ought seven in review: part 1
1. Where did you begin 2007?
At my place with O and Patrick playing board games.
2. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Hmm. Directed improv? Taught children (formally)? Last week I tasted rye for the first time.
3. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make resolutions. I don't have enough faith in myself or my control over my own destiny.
4. Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Yes. NWFC. Teaching, working, learning.
5. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Radio!
6. Any new additions to your family?
I think all my cousins' babies were born before this year, and I don't know of any marriages, so no.
7. Did anyone close to you die?
No. Another year.
8. Did you know anybody who got married?
Nope. Starting to sound like a boring year.
9. What countries did you visit?
America? The year gets boringer and boringer, and thank you for highlighting this for me.
10. How did you earn your money?
Vasiliki, Laika, Film Center. Um, Andy paid me for helping on The Pull. I think it was this year when Brian Lindstrom paid me a little to help him but I didn't end up doing very much. And of course, parents. Sigh!
11. Where did most of your money go?
The fuck if I know. People will tell me most of it went to Starbucks because they're supportive friends like that.
12. Did you have any encounters with the police?
I don't remember any.
13. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Self-discipline (which is probably redundant, but let's not argue semantics).
14. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Leaving Olivia is probably the Big One, but I don't know what date it happened. I don't remember specific dates like that usually, just the events.
15. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I'm inclined to say a successful (if overlong and imperfect) short film, 1000 Pieces, but really bigger than that is simply the social network I've developed this year, through the Film Center, some projects I've worked on, and Writing Group.
16. What was your biggest failure?
How can I not answer O?
17. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major. Sick a couple of times, I think, and an ear infection this month which is gone. Oh, christ, and that tailbone thing. That sucked.
18. Where did you go on holidays/vacation?
McMinnville/King City/Eugene?
19. What was the best thing you bought?
For myself? It's a tie between my totally awesome cozy-like-a-blanket wool-lined hoodie and the Complete Works of Harold Pinter I bought myself way way earlier this year. Pinter's words really lit a fire under my ass, and that hoodie... man, it's great.
20. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Not mine, sadly. That's for sure. Debi. I'd say Debi, for stepping up to a bigger task than she thought she was signing on for and not backing down even a bit. If/when Open is a great film, it will be because she made it possible.
21. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
This year? My own? I mean, I don't know. I don't like to talk about it (especially on here, publicly, tacky and all that), but I know I did the "right thing." Still, I've never felt so terrible about doing the "right thing" before.
22. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Writing Group, Open, reactions to 1KP. Also, on a more personal and smaller-scale note, I was pretty excited the other night about something. But that's not (unlocked) Livejournal material.
23. Did you move anywhere?
Yes. I moved to King City with my parents for a month and then into the House on Graham with Colin and Link. Living there is weird. I've become more of a hermit than I've been since the House on Powell with Emmy and Clint. It's getting very Ladyhawke these days.
24. Where do you live now?
My mailing address is 505 Graham, but generally (ask anyone) I live at the Studio.
25. What song will always remind you of 2007?
That's an interesting question. As far as me remembering years, I generally mark eras by either films I've made, girlfriends, or housing situations, so I guess any song that reminds me of those things would take me to this year. Weirdly, that might include Weird Al's "White and Nerdy," which I will always remember watching this video from O's machine. I mean, I've listened to a lot of pretty great music this year (see next post), but will it specifically make me sit up and go, "Oh man--2007!"? Unlikely.
The good:
The bad:
Also: a quote from last year's New Years Day post...2007 I'm not really ready for you. Another week to get caught up on 2006 would have been useful. But I see you're not going to be a year willing to relent and make compromises. It's going to be an uphill struggle to stay on top of you, I can tell, so that's just what I'll have to do. You want to play rough, we can play rough. I just don't want to hear any whining come mid-year when I am dominating because you didn't give me a break at the start.
Bring it on, you bastard of a year. I'm not afraid of you.
This strikes me as funny because I was clamoring to get things done until about a week ago, at which point either all my deadlines came and went or all my projects went into hiatus until the new year. In other words, I actually did have an extra week here at the end. I knew it. Someone fucked up the calendar. Who knows what havoc will be wrought in 2008 now!
At my place with O and Patrick playing board games.
2. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Hmm. Directed improv? Taught children (formally)? Last week I tasted rye for the first time.
3. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make resolutions. I don't have enough faith in myself or my control over my own destiny.
4. Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Yes. NWFC. Teaching, working, learning.
5. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Radio!
6. Any new additions to your family?
I think all my cousins' babies were born before this year, and I don't know of any marriages, so no.
7. Did anyone close to you die?
No. Another year.
8. Did you know anybody who got married?
Nope. Starting to sound like a boring year.
9. What countries did you visit?
America? The year gets boringer and boringer, and thank you for highlighting this for me.
10. How did you earn your money?
Vasiliki, Laika, Film Center. Um, Andy paid me for helping on The Pull. I think it was this year when Brian Lindstrom paid me a little to help him but I didn't end up doing very much. And of course, parents. Sigh!
11. Where did most of your money go?
The fuck if I know. People will tell me most of it went to Starbucks because they're supportive friends like that.
12. Did you have any encounters with the police?
I don't remember any.
13. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Self-discipline (which is probably redundant, but let's not argue semantics).
14. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Leaving Olivia is probably the Big One, but I don't know what date it happened. I don't remember specific dates like that usually, just the events.
15. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I'm inclined to say a successful (if overlong and imperfect) short film, 1000 Pieces, but really bigger than that is simply the social network I've developed this year, through the Film Center, some projects I've worked on, and Writing Group.
16. What was your biggest failure?
How can I not answer O?
17. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major. Sick a couple of times, I think, and an ear infection this month which is gone. Oh, christ, and that tailbone thing. That sucked.
18. Where did you go on holidays/vacation?
McMinnville/King City/Eugene?
19. What was the best thing you bought?
For myself? It's a tie between my totally awesome cozy-like-a-blanket wool-lined hoodie and the Complete Works of Harold Pinter I bought myself way way earlier this year. Pinter's words really lit a fire under my ass, and that hoodie... man, it's great.
20. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Not mine, sadly. That's for sure. Debi. I'd say Debi, for stepping up to a bigger task than she thought she was signing on for and not backing down even a bit. If/when Open is a great film, it will be because she made it possible.
21. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
This year? My own? I mean, I don't know. I don't like to talk about it (especially on here, publicly, tacky and all that), but I know I did the "right thing." Still, I've never felt so terrible about doing the "right thing" before.
22. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Writing Group, Open, reactions to 1KP. Also, on a more personal and smaller-scale note, I was pretty excited the other night about something. But that's not (unlocked) Livejournal material.
23. Did you move anywhere?
Yes. I moved to King City with my parents for a month and then into the House on Graham with Colin and Link. Living there is weird. I've become more of a hermit than I've been since the House on Powell with Emmy and Clint. It's getting very Ladyhawke these days.
24. Where do you live now?
My mailing address is 505 Graham, but generally (ask anyone) I live at the Studio.
25. What song will always remind you of 2007?
That's an interesting question. As far as me remembering years, I generally mark eras by either films I've made, girlfriends, or housing situations, so I guess any song that reminds me of those things would take me to this year. Weirdly, that might include Weird Al's "White and Nerdy," which I will always remember watching this video from O's machine. I mean, I've listened to a lot of pretty great music this year (see next post), but will it specifically make me sit up and go, "Oh man--2007!"? Unlikely.
The good:
- New music (always a "good").
- 1000 Pieces "almost" getting into the NWFVF and the PIFF.
- (Baby) steps forward in the direction I want my life to go.
- Casting and pre-producing Open and having a Debi to help me with it.
- Friends, fellow filmmakers, getting along surprisingly well with (most) my exes.
- iPhone.
- Scrabulous.
- Writing Group, and all that's come out of it (like The World of Missing Persons).
- Friends and their crazy new babies!
- Not being dead yet? Or crippled, blind, sick, incarcerated, or otherwise in a bad way.
The bad:
- Breaking someone's heart the way I did.
- Bad sound, stiff lighting, and an overstuffed narrative preventing 1KP from being what it might have been.
- Annoying one actor, being rejected by another.
- Car troubles.
- Computer troubles.
- Ass troubles!
- Having someone out there almost definitely hate me; almost hating someone else.
- Living in my tiny room and feeling like a bad (or at least weirdo) roommate for being so disengaged.
- Policy changes at the Film Center.
- Money & budget situation! (personal & film)
- Not being closer to my goals than I am now (always a "bad").
Also: a quote from last year's New Years Day post...2007 I'm not really ready for you. Another week to get caught up on 2006 would have been useful. But I see you're not going to be a year willing to relent and make compromises. It's going to be an uphill struggle to stay on top of you, I can tell, so that's just what I'll have to do. You want to play rough, we can play rough. I just don't want to hear any whining come mid-year when I am dominating because you didn't give me a break at the start.
Bring it on, you bastard of a year. I'm not afraid of you.
This strikes me as funny because I was clamoring to get things done until about a week ago, at which point either all my deadlines came and went or all my projects went into hiatus until the new year. In other words, I actually did have an extra week here at the end. I knew it. Someone fucked up the calendar. Who knows what havoc will be wrought in 2008 now!