The year 2005 in review. All bets are off this best of.
Best of the worst:
How else to put it, I can’t imagine a worse year than 2005. Let’s include what happened after X mas during 04.
That little wave that destroyed a good lot of people. Sure the quarter of a million dead is like a drop in the bucket of the population there, but I mean I don’t even think we can fathom it. I mean a quarter of a million dead in less than 24 hours. Honestly, I don’t even think most of us could even process that damage. Well, at least we weren’t able until September.
I had a good year, technically. No one I know died, and I didn’t have any crippling injuries (like 2000) and I didn’t have a massive heartbreak. I barely dated, I stayed at home far too many nights (Steaze will back that one up), and in short got to do little outside of my job.
In context, I was pretty much devoted to my job. Yet, I was tremendously underpaid for the work or commitment I gave, and factor in that I was 23/24 for this year, it’s almost a complete waste of a year in your twenties, especially if it is in a field you have no care about whatsoever.
I certainly had some good moments in-between. The one thing about the service industry in LA (or retail or low level for that matter) is that the people who are under 30 are usually a blast to work with. Going to work was usually fun as long as some of the guys are involved.
My year was filled with the sort of work-a-day, minimal fun in the off time that married people are supposed to live. Married people over 50. And I am not even rich!!!
For god’s sake I stopped listening to music in the car and turned on NPR. That’s how old I make my self feel these days.
Maybe that whole “may you live in interesting times” doesn’t apply to people who lived in 1968 or 2001 or 2005.
Dave’s review of the year.
Late Dec. and Jan. Lets skip the tsunami for now.
March, April, and May
The TV networks give up on covering the war in Iraq as the death toll in the country reaches 30,000 or so for DEATHBED COVERAGE!!! For about two months, we were forced to watch deathbed footage. If you think that people are terrible for watching Paris Hilton retrospectives on VH1 yet you followed this without jumping at people, then you are no better. I think Peter Jennings is probably happy to have passed, because I don’t see him not getting fired as Greta Van Sustren keeps looking for a blonde in Aruba.
July
Terrorist bombings in London. Just when you think you can forget. So what if it was a minor attack by terrorists that the “War on Terror” doesn’t have on it’s radar (actually that’s probably a really big deal). Thankfully the death toll was rather low. But I remember hearing the news and just wanting to puke. The same feelings I had on 9/11 of just thinking “this is our world now, and I don’t know how to deal with it in any rational way.”
August
http://ineverlovedyou.blogspot.com/2005/09/4-days-7-minutes-99-and-one-tuesday.html
I think we all know how I feel on this one.
September to December:
We finally saw the bubble pop around the Bush white house. It wasn’t a great sweep, but at least we saw some admittance of mistakes, and maybe, just maybe someone will have the proof to get Rove out of the West Wing.
But I’ll go back to the 23rd of January when Johnny Carson died.
I am putting this up even though it’s a half link. I read the magazine, and you can probably find the whole article if you look for it, but this is a Klosterman article all about the cultural ramifications of Johnny dying.
https://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/Esquire/2005/05/01/805173?extID=10026
In the end, he is able to prove that Carson dying was not the end of an icon, but the end of an era. We are now left with nothing but endless choices and different paths, and this combination will lead to most of us having less in common with our neighbors than we ever did. (that was his view, the following is mine)
We are a society that is divided as there ever has been. On the surface there is two divisions, blue and red states.
The biggest reason why the blue states can’t win is that they keep splintering into little bits. There seem to be 15 different major groups that make up this party, from the environmentalists, to the gay equality, to the animal cruelty people, to the people who just don’t like Bush and so on. The only thing they can agree on is that the repubs aren’t doing a good job. Anywhere.
Meanwhile, the red states keep attacking and getting people behind them. From turning the Schiavo case into a case against tacitly about abortion, to claiming there is a war on Christmas (a side step from the unsuccessful war on Christianity that popped up after 2002), and somehow the morals of the world are decaying. (I personally fall in the middle on this one, I mean it’s ridiculous to cancel a manger display in a town with a few non-Christians, but it’s another thing to say that it’s demeaning the truth of the matter, especially since all evidence seems to point that Jesus wasn’t actually born on the 25th of December).
The red / blue war is terrible for this country, because it’s basically the parties fighting against two figureheads and all of the rest gets lost in between.
Republicans are fighting against everything in California they don’t like. (promiscuous teens, gay marriage, loose morals, or Paris Hilton, Brokeback Mountain, and marijuana dealers vs. churches)
The Dems are just bitching about Bush and everything he seems to do wrong in their eyes. (Iraq, Katrina, this fictional war on terror or Fox News, Fox News, and Fox News vs. the facts)
Here is the difference, one side is fighting and moving, the other side is just whining.
The problem is that most Americans do have common ground, but they are being ripped from the common ground because our parties are fighting each other instead of working for a decent future. Do I have an answer? Maybe a third party or a fourth (lets separate Neo – Cons from Republicans, one lot is absolutely evil, the other used to be the party of Lincoln, Nixon pre-1973 and smaller government). Other than that, it’s about time Americans looked for common ground for tomorrow, and I think that starts with making sure we are better educated.
And if I learned anything this year, it’s that there are too many dumb people running things in this country.
And for each one in control, there are a hundred more arguing they are doing the best job possible.
Now, posted later tonight is my fun year wrap. I just couldn’t do this without a rant.
How else to put it, I can’t imagine a worse year than 2005. Let’s include what happened after X mas during 04.
That little wave that destroyed a good lot of people. Sure the quarter of a million dead is like a drop in the bucket of the population there, but I mean I don’t even think we can fathom it. I mean a quarter of a million dead in less than 24 hours. Honestly, I don’t even think most of us could even process that damage. Well, at least we weren’t able until September.
I had a good year, technically. No one I know died, and I didn’t have any crippling injuries (like 2000) and I didn’t have a massive heartbreak. I barely dated, I stayed at home far too many nights (Steaze will back that one up), and in short got to do little outside of my job.
In context, I was pretty much devoted to my job. Yet, I was tremendously underpaid for the work or commitment I gave, and factor in that I was 23/24 for this year, it’s almost a complete waste of a year in your twenties, especially if it is in a field you have no care about whatsoever.
I certainly had some good moments in-between. The one thing about the service industry in LA (or retail or low level for that matter) is that the people who are under 30 are usually a blast to work with. Going to work was usually fun as long as some of the guys are involved.
My year was filled with the sort of work-a-day, minimal fun in the off time that married people are supposed to live. Married people over 50. And I am not even rich!!!
For god’s sake I stopped listening to music in the car and turned on NPR. That’s how old I make my self feel these days.
Maybe that whole “may you live in interesting times” doesn’t apply to people who lived in 1968 or 2001 or 2005.
Dave’s review of the year.
Late Dec. and Jan. Lets skip the tsunami for now.
March, April, and May
The TV networks give up on covering the war in Iraq as the death toll in the country reaches 30,000 or so for DEATHBED COVERAGE!!! For about two months, we were forced to watch deathbed footage. If you think that people are terrible for watching Paris Hilton retrospectives on VH1 yet you followed this without jumping at people, then you are no better. I think Peter Jennings is probably happy to have passed, because I don’t see him not getting fired as Greta Van Sustren keeps looking for a blonde in Aruba.
July
Terrorist bombings in London. Just when you think you can forget. So what if it was a minor attack by terrorists that the “War on Terror” doesn’t have on it’s radar (actually that’s probably a really big deal). Thankfully the death toll was rather low. But I remember hearing the news and just wanting to puke. The same feelings I had on 9/11 of just thinking “this is our world now, and I don’t know how to deal with it in any rational way.”
August
http://ineverlovedyou.blogspot.com/2005/09/4-days-7-minutes-99-and-one-tuesday.html
I think we all know how I feel on this one.
September to December:
We finally saw the bubble pop around the Bush white house. It wasn’t a great sweep, but at least we saw some admittance of mistakes, and maybe, just maybe someone will have the proof to get Rove out of the West Wing.
But I’ll go back to the 23rd of January when Johnny Carson died.
I am putting this up even though it’s a half link. I read the magazine, and you can probably find the whole article if you look for it, but this is a Klosterman article all about the cultural ramifications of Johnny dying.
https://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/Esquire/2005/05/01/805173?extID=10026
In the end, he is able to prove that Carson dying was not the end of an icon, but the end of an era. We are now left with nothing but endless choices and different paths, and this combination will lead to most of us having less in common with our neighbors than we ever did. (that was his view, the following is mine)
We are a society that is divided as there ever has been. On the surface there is two divisions, blue and red states.
The biggest reason why the blue states can’t win is that they keep splintering into little bits. There seem to be 15 different major groups that make up this party, from the environmentalists, to the gay equality, to the animal cruelty people, to the people who just don’t like Bush and so on. The only thing they can agree on is that the repubs aren’t doing a good job. Anywhere.
Meanwhile, the red states keep attacking and getting people behind them. From turning the Schiavo case into a case against tacitly about abortion, to claiming there is a war on Christmas (a side step from the unsuccessful war on Christianity that popped up after 2002), and somehow the morals of the world are decaying. (I personally fall in the middle on this one, I mean it’s ridiculous to cancel a manger display in a town with a few non-Christians, but it’s another thing to say that it’s demeaning the truth of the matter, especially since all evidence seems to point that Jesus wasn’t actually born on the 25th of December).
The red / blue war is terrible for this country, because it’s basically the parties fighting against two figureheads and all of the rest gets lost in between.
Republicans are fighting against everything in California they don’t like. (promiscuous teens, gay marriage, loose morals, or Paris Hilton, Brokeback Mountain, and marijuana dealers vs. churches)
The Dems are just bitching about Bush and everything he seems to do wrong in their eyes. (Iraq, Katrina, this fictional war on terror or Fox News, Fox News, and Fox News vs. the facts)
Here is the difference, one side is fighting and moving, the other side is just whining.
The problem is that most Americans do have common ground, but they are being ripped from the common ground because our parties are fighting each other instead of working for a decent future. Do I have an answer? Maybe a third party or a fourth (lets separate Neo – Cons from Republicans, one lot is absolutely evil, the other used to be the party of Lincoln, Nixon pre-1973 and smaller government). Other than that, it’s about time Americans looked for common ground for tomorrow, and I think that starts with making sure we are better educated.
And if I learned anything this year, it’s that there are too many dumb people running things in this country.
And for each one in control, there are a hundred more arguing they are doing the best job possible.
Now, posted later tonight is my fun year wrap. I just couldn’t do this without a rant.
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11:03 PM
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