Ramblings of a Red Bearded Blonde

Every time I start to write something about Jeff Corich's passing, I can't seem to find the words. We weren't nearly as close as many of his friends here, so I don't know if I have a right to say much. But...I want to honor him somehow, here, where we first met, through Live Journal.

Damn if he wasn't one of the strongest people I have ever been fortunate enough to know, with a big ol' heart and great taste in music. I don't know if I have much more to say than that. I've been thinking about Jeff's Radiohead tattoo though, knowing how much he loved that band, and particularly I've been thinking about this song, the closer off Radiohead's new album. It's easily my favorite song on the album, and while I don't know if it was Jeff's favorite song off the album, the lyrics keep making me think about him every time I hear it.



Separator

It's like I'm falling out of bed
From a long, vivid dream
The sweetest flowers and fruits hang from the trees
Falling off a giant bird that has been carrying me
It's like I'm falling out of bed from a long and vivid dream

Just exactly as I remember
Every word
Every gesture
I'm a heart in your mouth

Like I'm falling out of bed
From a long and vivid dream
Finally I'm free of all the weight I've been carrying

And every woman blows her cover
In the eye of the beholder
I'm a fish now out of water

Falling off a giant bird that has been carrying me

I fell open
I laid under
At the tip out
I was just a number
I wanna slip it over
And get back under

And if you think this is over
Then you're wrong
If you think this is over
Then you're wrong

(Wake me up, wake me up)

If you think this is over
Then you're wrong
If you think this is over
Then you're wrong

(Wake me up, wake me up)

Like I'm falling out of bed from a long, vivid dream
Finally I'm free of all the weight I've been carrying

When I ask you again
When I ask you again
Wake me up, wake me up

Rest in peace, Jeff.

In a year where I seemed to move away from blogging here and moving to short form text and photos via Facebook and Flickr, one thing will always bring me back to the Journal...my Top 20 Movies of the Year.

First, the bad. As I've moved away from seeing more movies in general in theaters, I've also found a way to simultaneously avoid bad films as well. At least, until they show up to rent. And then, word of mouth be damned, I end up watching some bad ones anyway. Of course, the difference is that I no longer sit through the bad ones, I simply turn them off before I have a chance to get engaged (or revolted) by them. Having said that, I sat through the horribly bad Clash of the Titans and don't have much to say about that, other than it is pretty disturbing that the lead Sam Worthington has ended up on my Worst Movie of the Year list two years running (last year for Terminator Salvation. Runners up in this category? Date Night (great chemistry between the leads, with nothing funny to work with), The Other Guys (a big ol' mess with the oddest end credits sequence of recent memory), and Greenberg (which I know some people loved, but felt like a beautifully shot endurance test for me).

As for the rest? The stuff I loved? Behind the ( Collapse )

It's been far too long since I posted, but after hearing that Tom Harris, (aka "LaBretbear" and known as bratbear around these parts), passed away last night, I couldn't not say something.

I first met Tom at the first Hairrison, back in 2004, where he volunteered to take on one security shift that ended up turning into about 4 shifts. He did it because there was a need at the time, and (as he told me at the time) "he liked the power". :) He helped me so much that weekend, gave as good a hug as he got, and we'd been Live Journal buddies since.

Tom was an astoundingly sweet man, with a biting wit (you wouldn't want to get on his bad side!), and a giving heart. My best memories of him randomly showing up somewhere he knew I'd be (at birthday or a bar I'd mention I was going to that night), with a cigar he wanted me to try (he got me hooked on CAO's brand of Vanilla Honey cigars among others), a Lush bath bomb he thought I'd like (I always did), and, in keeping with one of his greatest passions (Disney), once brought me back a pink Disney princess name tag with my name on it. He was a giver, and never expected anything in return, other than a simple thank you or whether or not you liked it (he seemed to know my tastes better than I did). The last couple of times we saw each other, we had lunch downtown, where he was working for FedEx and liking it. He encouraged me to get back to writing in this blog, and I told him I would...I just needed to have something worth saying. I'm only sorry this is the first thing I've written in some time. While Tom wasn't someone I could say I knew well, it's a tremendous loss.



R.I.P. Tom. My thoughts are with you and your family.

2009 seemed to be an okay year for movies for me, but there's two reasons for that:

1) The movies, by and large, were just okay. I don't mean that in a bad way. Sometimes you simply want to enjoy yourself in a movie theater, instead of taking away some deep meaning. My expectations were lower this year, and I was able to simply enjoy myself without psychoanalyzing the movie or my reaction to it. So my Top 20 list has a few flicks on it that I know won't be on anyone's Top 20 lists, and that's okay, because I enjoyed the hell out of them.

2) I avoided a lot of crap. Really. Had zero desire to see Transformers 2, G.I. Joe, All About Steve, tons of horror movie remakes like Friday The 13th and Halloween II, the whole Twilight franchise (though I did see the first one on a cruise ship's tiny TV and thought it was kind of boring). So instead of giving some movies (currently making the Worst Movies of the Year lists) a chance, I just didn't go!

Having said that, the Worst Movie I saw this year was Terminator Salvation, whose only redeeming quality was...well, I was going to say Sam Worthington, until I remembered how his Australian accent popped up in the middle of a scene and completely pulled me out of it. Some people say Terminator 3 ruined the franchise, but I think Salvation put the nail in the coffin. Talk to me when Cameron comes back to the franchise.

Anyway, I realized I didn't get my 2008 list in on time last year (though I did do it...it's in the archives), and I think I've seen everything I'm going to see from 2009 before the year ends, so I decided to be more on top of it this year. I'm going to keep this pretty simple and go in order, after the ( Collapse )

It's been over a month since we moved into the new place, and it's coming together little by little. We actually did the lion's share of unpacking within the first week and a half, but there are a few errant boxes around. Fortunately, those boxes are all in the garage and in the guest room, so they're not cluttering up the house. Un-fortunately, we have reached a bit of critical mass in the space we have to store these things, at least until I can get some more durable bins to organize it all a bit better. Still, it's coming along. The holidays have caused us to slow things down a bit as far as needing Every. Little. Thing. to be in its' place. The house is bigger in some ways (the kitchen, the backyard) and smaller (the living room, the bathroom, our bedroom), but we've settled in quite nicely I think. I honestly don't miss the old house at all.

I posted a few pictures of it here, though some are pictures of how it used to be decorated. I'm still not ready to do a "staged" presentation of it all, because there's so much that needs to be done, from little things like finding the right pictures to put on the walls, to the big stuff, like the reinforcement of the deck so we can have lots of people over (as opposed to very intimate gatherings now) and adding on the 2nd bathroom. But it's coming along. The big projects will start to get our attention after the holidays, as early as January if the weather permits. Due to the deck not being as reinforced as it needs to be, any housewarming parties are currently unscheduled. Personally, I was kind of thinking that we should have multiple housewarming parties, because a) our house is small (though the backyard can hold more people) and b) who doesn't like a party? Why limit it to one?

Recently, we've decided we need to insulate the garage a bit more than now, because our floors (and thus, the house) get pretty cold. We've already made several fires in our little wood fireplace, which I am still not 100% sold on. I do love a good fire, and it's very romantic and cute, but it's also a bit too in the room, and so we've lost a little space in our living area because of it. Still, it's better than not having a fireplace (because, like I said, the house gets a little cold)! We even had boyshapedbox overnight last weekend to sleep in our guest room. It's a little cluttered with all the boxes, but I made it as cosy as possible, the futon set up with blankets, and he didn't seem to mind. It's difficult to really work on that room right now, because one of the big projects in 2010 will be to expand it and add on a 2nd bathroom down there. We're not sure if our roommate will move down to that room when it's completed (he has moved into the 2nd bedroom upstairs near us), but either way, because the room will be unsettled with construction, it's kind of hard to get the room truly settled. So for now, it's become another storage space.

Anyway, I felt like I should check in a little bit. I do miss posting but life's been so scattered and hectic lately that I just haven't been feeling like settling down and doing it.

Second to the last night of sleeping in this house. Over six years of memories here, from our third or fourth date when I came over to see where this guy lived. Me moving in a year and a half after that with that great guy. So many nights spent on Old Yellow falling asleep while watching the goldfish scramble away from the turtles. The massive vine that grew out of that tank and crept along all the walls. Doggie doors Fred installed years ago that are a reminder of a beloved Shasta dog who once lived here. The hum of the entryway light, directly above our bed, until we replaced it a year after living together. Painting the walls (before I moved in) warm greens and yellows and pale blues replacing the dull "apartment white". Messy, hilarious deep fried food parties. Our guest room (that originally served as the place for all my old apartment furnishings) hosted so many weekend and overnight guests, including one who accidentally broke our futon during his stay (it wasn't your fault! Its' time had come!)! Wii and Rock Band game nights, birthday and dinner parties, Burning Man planning meetings. Oh, and sex in every room in this house.

And on Saturday, the movers come and take all the boxes of stuff we've been packing over the past few weeks, and we start life with a new view, in our own home 2 1/2 miles away. For some reason I was reminded me of a post I wrote a few weeks after I moved in with Fred. I will miss this view.

It's different for me; Fred has lived here almost 11 years. He built the second downstairs bathroom onto this house that we've rented all these years. He's added real value to the house and seen the changes firsthand, with roommates moving out, his dog passing away, and me moving in. I was the change, while he's been the constant. It feels odd to be so sentimental about this old house, especially since it was never really ours to begin with. It's the end of an era, and a new beginning. Now if I can only get to sleep.

After a month of back and forth, stacks of paper signings (and re-signings), a few new gray hairs, and multiple mini-breakdowns, we are officially homeowners. Crazy!

It's been awhile since I've had an opportunity to take part in Green Shirt Thursday. But this little gift from Fred last night provided the opportunity.



Poor Jason. It's almost never TGIF for him.

Does shaving off most of your beard into the sink count?

Here was what was left in the sink this morning...



More after the ( Collapse )

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

EDIT: For the record, I swiped this from gorkabear, who I actually met in real life about the same time I discovered his journal, so I would have met him anyway. But if I hadn't met him in person, this would still apply to him (as well as many of you other lovely folks out there).