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[personal profile] ishyface
There are few things more uncomfortable than having your little sister and her friend ask you interested questions about the mechanics of queer sex.

However, there are few things more satisfying than discussing the environment and politics with said little sister and friend, so I guess things balance out.

(Also, I now own this and this. And a pin that says "God is too big for one religion." It makes me sad that I always want to buy anti-capitalist buttons, though. Even if I pretended it was due to being fashionably ironic*, I'd die inside of shame.)

This week has been a little dramatic. I think the drama reached its high point tonight, when Mum discovered that my little sister's ex-best friend** posted pictures of her (the friend, not Little Sister) touching herself on the Internet. This is also the first year anniversary of Paula Gallant's murder at the local elementary.

Sometimes I wonder if this is why the suburbs are such a good place to raise your kids.

I've noticed since coming home that I feel less afraid about things. My family's noticed it, too- I'm talking more, being more social, not staring at my feet as I walk. Kerrin's theory is that since I've been amongst real strangers, socializing with people I don't know very well doesn't scare me as much anymore. My theory is that that last bout of exam panic sucked the fear clean out of me.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?

Let's review.

1) Finished high school.
2) Vandalised for romantic purposes.
3) Went away to college.
4) Finished a novel for the first time since 2003. (In a month while writing five or six essays, to boot.)
5) "It."

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't make any, other than possibly "spend entirety of 2006 complaining about how bad Brokeback Mountain was." As for new ones, I suppose an attitude adjustment wouldn't be amiss. Also, I should stop making fun of the girl on the other side of my wall for fighting with her boyfriend at two in the morning and playing Bon Jovi and Panic! At The Disco.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My Aunt Karen. She had a baby boy named Sam, who is apparently just precious. I don't get the appeal, as he looks pretty much like every other baby I've ever seen, but that's par for the course.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My godmother Marsha and my puppy Magoo. (I still think I hear Magoo on the stairs sometimes.)

5. What countries did you visit?

Uh... I went to Newfoundland!

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?

I'd like to get a job, a driver's licence, and, um, friends at Grenfell, maybe.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

The one that stands out most is August 19th. "We're nowhere now."

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I managed a 4.0 GPA while struggling with depression, writing a novel, adjusting to living away from home for the first time, and falling deeper in love than I ever have been. I'M FUCKING VIRGINIA WOOLF, MAN.

9. What was your biggest failure?

NOT NANOWRIMO. :D Probably making/maintaining friendships. Then again, I've never been spectacular at that.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Sliced open my fingers a few times, fell down the stairs, and now get intensely carsick whenever I'm in an enclosed vehicle.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Spraypaint and books.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

The narcissist in me wants to say "me."

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

My Anth teacher's. And the head of GCSU, a little.

14. Where did most of your money go?

White cheddar popcorn GROCERIES.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

I always get excited about my birthday. It's a thing. And Ten's birthday. And going away to/coming back from college. And starting the Queer/Straight Society. I was pretty excitable this year, actually.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?

"Nth Degree" by Morningwood, "Punks In The Beerlight" by the Silver Jews, "Oh!" by Sleater-Kinney, "Sing" by the Dresden Dolls, "Firecracker" by Ryan Adams, "Infra-Red" by Placebo, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' entire Show Your Bones album, "Headwires" by the Foo Fighters, "We Oh We" by the Hidden Cameras, "Winter's Love" by Animal Collective, "Load Me Up" by Dave Matthews Band, the Breeders' cover of "Wicked Little Town", "Alright" by Kinnie Starr, anything by Dar Williams, "Femme Fatale" by the Velvet Underground, "Freedom" by Tegan and Sara, "Disenchanted" by My Chemical Romance, "Of Angels and Angles" by the Decembrists, "Vapour Trail" by Ride, "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac, "Blue Jeans" by Ladytron, and almost anything by Stars (especially "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", "Ageless Beauty", and "The Aspidistra Files").

Probably "My Humps" as well, but I'm trying to erase that from my memory.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder?

A little sadder.

b) thinner or fatter?

Fatter, due to living off Pizza Pockets and frozen fries.

c) richer or poorer?

God, so much poorer. No matter; it's good practice for living in a van/garrett/treehouse after graduation.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

See this spot right here? This is where I'd normally say something along the lines of "I wish I'd written more." BUT I FINISHED A NOVEL. :D

But anyway: I wish I'd left my room more and engaged more people in conversation. Or, erm, any people in conversation.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Judging people. I've been doing a lot of that- maybe I should make some sort of resolution. Also, I tend to spend money on stuff I don't need, like white cheddar popcorn new socks.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

I spent it sleeping, eating, watching an X-Files movie with Kerrin, and then hightailing it to Ten's house to pester her mum spend the night.

21. Did you fall in love in 2006?

I think of falling in love as a constant process, like down a rabbit-hole. So yes.

22. How many one-night stands?

Well, there was that time in St. Tropez... a magical song was playing, and we shared a sweet kiss beneath the stars, but we both agreed it could never work out, and we parted ways quite happily. Still, every now and then I wonder what might have been.

Which is to say: no.

23. What were your favourite TV programs?

Scrubs, Firefly, and Arrested Development. I think it's gonna become a tradition to say Scrubs every year.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Nope, still the same three people. (As long as we're only counting people I actually know. If not the list is much, much longer. And includes Tom Cruise.) I saw one of them downtown today, actually. It made me feel sickish.

25. What was the best book you read?

A Bloodsmoor Romance by Joyce Carol Oates, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, Blankets by Craig Thompson, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan, Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, any Kate Elliott that I read this year, After Dachau by Daneil Quinn, The Symposium by Plato, Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire, Sophie's World by Jostein Garder, Heavier Than Heaven by Charles R. Cross, Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, Boys Like Her by Taste This. There are probably more, I just can't remember.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Sleater-Kinney, the Organ, Interpol, Morningwood, Bikini Kill, Stars, the Arcade Fire, Ladytron, the Velvet Underground, the Violent Femmes, Dirty Pretty Things, Kinnie Starr, Alix Olson. I also re-fell in love with a few bands (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Placebo, My Chemical Romance) because they all put out new albums and I loved them to death. Kerrin got into a band called the Hush Sound that's quite good, and- I'll admit it- I am not above dancing madly to Fall Out Boy. (Like I ever was.) And the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack is pretty wicked.

27. What did you want and get?

Sufficient energy to finish a novel, a place in college, and a decent GPA. I'm so easy to please.

28. What did you want and not get?

Street cred. D:

29. What was your favourite film of this year?

Empire Records, V For Vendetta, A Scanner Darkly, Little Miss Sunshine, Dazed and Confused, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Whole New Thing, Serenity, Fingersmith, Sid and Nancy.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Eighteen, voting-and-porn-renting age. I wore a sign that said "It's My Goddamn Birthday" and ate Chinese and watched Muppet Treasure Island. And my Philosophy teacher told me that I didn't understand Aristotle.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

I really wanted to [censored, for all our sakes]. Also, I wish Corner Brook had more cats.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?

Band/cleverly ironic T-shirts, jeans, and altogether too many wrist bands. Also, sweater vests + purple tie FTW.

33. What kept you sane?

Ten, solitude, sweet tea, my favourite movies, thinking about vacation, BEING on vacation, love, love, love.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Tracie Thoms, Idina Menzel, Eddie Izzard, Wiley Wiggins, Kate Winslet, Karen O, Kate Moennig, Daniela Sea (but not as an actress because she is demonstrably terrible), Ryan Adams, Amanda Palmer, Chantal Claret, Katie Sketch, Carl Barat.

But I think my biggest celebrity crush is on one VV, of the Kills. Seriously, watch this and this. That right there is my PORN, people.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

I don't suppose spitting venom whenever Spud opened his mouth counts as being stirred?

36. Who did you miss?

Mostly my family, really, and Halifax as an entity. Snowy nights, rainy days. The sun.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

Online: [livejournal.com profile] kirieflowergirl, [livejournal.com profile] honey_bomb, [livejournal.com profile] hannastar.

Offline: Professors Diamond and Grant, pretty much all of Ten's teachers, Amanda, Logan, Megan, Billy Corgan (not the famous one). I didn't know Shawn very well before this year, but he's groovy.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005.

You can write all over bathroom stalls and even if nobody gets it, it's worth it. Not everyone will like you for who you are and that's okay, sort of. Some people really should DTMFA. It is impossible to overrate swimming in the rain. The things that are sexy are not necessarily the things that people tell you are sexy. If you feel depressed, you shouldn't update your livejournal. God is sort of real and sort of not and it doesn't really matter if heaven exists or not. Lying close is beautiful. Beauty is everywhere. Love is everything.

So that's, what, 15?

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

The boom of the city at evening is still
You whisper come to me and I always will, always will... always will.


I seem to be allergic to my house. *violent sneeze*

Sometimes I want to be a warm yellow light that shines over everyone. Sometimes I want to do nothing other than twirl around in a field full of buttercups and fluffy wee kittens. Sometimes I like to listen to songs about the moon.

But mostly I just want a cup of tea.

* Subject of future journal rant: how much I hate fashionable irony. Especially if it's a person's excuse for telling racist jokes.

** They're not friends anymore because Friend- who has been consistently racist, homophobic, and destructive, so I'm not too torn up about the friend breakup- set Little Sister up with a boy from Dartmouth, who then dumped Sister and started going out with Friend.

You know, when I was thirteen the only real drama in my life was the constant "will they/won't they" situation with Best Friend and the time I nearly ruined the library's only copy of A Wrinkle In Time. I feel slightly miffed. And old.

on 2006-12-28 06:57 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] shitgun.livejournal.com
My Aunt Karen. She had a baby boy named Sam, who is apparently just precious. I don't get the appeal, as he looks pretty much like every other baby I've ever seen, but that's par for the course.

haha, people get really, really weird over babies?

Eighteen, voting-and-porn-renting age.

fgjhgkjdhgdsf AND FIREWORKS. :[

i think i might have to do this.

on 2006-12-28 07:51 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
They really, really do. I mean, I'm sure he's a great kid and will someday cure cancer, and all, but I really don't want to see pictures of him, you know? I've seen Winston Churchill.

You're going to vote, rent porn, and set off fireworks? That will be a very interesting birthday.

on 2006-12-28 09:20 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] shitgun.livejournal.com
it's kind of like looking at myspace pictures; there is only one facial expression. and it's not that much fun.

haha, i meant you forgot fireworks! but who am i kidding, i will probably try try to breaking point to work all three in. (but i have no idea what i'm going to vote on, lmao, july isn't really a voting month?)

on 2006-12-28 07:51 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
The downward-tilt sad face blurry profile pic? My little sister does those.

I have so far done none of those things. Then again, I haven't learned how to drive, either. I always thought I'd sign up for lessons as soon as I turned sixteen, but as it turns out all those traumatic go-cart accidents have rendered me completely terrified of getting behind the wheel. Woo!

on 2006-12-28 08:09 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] shitgun.livejournal.com
haha yeah. like there is one facial expression. no angle can make that interesting.

i haven't either. i have the book, though. i think it's on the floor somewhere. i figure that i can pretty much walk everywhere that i need to go. because really, i don't go very far.

on 2006-12-28 09:00 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
Maybe a giant wig, or glitter eye makeup. Like RuPaul's MySpace pictures.

I just take the bus and tell my mother I'm too much of a hippie to drive. Air pollution, etc. Also, I always chicken out when I try to write the test.

on 2006-12-29 04:25 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] shitgun.livejournal.com
man, i just pictured that on a baby. and it made my life a bit.

i remember when we used to have public transit! i miss that. a lot, actually. (granted i was five and just liked the ride then, but it would be really helpful now.)

on 2006-12-28 06:58 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] sunshinesounds.livejournal.com
When I was 13, all I wanted to was to dye my hair some weird colour.

But then again, I was also developing my first girlcrush that everyone was aware of except for me.

What library only has one copy of A Wrinkle Of Time? Seriously, that book's a classic! There should be at least six copies so that there will always be one around. :D

on 2006-12-28 07:58 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
Did you end up doing it? (Blue hair is very liberating, despite the constant upkeep.)

When I was thirteen I refused to cut my hair. And listened to a lot of Weezer and Tori Amos. And thought Tamora Pierce was the BEST. WRITER. EVAR. And loved The Princess Diaries.

I KNOW, MAN. It's kind of like not being able to find a box set of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles or The Arkadians- I know there are logical reasons for them to not be in bookstores, but they're part of my childhood, dammit!

on 2006-12-28 06:27 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] sunshinesounds.livejournal.com
Well, eventually my mom relented and it got dyed a dark, dark blue. She only gave in because I was threatening to dye it in a hotel room at the Fantasyland Hotel in West Edmonton Mall. Since then, it has been various different shades of red and pink. Right now it's Feria's "Chocolate Covered Cherry", and has been so since the end of grade ten.

I always wanted blue hair, but pink suits me. :D

on 2006-12-28 07:34 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
The first time I dyed my hair it was down to my waist and ratty as hell. I dyed it pitch-black. People alternately called me Ozzy and Meg. I want to dye it again once it grows out a bit more- maybe to a deep red or purple.

on 2006-12-31 06:03 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] bleedingcherub.livejournal.com
Okay Tamora Pierce is pretty badass.

I couldn't find Dangerous Angels at the lib the other day, speaking of Things That Should Always Be In Stock. Tear!

on 2006-12-28 04:58 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] brainbucket.livejournal.com
What's wrong with Panic!at the Disco?

on 2006-12-28 07:33 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
I was trying to think of a way to answer this question without violating the spirit of my New Year's Resolution, so I'll go with... hm... I'd say the long titles and the eyeliner, but I've already admitted my secret penchant for dancing to Fall Out Boy. I guess it's just not my cup of tea, for whatever reason. Works on me like nails on a chalkboard.

For the record, this does not necessarily make them a bad band. Ani DiFranco has the exact same effect on me.

on 2006-12-28 10:02 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] brainbucket.livejournal.com
ANI!

*sits down and looks shocked*

Jee wilikers. I didn't see that coming.




To each their own.

on 2006-12-29 01:46 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
I know, man. It's, like, queer sacrilege to dislike Ani.

I hope the Gay Mafia doesn't come after me.

on 2006-12-28 06:11 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] box-head-man.livejournal.com
You are damn straight I'm groovy.

on 2006-12-28 07:56 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
I thought you'd like that.

on 2006-12-28 09:19 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] box-head-man.livejournal.com
I am a rock-star.

So how are you today?

on 2006-12-29 01:43 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
I'm alright. You?

OH. What do you want for your birthday? Because it's occurred to me that I should get you a present, seeing as how I'm crashing your party and all.

on 2006-12-29 02:00 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] box-head-man.livejournal.com
You don't have to get me anything! No one does! I presume everyone has no money to buy shit by this point

this comment is basically a wank

on 2006-12-28 07:35 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] mresundance.livejournal.com
I have the same conversation with a friend of mine about queer sex every now and then. I think she just doesn't remember what I tell her, so I keep telling her, because she actually is geniunely interested in a "oh, I want to learn way", but also, it humors me.

BUT ANYWAYS, this conversation begins with her saying I should kill Andrew off (she has been adamant about that since . . . forever . . . apparently because he is not pretty by her standards). And then she starts asking who, between Ginger and Andrew, "is the guy". When I say Ginger is the more typical guy, she says he must be on top then. To which I say, "Well actually . . ." which follows in a long hypothetical discussion in which I remind her for the nth time that people do what feels most comfortable and right and don't always go along heterosexist blah blah blah blah yada yada yada.

But it makes me laugh every time we have this conversation, because I know exactly what she's going to ask and say . . .

Re: this comment is basically a wank

on 2006-12-28 08:20 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ishyface.livejournal.com
Killing off a character because he's not pretty enough? Adda- wibba- LOVE STORY, PEOPLE. GOD.

Anyway, I''m not sure that's as weird as my thing with Little Sister due to the blood tie, and the fact that she's a member of her generation in that she believes that sex involves a penis entering any orifice below the navel and nothing else. Very Bill Clinton.

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