but there are still lots of things for me to blog about, so I'm just going to go James Joyce stream-of-consciousness on this bitch.

Like Mark, I've been thinking about the decade we just left behind. I actually thought about doing a post a month and a half ago but decided it was too soon. Now it's too late. Oh well.

Anyway. I think we'll all remember the Aughties better, or differently at least, than any other decade in our lives. After all it was the decade in which we lived the most formative part of our lives. I know it shaped my worldview quite a bit.

To me the 90's feel like a decade of comfort. And when you look back on them they certainly were pretty simple and comfortable. The 00's on the other hand were clearly pretty turbulent and, I want to say, complex. 9/11, two wars, two recessions, global warming, Katrina, we all know the stories. In many ways, things really went south in the Noughts. But I certainly had many good times in the past decade as well, so I have a lot of mixed feelings about the decade. Also, the 2000's saw the rise of the internet, which, while it was certainly around in the 90's, but not like it is today, not as ubiquitous. In general this has been a good thing, though sometimes more ambivalent. (Sidenote: those Evony ads have gotten pretty ridiculous haven't they?)

I was thinking about signs of the decade to come. I thought it would be interesting in the theme of the whole Father-Time/Baby-New-Year thing to look at the notable deaths at the end of each decade (babies generally don't do anything notable, so births probably wouldn't give any insight).

In December 1999, there was Scatman John and just 33 hours before the year 2000 oldest living person Sarah Knauss. The death of Scatman John was truly saddening and probably marked the end of nineties music, oh how I loved thee. And could it have been an omen of things things to come that the oldest living person didn't hang around to see the new millennium? Maybe, but probably not, 119 is really fucking old.

In December 2009 there was evangelist Oral Roberts, wide-receiver Chris Henry, and actress Brittany Murphy. I have no idea what these mean.

I've sort of lost my train of thought. This is what comes out when I try to do stream of consciousness. I don't think I'm doing it right. I was going to also include some life updates, but I've been writing long enough.. I'll have to post again soon.

End Of The Decade Nostalgia

The end of 2009 is fast approaching and with it comes the end of this Decade, which I guess doesn't have a name yet. And because of this, the usual coundowns, top-ten lists, and reflections by important people are abundant in the media. I've been eating it all up. I love it. I'm a reflective person and I just can't get enough of it. I've been skipping the 2009 stuff for the most part - I'm all about looking at the decade as a whole.

It started when I read TIME's December 7th issue. It bashed the decade although it did have a small article titles something like "The Good Times from 00-09," which talked about mostly research breakthroughs.

After that, I kept going. Newsweek online had a TON of material, and it was in a cool looking layout, so I spent a good hour on that one day. There is list of most memorable quotes (like Cheney's "Go Fuck Yourself."), things that were unknown in 99, but standard now, most important cultural moments, and even predictions for 2010 (even though they have a whole section about the last decade called "Worst Predictions"). They also have essays - one describes how it would have been if Gore won.

And the other night Stephen Colbert interviewed Tom Brokaw, who called the decade the "Holy Shit" or the "Oh My God" Decade, "where everything was out of sync with what it had been before" and the old rules didn't apply. He also said that we took a lot for granted in the 90s, such as national security and financial negligence.

On a silly note, my friend sent me this list of "That Were Popular At The Beginning Of The Decade That Aren’t Popular Anymore." It's great.

And then if you haven't seen them, check out the 2009 JibJab Year in Review. They do one every year . I started looking at them in 2007 and I think that one is my favorite. But the 2008 one is worth checking out too.

I think I may be so interested in it, because I really came of age in the 00-09 years. Personally, my years as a 10-20 year old were more enjoyable and fullfilling than my years from brith to reaching double digits. But it's also wierd to look back and say that I developed my values, principles, and identity in a time of poor leadership, terrorism, war, partisanship, technology and information overload, and clashing cultural values.

And there is no use looking forward to the next decade, because the world is ending in 2012. (It's true, I saw it on the History Channel!)

Well, here's to living our last hours of 2009 to the fullest before closing that book for good. And here's to a fun New Years Eve! My good friend is throwing a party at his apartment downtown. The theme is "A Very Lumberjack New Years." It should be a slendid old time!