Happy New Year everyone!!

So, it’s finally 2010 and I can say good riddance to 2009. 2009 was undoubtedly a year to forget. Looking back, there were few moments I really enjoyed and the year in general was littered with downs more than ups.

For me personally, 2009 will always be remembered as the year my grandfather passed away. A man I greatly respected and loved dearly. He was incredibly intelligent, sharp and truly remarkable. I would be happy if I could become half the man he was.

On a larger scale, 2009 was a tough year economically and an unsettled year at work. Ripples from the fall of 2008 were still being felt and the company I work for was still in the midst of figuring out where to go. Work did not really pick up until the fall of 2009, but once it did, there was no stopping it. A 6 day week was becoming the norm and myself commuting to work right up to the 31st.

Anyway, so, putting aside all the drama of 2009. I feel 2010 will be a lot better.

Unplugged

So, my phone ran out of battery soon after the clock struck midnight; the worst possible timing in my mind. I had so many mails to send to so many people to wish them a happy new year but that all had to wait. With my charger a few hundred km away, I had to spend a whole day without a phone. An incredibly surreal situation. I survived. It made me realise I really do need to step away from my phone, from my computer, from technology on occasion. In the totally plugged in world of today, it was a great relief to not constantly be flipping my phone open only to realise all that awaited me was the wallpaper.

However, pnce home, phone charged up and switched on, it was somewhat depressing to find that I only had two or three mails in my inbox. Maybe the mails don’t get delivered if your phone is switched off for too long? That’s a more comforting thought than the realisation that the people I was thinking of, the people I would have sent mails to if my phone had any juice, were not thinking of me. … or maybe they just ran out of phone battery too! Ah well, it ain’t 2012 and the end of the world just yet …

Change

As last year drew to a close I thought I needed to change; I thought I needed to change my way of thinking, change my actions, become more active. You know, grasp my life by the scruff of the neck and push myself towards that elusive happiness. However, I decided that that isn’t the correct course of action.

New Year means visiting the shrine. It’s called Hatumoude 初詣 and is the first visit to the shrine of the new year. At the shrine, I usually do an omikuji – last year’s oracle wasn’t so good with it being a hankichi 半吉, one of the lowest blessings. This year I got daikichi 大吉, which is the greatest blessing one can get.

So, with my great blessing came the words of wisdom telling me not to rush into changing… to stick out a little longer with what I have now and everything will work out fine. It said, any change will end badly and to keep doing what I’ve been doing. For health, it said everything will be fine. For love, it stated that things will come together in the near future… all in all it gave me hope. It may be just a piece of paper to most people but to me, it is a shining light of hope. With the prophecies more often that not ending up reflecting reality, it is hard not to take in the words at some level. Maybe it’s psychology. Maybe by reading something and believing it, it becomes true. Then again, if I read good things all the time… it doesn’t make my life any better. Anyway, I am going to make this year, my year. Bring it on!

I’ve been having a bit of a 90s throwback with what I’ve been listening to recently. The last few months have been dominated by songs from the Oricon charts, very J-pop-esque songs. Maybe I just bored of listening to that stuff, or maybe there’s a deeper reason behind it all but I’ve started shifting towards songs I used to listen to.

I got the new album by Guns ‘N Roses, Chinese Democracy, which reminded me of all the bands from the 90s. Bands like AC/DC, Offspring, Disturbed, Oasis, … Eminem, Daft Punk, Feeder… some of these artists are still around today, some aren’t. I think my music for the coming weeks will gradually shift back to reminiscence.

Featuring, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Green Day, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Queen, Meat Loaf… back to the good ole days…

I always feel terrible, absolutely awful afterwards. As well as the expected gaping hole in my life, the feelings always have more than a hint of annoyance at myself. So many things go through my head, so many things that want to be said and so many things that need to be said. Yet they remain unspoken. How can something so wonderful, so warm and so important be this complicated.

Last night I had the Plain White T’s song “Friends Don’t Let Friends Dial Drunk” playing in my head. It’s a great song and there are some good lines in it…one in particular, my mind kept screaming at me. The line got a bit morphed but the jist of it was there. It cut me up and knifed me a million times before I fell asleep.

Anyway, as most of you know I had a party on Saturday. It wasn’t quite one of those parties which turn into everlasting memories that I had built it up to be but I had a fantastic time. So many of my old school friends turned up that I wasn’t expecting. It definitely boosts the confidence when so many friends turn up. You feel loved. But yeah, due to my craziness and idiocy I ended up staying awake for around 40 hours but yeah… more later