Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

I did the same survey last year.

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01. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
I had heaps of answers to this question last year, but I'm struggling this time around. I worked my first proper full-time media job; went to a multi-day music festival; planned a baby; did a Star Wars ultramarathon; saw the Smashing Pumpkins; and for the first time since early 1996, I don't own an electric guitar.

02. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Didn't make any, won't make any.

03. Did someone close to you give birth?
No, thank god, cause she's not due till February.

04. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

05. What countries did you visit?
The country.

06. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Same as last year: money.

07. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 14 - started working at TV3

08. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Getting the job at TV3; completing over 40 entries on Fighting Dantasy, without slacking off; getting tariqa all pregnant and stuff; playing the opening of Camp A Low Hum.

09. What was your biggest failure(s)?
Not so sure it's a failure, but the end of KittyHawk was pretty stink.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I'm currently typing with a wrist splint thingee on due to what is probably a pinched radial nerve That'll learn me for mowing the lawn..

11. What was the best thing you bought?
tariqa 's engagement ring - proper one, this time.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Tariqa has been really good at growing baby, and hasn't complained all that much!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
John McCain. I mean, he never went near what Sarah Palin was doing, but still, he should have known better.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, bills, Baby Factory and TradeMe.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Having a baby. Starting my new job. Camp A Low Hum. My new recordings.

16. What songs will always remind you of 2007?
Weezer - Pork and Beans
Oasis - Bag It Up
LadyHawke - Magic
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
MC Stormtroopa - Lord Vader
Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
My Morning Jacket - Highly Suspicious
Suede - The Asphalt World

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Slightly fatter
iii. richer or poorer? Same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Once again, more songwriting. I've recorded a ton of music, yet to do vocals, but didn't write much. A bit earlier in the year, and finished a few songs/wrote melodies for backing tracks, but not a lot more.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Drinking red wine at work when all the beers and white wines are finished.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At Tariqa's dad's place with that side of her whanau.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Already there!

23. How many one-night stands?
None, silly.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Lost is still good, as are the other usuals like Mythbusters; I've gotten right into watching late-night documentaries, particularly anything to do with time and space, or Bible-era conspiracies and alternative histories.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
The neighbours.

26. What was the best book you read?
I read magazines (galore) and the interwebs, but not too many books. Did I even read any this year? I must have, cause I definitely remember going to the library, but jebus.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
LadyHawke, and finally 'getting' Portishead and Kings of Leon with Third and Only By the Night.

28. What did you want and get?
A good job, a pregnant Tariqa and a good start on a new album.

29. What did you want and not get?
Success with KittyHawk, the album done, and to not get robbed again.

30. Favorite films of this year?
Wall-E, Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy (an oldie but saw it for the first time).

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Not sure, but on the 5th I watched all six Star Wars films with Tariqa and friends.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Finishing the album.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Threadless T-shirts, jeans, Chucks and a Paper Plus bag.

34. What kept you sane?
Getting a job as far away from customers as possible.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No one comes to mnid.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
We had an election, as did the US, so there was plenty to bitch about, but the 'time for a change' meme that made sense in the US bizarrely and incomprehensibly being adopted by the Nats here was annoying.

37. Whom do you miss?
My sister's growing up and getting to that age, I suppose it would be cool to see her more often to make sure she's not going off the rails too far.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I'm now friends/workmates with a lot of cool new people, and even the most of the ones that aren't minor celebrities are cool.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
If you want something to change at work, there's no point in complaining to people who can't affect the change.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Nothing, really. I've decided this is a silly question for emos and the kinds of people who are into bad poetry and shit.

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TOP 5 ALBUMS OF THE LAST WEEK!

1. Ben Folds - Way to Normal
2. The Killers - Day & Age
3. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
4. Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
5. Over the Atlantic - Dimensions

Well I've been on lates the past week, but I was getting rides home a la tariqa  last week, and this week I'm not as she has work in the mornings, and it's hard to go to sleep right away once you've walked over half an hour in the night.

Anyway, my Star Wars ultramarathon is going ahead it seems, it's so official I made a Facebook page for it as I don't have anyone's cellphone numbers in my new phone. There's limited couch space, so if you want in, you'll have to wait and see if there is any, which is unlikely.

I'm gonna do Tariqa's meme thingee. I hate calling them memes. It sounds silly and I'm not even sure it's a totally accurate name for them, which is why I tag them as 'internet surveys'. Which sounds even sillier.

1. Name: Dan. It could have been Reece, but mum vetoed it, and let my father the guy who got her pregnant give me my middle name. Yeah, thanks a lot.

2. Age: 27. When I was younger I was convinced I was going to die at 27, just like Kurt Cobain and every other self-disrespecting rock star. I thought it was going to be in a car crash. Well, there are only about 13 days left for this to happen, and one of them is going to be spent in front of the TV watching six Star Wars movies, so it's looking good for 28.

3. Location: Somewhere in this satellite pic.

4. Occupation: News online editor for 3 News. It's not online news, it's news online. There is a difference.

5. Partner: Tariqa - nearly four years now! Wooo.

6. Kids: None yet.

7. Parents: This is a pretty dry 'meme', huh? I'm getting tired. I'm gonna stop now.


TOP ALBUMS OF THE PAST FORTNIGHT!

1. Weezer - The Red Album
2. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
3. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
4. Weezer - The Blue Album
5. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
6. REM - Accelerate
7. Portishead - Third
8. Radiohead - In Rainbows
9. Manic Street Preachers - Gold Against the Soul

I listened to Gold Against the Soul the other day for the first time in ages, and fuck, that album rocks. It gets treated unfairly, really. It's definitely the most polished album they ever did, but the heaviest at the same time, at least musically.

tariqa's Myers-Briggs results got me thinking... what's my type nowadays? I'm a considerably different person to what I was when I last did a proper test, back in '94 or '95, when I was ENFP. I went to the Wikipedia page, and found three detailed tests to take online - three, because internet tests probably can't be as accurate as a properly administered one, but they were pretty detailed and one even gave me a graph.

Oddly enough, I got the same results as Tariqa - INTP. Of course, in some situations I can click over to E instead of I more readily than she will, it's not a strong I, but there's no doubt I'm more of a T now than I was then.

Interesting.

Ryan Adams has dyed his hair blonde.

Anyway, I've completed my first week at TV3 - how fast did the week go, goddamn!? I suppose that's what you get when you get a job you actually like and isn't the same thing over and over and over, and you know you're at pretty much the bottom and can only go up.

I got a small kick today to see a headline I wrote appear as the lead in news.google.co.nz's Sci/Tech section. I wasn't expecting it, and only wrote it an hour earlier, so to stumble across it randomly was pretty cool.

I have a huge list of things to do tomorrow - get a bike pump, fix bike, remove bike from Vulcan Lane, buy a jacket and a man bag, get receipts /quotes for stolen gear, drop off store key to Saturday staff, buy some blank CDs (optional), check mail, return library books, and maybe get a haircut. I'm not going to do things in that order, though cause that'd be inefficient.

I came across this article through Fark, and thought it'd make a good 'meme' of sorts. It's supposedly a list of 'obsolete' skills - how many do you still use?

Your Score: Pure Geek

47 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 47% Dork

I grabbed this from tariqa - I left my iPod in my bag'o'gear at the practise room, but the iTunes on this computer has the same motley, random collection of stuff. Remember, just because it's here, doesn't mean I endorse it 100% - sampling is done on an mp3 basis as opposed to radio these days!

I got four from Tariqa's list, one of them being my own words, and another KittyHawk's.

Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Strike through the songs when someone guesses both artist and track correctly.
Step 4: For those who are guessing -- looking the lyrics up on a search engine is CHEATING!
Step 5: If you like the game post your own.

1. Drift again, two thousand man...
2. In my life, wasted, opinion distracted, basically growing like vegetable...
3. I was a butcher cutting up meat, my hands were bloody, i'm dying on my feet...
4. There is no god up in the sky tonight, no sign of heaven anywhere in sight...
5. Well I let my motel room, down at the Starkville motel, the town had gone to sleep and I was feeling fairly well...
6. I hear your winter, and I hear your rain, I've failed your summer ways, and I feel no pain...
7. Feel the gravity under your feet now, blowing speakers trying to figure out...
8. Look, he's crawling up my wall, black and hairy, very small...
9. You've got to keep them separated...
10. Get some pain and I feel alive - born to end...
11. So you want to put a rocket into my head...
12. I'm older than I wish to be, this town holds no more for me...
13. Autobahn, autobahn, autobahn, Wir fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn...
14. As I sat sadly by her side, at the window, through the glass...
15. See that boy just standing over there, he stopped me today said he liked my hair.... Ooh....
16. "Good God! Don't jump!" A boy sat on the ledge, an old man who had fainted was revived...
17. This is getting old and so are you, everything you know and never knew...
18. Walking under skies, waiting for the fall, meet me at the cornershop, I'll show you it all...
19. That sounds like people crying, that sounds like people in over their heads...
20. No life not life, lives in this beehive...
21. We are the youth, well take your fascism away, we are the youth apologise for another day...
22. You would say anything, you would try anything, to escape your meaningless, and your insignificance
23. Love rescue me, come forth and speak to me...
24. When I was a young boy I wanted to sail around the world...
25. Woah, my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch...

Holy crap, I'm really impressed at my own random taste. And no Billy Joel showed up! Woo! Feel free to ask for clues. Some shouldn't be any trouble at all , like #9 or #13. An if you don't know #24, you're not a real NZer, are you?

I like these kinds of surveys. Hit me with more.

01. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
I did quite a few things which I suppose I'd never done 'properly' before - like, I flew in a commercial plane for the first time - my previous only times in the air were in a small Cessna with Rob... I also got a proper driving lesson, last time I drove a car was years ago, once again with Rob... I played my first gig in Wellington ever... I made and released a music video of my own stuff for the first time... Articles published in a daily newspaper... I asked a girl to marry me... That last one's probably the only true, proper uncontested first!

02. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I'm not sure I even made any.

03. Did someone close to you give birth?
No one in my immediate circle, no.

04. Did anyone close to you die?
Scully, one of our cats was hit by a car and killed recently.

05. What countries did you visit?
Only Strongbadia.

06. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Money! Haha!

07. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Events, yes, but no date in particular, I don't think.

08. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
tariqa saying yes... completing the grad dip with all As and Bs... and the band doing well enough over the year to finish it with gigs supporting the Mint Chicks and getting paid for it!

09. What was your biggest failure(s)?
It's the end of December and I'm still working for the CD & DVD Store part time! But I've had a taste of what it's like to be well paid (at Real Groove/Groove Guide), so I'm sure that'll sort itself out soon.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I got really sick for a few days when Tariqa was away, and hurt my back when packing before moving to Mt Albert.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My new bass guitar! Probably. Or Civilization IV.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Scully. He was a terror, then when we got Lando he became a really good big brother.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Scully prior to getting Lando!

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, bills, band, the Brooklyn.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Supporting the Mint Chicks... getting engaged... the Ryan Adams concert.

16. What songs will always remind you of 2007?
The Arcade Fire - No Cars Go (in particular) - always on just before I closed the store, or while doing cash up
LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great - the best New Order song in years
Battle Circus - Love In A Fallout Shelter - the best local stuff I heard all year
Amy Racecar - Satan - more local stuff, it was a good year for NZ music - I listened to this while doing housework often
Good, The Bad & The Queen - Herculean - slow burning classic of an album that just kept coming back to me
Rihanna - Umbrella - when this was at #1, I went on a field trip to Hamilton for a week, and it rained the whole time
Mint Chicks - Falling Off A Cliff Again - in 2007 I finally realised how awesome these guys actually are

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Same
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
More song writing. I did loads of recording, but not a lot of writing. I finished three entire albums, for jebus' sake. I probably wrote no more than five new songs - but admittedly did a lot of work completing older ones, so I suppose that counts!

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sitting around doing nothing, as satisfying as it is at the time.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I did already spend Xmas with my family then Tariqa's.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Already there!

23. How many one-night stands?
Err, none?

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Mythbusters was still pretty dominant, until we moved and lost Sky. I fell deeper into Lost, and watched Flight of the Conchords whenever I remembered it was on and could get the reception. On my iPod on the bus each day I watched the entirety of I'm Alan Partridge and Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, as well as American sitcom Titus. Next up I might find a torrent of Saxondale or all the South Park I've missed.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
The NZ Herald.

26. What was the best book you read?
I don't read too many books in their entirety any more, but one I read early in the year, or the end of last year that left a lasting impact was The Paradox Of Choice. It summed up pretty much one of the main things that's always driven me insane - too much choice!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Discovering the Mint Chicks are actually pretty damn awesome was something, but as for artists which were either new or that I had no awareness/opinion of before, it'd have to LCD Soundsystem. But there were loads of surprises through the year - Norah Jones' album was great, as was Dolores O'Riordan's (heavier and spookier than it had any right to be). The Checks debut was an instant classic in my opinion, and Battle Circus have started with an EP/album that sounds like it should be their third at least.

28. What did you want and get?
A good band to be in, an engagement, a successful year at uni.

29. What did you want and not get?
The job at Netguide - though it's still a possibility in the new year.

30. Favorite films of this year?
Superbad, Knocked Up, Control, Children Of Men (if that wasn't last year).

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I think I picked up the new Smashing Pumpkins album, I can't remember!

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Finishing uni with an awesome jobto step right into (perhaps with a few weeks off first!)

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Whatever doesn't make me look fat. I think I've finally shed all those lingering teenage desires to look cool and stuff. Maybe.

34. What kept you sane?
Not caring about too much.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
My workmates and I all agreed Norah Jones is way hotter than she lets on.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The Herald's continuing idiocy and blatant partisanship. We had massive debates on the 'smacking' bill in class too, and it was interesting watching most people switch to supporting the bill once they understood what it meant.

37. Whom do you miss?
A few people from Htown I suppose, but they probably don't miss me so meh. Scully went too young.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
A lot of my classmates are really awesome people, so it'd be unfair to single any out! But Amy has an LJ and might actually read this, so I better say Amy or she'll kick my ass.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
Don't steal the Mint Chicks' beer. We didn't, but someone thought we had and we got a bollocking... followed by an apology!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
After being at more shows than I have been in years, working at a record store and taking part in discussions on Fark's music tab, this pretty much sums up at least one aspect of my year... LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge". At least this part, anyway.

I used to work in the record store.
I had everything before anyone.
I was there in the Paradise Garage DJ booth with Larry Levan.
I was there in Jamaica during the great sound clashes.
I woke up naked on the beach in Ibiza in 1988.

But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.

I'm losing my edge.

I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by the Beach Boys. All the underground hits. All the Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import. I heard that you have a white label of every seminal Detroit techno hit - 1985, '86, '87. I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.

I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.

I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.

I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.

But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra, Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra, Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc, Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil! Scott! Heron!, the Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, the Swans, the Soft Cell, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.

You don't know what you really want.

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And now... my last weekly/fortnightly/monthly/bimonthly top five/ten of the year... my next post, if it isn't the long overdue tale of the Mint Chicks gigs, will be my annual geek-fest calculation of the year's top albums in my charts... and I'll no doubt cut and paste the same spiel I've used the past couple of years...

1. Mint Chicks - Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!
2. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
3. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
5. Interpol - Our Love To Admire
6. The Checks - Hunting Whales
7. Stone Temple Pilots - Thankyou
8. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
9. The Killers - Sam's Town
10. Kora - Kora

from inner_starfish

Go to the Wikipedia home page and click random article. That is your band's name. Click random article again; that is your album name. Click random article 15 more times; those are the tracks on your album.

Band name: Pitkern
Album name: 13

1. Nascar Race Day
2. Anndi McAfee
3. FC Bihor Oradea
4. Milecastle
5. Boldface
6. Reduplicative Paramnesia
7. Astronomische Nachrichten
8. Benjamin Pickman, Jr
9. PTS2R
10. Hamed Karoui
11. Hitmaker
12. Jerry Traunfeld
13. Pro Football Weekly
14. Al Jourgensen
15. Meanings of Asteroid Names

Wow, not only is my wiki-band into football and Nascar, but also rather into astronomy and industrial metal. I can only assume #12 is the single, as I can't imagine radio DJs being about to pronounce many of the others.

"Public don't even care, Labour MPs claim" screams this morning's NZ Herald headline, in reference to the Electoral Finance Bill, backed with an article quoting only a NZ First MP as saying anything of the sort. Well done, fair-and-balanced Herald.

A meme from inner_starfish:
Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.


decemberists

A band I stumbled across last year, recommended to me by Renee, I think. Their The Mariner's Revenge Song has some of the best lyrics ever.

kosh

He's not only one of the alien ambassadors aboard Babylon 5, but a big fluffy white cat who leaves fur all over our furniture.

richey james edwards

He's the missing Manic Street Preacher. Vanished in 1995, the band still keep a quarter of their earnings aside in case he returns. I was pretty obsessed with him as a teenager, and still think the bands' The Holy Bible is a lyrical masterpiece.

spaceghost

Spaceghost is awesome. He's on Adult Swim, they've been playing the same episodes for the last six years it seems, but they're so surreal there's always something new to see.

stanley kubrick

I was once a film student, and it's compulsory to worship Stanley Kubrick when you're a film student. A Clockwork Orange is his best, strangely faithful to the book for the most part too.

the arcade fire

Perhaps second only to Muse for making purely awesome over-the-top indie rock this decade. I pretty much play one of their albums in the 50 minutes before closing the store every time I close the store. Sometimes middle aged women will hear one of their pretty songs and buy the album, and I chuckle at what they're unwittingly getting themselves in for.

the strokes

I don't listen to them much anymore, but for a short time in 2001 I did my best to wear out their debut album Is This It. I bought it one day while feeling sad, a rare case of retail therapy for me. That, Weezer's Green album and JJ72's debut will always remind me of living with my friends Jess and Gabe.

Now that I've got a moment to make a proper entry and the desire to do so, I'm not sure I've got anything to say.

I suppose I'll just do one of them random updates that do a disservice to the term 'blog' then! Not keeping a diary anymore, this is the only way I'm going to know what I was upto when I was this age, when I'm 64 or so.

Okay... We got Muse tickets this morning through the ultra-mega-covert-secret presale thingee. Well, it's not really that secret, and I sent texts to five or six people telling them how to get theirs, so even if it was at 9am, it certainly wasn't by 10. 

For the next two week's I'm going to be interning at Yahoo!Xtra, apparently in their marketing department. I'm not sure how I ended up there and not in news, but with their latest disaster probably not entirely sorted it should at least be interesting.

I'm also working all this weekend, so no break for me till... shit, I don't want to think about it.

Need the money though, as we're moving house in two weeks. I'm not sure I've mentioned that yet, but yeah. Off to Mt Albert to save money, and hopefully bike into town each day and lose some belly. At least that's how I'm justifying continuing to eat crap at the moment.

If you feel like buying me a new iPod, cause mine is dead, I wouldn't mind a 160GB iPod "Classic" as they've been re-labelled. I still prefer to call them Man's iPod, as opposed to the Nano, or Woman's iPod. Tariqa wanting a 16GB Nano or Touch and me wanting the Classic proves my point, and if we're an exception, we're proving the rule that I'm right. Or something.

My Ryan Adams review is now online (opens PDF of Te Waha Nui Issue #19 page 21). My original was over 900 words, believe it or not. Graham Reid (our tutor this semester) helped me hack it down to a manageable 400 or so - "no one cares about this... that's not important... I have no idea what you're talking about here, so it can go.." 

I also did an opinion piece on religion that appears here (once again a PDF) that has apparently caused a bit of a stir amongst the more faithful on the course. They've banded together to write a rebuttal I hear, which should be amusing. Some of them are cool people who enjoy a good debate, but one or two really are so brainwashed, any questioning of their beliefs, or even the very mention of agnosticism sends them into a tailspin of cognitive dissonance.

Alright, I'm off to do a Facebook purity test and continue to lose at Scrabulous.

Here are the rules... people who are tagged need to write in their own blog 7 random/interesting facts about themselves, along with these rules. Then, tag 7 people to do the same.

1. I never drove a car till I was 23.
2. I once said, "What next? A triple six?" and proceeded to roll three sixes with only three dice.
3. The first album I ever bought was Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York", on cassette.
4. My high score on The Simpsons Movie wrecking ball flash game is just over 50.
5. The first time I heard Radiohead's Kid A album I was at a mate's place and completely stoned
6. I've broken up with a girlfriend on a 7th of May four times
7. I haven't seen it yet, but apparently a story I wrote is on the cover of the Waikato Times today (more about that later I suppose!)

And now I tag whoever the hell wants to do this survey.

I stayed up too late surfing youtube last night, but it was worth it to find this clip from Whose Line Is It Anyway - truly awesome. Horward. Heh.

I've got three stories to write by Friday. Crap. Oh, but in good news, apparently we (Kitty Hawk) are going to be playing with Charlie Ash at Ward Lane in Htown! Finally, after 9 years of playing in bands on and off, I finally get to play a Ward Lane gig! Twice I've had shows canceled on me, so third time lucky

Barbra Streisand has hit upon a method to deter scalpers - charge 500 pounds a ticket. Paul McCartney has hit upon a method to pay for his divorce - release a new Beatles single. And the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have hit upon a way to rock my world - release a new album.

Okay, so I haven't listened to it yet, but it's currently sitting on 71/100 on metacritic, and their previous albums have scored 72, 72 and 70, so I'm pretty sure it'll be just as good from a fan's point of view.

Here are the answers to yesterday's little game. I've written them in white, incase you want to play the game first. Highlight the blank area to read.

1. Bar Fight / Desert / Severed Arm - Star Wars IV
2. Hit In Crotch / Rabbit / Coconut - Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. Dystopic Future / Pregnant Woman / Severed Arm - Children of Men
4.  Crushed To Death / Flying Monkey / It Was All A Dream - Wizard Of Oz
5. Crime Spree / Male Nudity / William Tell Overture - A Clockwork Orange
6. Fight The System / Bare Knuckle Fighting / Self Inflicted Burn Injury - Fight Club
7. Pseudo Documentary / Mustache / Nude Fight Scene - Borat
8. Headbanger / Product Placement / Stairway To Heaven - Wayne's World
9. Shoplifting / Record Collection / Dumped By Girlfriend - High Fidelity
10. Trident / Mustache / Severed Arm - Anchorman

TV Shows:
1. Narration / Magician / Prison - Arrested Development
2. Mohawk Haircut / University / Cricket Bat - Young Ones
3. Sexual Tension / Babe Scientist / Conspiracy - X Files
4. Dragon / Heavy Metal / Mexican Wrestler - Strong Bad (it counts, it was on IMDB!)
5. Doughnut / Stupidity / Clown - The Simpsons
6. Chat / Spoof / Shot In The Chest - Knowing Me, Knowing You (Alan Partridge)
7. Cat / Android / Slacker - Red Dwarf
8. Explosion / Experiment / Science - Mythbusters
9. British / Green Screen / Singing - Whose Line Is It Anyway?
10. Eccentric / Surreal / Madness - Monty Python's Flying Circus

So... anyway....

Stolen from tariqa.

* Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your favorite movies and TV shows.
* Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for these 10 picks.
* Have your friends guess the titles.

Movies:
1. Bar Fight / Desert / Severed Arm
2. Hit In Crotch / Rabbit / Coconut
3. Dystopic Future / Pregnant Woman / Severed Arm
4.  Crushed To Death / Flying Monkey / It Was All A Dream
5. Crime Spree / Male Nudity / William Tell Overture
6. Fight The System / Bare Knuckle Fighting / Self Inflicted Burn Injury
7. Pseudo Documentary / Mustache / Nude Fight Scene
8. Headbanger / Product Placement / Stairway To Heaven
9. Shoplifting / Record Collection / Dumped By Girlfriend
10. Trident / Mustache / Severed Arm

TV Shows:
1. Narration / Magician / Prison
2. Mohawk Haircut / University / Cricket Bat
3. Sexual Tension / Babe Scientist / Conspiracy
4. Dragon / Heavy Metal / Mexican Wrestler
5. Doughnut / Stupidity / Clown
6. Chat / Spoof / Shot In The Chest
7. Cat / Android / Slacker
8. Explosion / Experiment / Science
9. British / Green Screen / Singing
10. Eccentric / Surreal / Madness

Comment with your guesses!

I haven't done of these in a while. This one I stole from kiwialicat.

1. Can you cook?

I cooked mince and salsa corn chips and cheese tonight. Note the lack of beans; I forgot to add them. Strangely enough, it tasted awesome. So yeah, I can cook. As long as it's Mexico related.

2. What was your dream growing up?

When I was a kid I used to have this dream where I was wrestling in the Royal Rumble on an oil rig at sea, and Tito Santana would throw me off and I'd drown and I'd wake up coughing.

3. What talent do you wish you had?

Singing like Freddie Mercury.

4. Favorite place?

My place.

5. Favorite vegetable?

Mashed potato.

6. What was the last book you read?

Something about skepticism. I can't remember.

7. What zodiac sign are you?

Cancer.

8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?

None with capital letters. Actually, none at all.

9. Worst Habit?

Counting things like steps, letters and syllables.

10. Do we know each other outside of Livejournal?

kiwialicat, whom I pinched this off? Yes.

11. What is your favorite sport?

One day cricket.

12. Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?

That's a Vague question. Negative I suppose, cause then you'll never be disappointed. But then sometimes I think no matter how poor I might get or whatever, there will always be crazy shit on the internet to entertain me.

13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

Probably talk about the antics of people from our old workplace in Hamilton. It'd be a short conversation, after which I'd start kicking the door.

14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?

That I didn't bring upon myself? Um, the day before I started my new job in 2004 I was attacked by three or four munters and given scratches on my face and a black eye. That'll do.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you.

I coined the word "indietronic".

16. Do you have any pets?

Yes. Two and a half cats. One is deaf, one is missing, and the other is currently confined to a cage while his leg heals.

17. Do you know how to do the Macarena?

Vaguely, about the same I know how to do the Spice Girls Stop dance.

18. What time is it where you are now?

10.04pm.

19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

Neither.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

When my mouth was closed it would be really tiny, and when open it would be ridiculously huge.

21. Would you be my partner in crime or my conscience?

Who are we robbing?

22. What color eyes do you have?

Blue-grey.

23. Ever been arrested?

Yep. And as I'm planning a career in journalism, I don't expect it not to happen again.

24. Bottle or Draft?

WTF? A bottle of something or conscription? I'll take the bottle, thanks...

25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?

Probably be convinced by tariqa to pay her credit cards off, and buy a car.

26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?

Free bubblegum.

27. What's your favorite bar to hang at?

Moe's.

28. Do you believe in ghosts?

Not really, but who knows.

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

Not think about my non-spare time.

30. Do you swear a lot?

Probably.

31. Biggest pet peeve?

People who are late.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Existing.

33. In one word, how would you describe me?

Alison.

34. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

But... what?

1. How tall are you barefoot? 
Not as tall as I am with shoes? 167cm. 

2. Do you have siblings?
Yes.... younger brother and sister.

3. Who was the last person you hugged?
tariqa.

4. Is your bathroom clean?
Not really. That's unpossible when you have Hurricane Scully  (the kitten with his proper title) in the house. 

5. Do you have A.D.D.?
I was never really a fan of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, I preferred Fighting Fantasy and Heroquest.

6. First female name and first male name you think of?
Liz and Phillip. Cause that's what gregoria_roxie had written here, and I'm just typing over her answers.

7. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
1.) I don't know this U2 song playing on the radio
2.) why do the yellow darts keep falling out of hte dartboard in the staffroom
3.) I can't wait to hang the corkboard and white board I just purchased on the wall at home

8. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink?
Coke Zero, Sugar Free V, Woodstocks (to balance it out)

9. Do you speak any other languages?
Dans moi boite il a un grande gateaux. So, no.

10. What do you want to achieve in life?
Who knows.

11. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
Too afraid of getting the smackdown from the girlfriend would be a better description.

12. Favorite place to be?
Home.

13. Least favorite place to be? 
Work.

14. Do you tan or burn?
Neither. I avoid the sun.

15. Would you be a pirate?
That'd be cool. As long as there weren't any ninjas around.

16. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? 
Suffocation. I hated having the door closed for fear of running out of air. My brother was more scared of the goblins and David Bowie hiding under his bed. 

17. What does the 7th message in your text inbox on your phone say?
Want anything from New World? I'm going to grab some toilet paper and stuff.

18. Worst injury you've ever had?
I fell off my bike while on the way home a soccer match on July 6, 1991. I was still wearing my soccer shoes, and the sprigs on my left foot slipped off the pedal, and I slipped off the bike. I tore the ligaments in my knee and scraped heaps of skin off my thigh. Surprised I was never scarred.

19. Are your parents still together?
No. Were they ever together? I think so.

20. Does someone have a crush on you?
A crush is probably the wrong word.

1.) Where did you ring in 2006?
On Dead Dog Road. It's where we were living at the time. We played chess, had a fight, made up and watched fireworks.

2.) What was your status by Valentine's Day?
Er, alive?

3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)?
No. I am come February 2007 though.

4.) How did you earn your keep?
Worked in a CD Store, pretended to care about customers for an insurance company.

5.) Did you have to go to the hospital?
Yep.

6.) Did you have any encounters with the police?
Yes... we were broken into early on.

7.) Where did you go on vacation?
Vacations? That's something only rich people/students get.

8.) What did you purchase that was over $500?
It would have been over $500 was it full price - Epiphone LP-100 guitar.

9.) Did you know anybody who got married?
No. As far as I know.

10.) Did you know anybody who passed away?
Yep. The girl whom I had my first kiss with's mother died (the girl herself died in 1994, sadly enough).

11.) Have you run into anybody you graduated high school with?
No one out of nowhere, no.

12.) Did you move anywhere?
From Grafton to Freeman's Bay. Grafton was a mistake.

13.) What sporting events did you go to?
Foosball in the staffroom at my work, every day. I think I'm ranked in the unofficial top five on our floor.

14.) What concerts/shows did you go to?
Probably less than any other year since I began going to things.

15.) Are you registered to vote?
Yes.

16.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on Nov. 7?
No, 'cause we had our election last year. I did then, yes. Green party, Labour candidate. As any vaguely left leaning voter should have considering the circumstances, regardless of their exact leanings.

17.) Where do you live now?
Beneath Spaghetti Junction. Literally.

18.) Describe your birthday.
I drank cold ones and wrote a cool song.

19.) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2006?
Get my fucking driver's license.

20.) What is one thing you regret from this year?
Working for State Insurance.

21.) What do you want for Christmas?
Whatever I got.

22.) Any new additions to your family?
On Boxing Day, Scully the (boy) kitten joined us.

23.) What was your best month?
November probably. I don't know really. In November I found out I was accepted into my grad diploma course next year... and Roz did some awesome vocals for some new songs I'm working on.

24.) What from pop culture will you remember 2006 by?
Borat. Children of Men. Johnny Cash. The realisation of the masses that global warming/the Iraq war are problems.

25.) How do you plan to ring in 2007?
Probably with tariqa , gregoria_roxie  and lizshady  drinking tequilas.

Either that, or I've been linked to a world-class suck up. Basically, it plays you 36 musical motifs, and you have to decide whether they are the same, or different. That simple. I scored 88.9%, which to be honest shockered the hell out of me, cause I'm sure I guessed half of them...

Seven people (at the last count I heard) have been fired this week from the call centre where I work, which is awesome and in no way will affect the amount of work the rest of us will have to do, no, not at all. That was yesterday's number, I heard of a couple more today who may or may not be included in that... one of which I even knew... All because they forwarded on some email, "Rejected Miss Universe Contestants" or something. From those who've seen it, apparently it was pretty mild compared to some that go around, but someone in the loop sent it to the 'wrong' person, and the dominoes fell...

I haven't received ANY chain random pic emails since the firing began though, haha.

Mark from the record store called me earlier tonight to rave about the new Beatles stuff - listening to a bit of it now. Apparently they're remixes done by George Martin and his son, using outtakes and bits and pieces. Strawberry Fields, the one I'm hearing now, seems to be a mix of the bits featured on Anthology 2, and parts from the final mix. Interesting stuff, but nothing too new to Anthology listeners... ooh wait, the outro seems to have bits from other songs thrown in... there's a piccolo (or something) solo from Penny Lane, the harpsichord from Piggies, and the singalong from Hello Goodbye. Okay, it's now starting to sound like a freakin' mess. Maybe Dangermouse should've been involved!

I'm part way through constructing the backing to a song for the acoustic-ish album from luna spark, Never Let Them Get Away. That's the song's title. The album is going to be called Trigger Happy Little Finger. At this stage, anyway. If the final version of that song sucks ass, then maybe I'll change it.

This version of Octopus' Garden is pretty cool, it sounds like Ringo's drums have had some punch added, though that could just be the mp3ing.