My 2011 wasn’t as bad as the image above would have you believe. However i just want to touch on the year that was a rainbow in the dark. First off unlike 2009 or 2010 before it I had a job going into the new year. I was working it in the previous year, but this was good especially in an economy that still continues to suck ass.

I started my year off with my first ever broadway show [Dracula actually]. I mean it was a comp tickets for me and jamie. Thanks to our friend christine’s husband John (fun fact: he designed the set pieces) I thought it was good times, and i’d really like to do Broadway again!

I worked for the first time ever in Manhattan, and that was a goddamn dream. Something about that was just awesome to me. I love NYC, and where i work down there *most of the time* is right near the park on Museum mile. Its just happening ALL. THE. TIME.

I also regained a lot of my confidence back. I’ve hit this nail to a lot of my friends about what that means, but its been a tough couple of years for me. Out of Work for awhile, shit jobs that didn’t care about me, and just and overall feeling of hopelessness. Meh.

After the thaw of winter i decided to get back to who i was 10 years ago and beyond. I wanted to get back to riding a bike. I mean i literally would ride a bike everywhere before i got a license & a car. I gave that up, and from 2001 to 2011 I went from a 17 fresh out of high school graduate of 180 pds to 300 pds. I didn’t like myself physically, and needed to do something. I started slow, but then began taking on trails, and doing 20+ miles daily. I haven’t hit up hiking trails, but i seriously plan to attempt to up my game next year. I slacked the last quarter of the year though, and that was due to other reasons that i’ll get to later.

Anyhoo, with the bicycling i really wanted to just experience more of the nature in front of me. Brett’s gonna call me insane for this, but ah bother. I never went to Lake Minnewaska till he took me there. I loved it, and thats another place i need to visit more than ONCE next year. I was also able to travel a bit again, and did a pretty good tour of Boston. I mean i’ve been there many times for my brother and in general, but this time i was able to check out a lot of the sights. Hell, even though plymouth only had the rock there. It was just cool to get out and explore!

I guess its time to bring up things that hit me pretty bad, but its a learning experience through and through. (if you look at even the bad as a lesson… positive energy is gained) When the Hurricane was gonna hit, and be that our news is basically right on the tipping point of NYC coverage of weather… The Hudson Valley wasn’t given a try and true… You are gonna get as FUCKED or better yet WORSE than 2007. I mean don’t get me wrong. I live next to a goddamn creek. I mean i can look out the window in which i am typing this blog entry, and see water… its not that it isn’t clear to me what i live near. However since living here since 1990 we’ve only gotten water in this house in the following years. 1996 *after the bad winter and the thaw mixed with crazy rain into the spring* 2007 *which was the worse we’ve ever seen BEFORE Irene this year* 2010 *which was a few inches* and then onto this year. 2011. We actually got hit twice this year. Once like what seems to be a reoccurring situation right after a bad winter the thaw. 

I got mostly everything up that i could forcably bring up a staircase, or through the garage door. I lost my bed, dresser i’ve had since i was like 4 or 5. Couch *it was a sweet couch, and i thank stacey and her bf mike for that. It ruled… it was so comfortable! ah,…. meh… back to the point. The biggest loss to me personally was my car, and just my sanity at the time. However we didn’t get it at least the way i feel personally as bad as others, and at least we all had each other and our health. I mean as i’ve said already the worse we ever got was inches or at worse in 2007 about 2 and a half feet of water. If you watch this video you can see how fast this water came in within minutes. In the end the measurements of where the waterline matched on the wall it was about 6 & 1/2 feet. 

The lesson learned was just a further assembly of what i should of completely taken in 2007. Do not absorb so much material possessions… It doesn’t mean anything in the end anyway.However being boated from the house is another thing on its own though… I’ve never been through that, and seeing that my parents cars we’re being absorbed into the water…its visuals that don’t leave. Nature doesn’t care, and its not to be fucked with in any which way, because it will win, and it will not care.

I feel i’ve rambled too much when its come to talking about the flood, but i can’t help but just dive into it *yea i know the word i used* so i’ll take a step back. 

My second job, which has become more like my first job at Cooper Electric is a giant learning experience, and i have to thank my old supervisor at DHL now current boss/supervisor if you will at Cooper. I mean i’ve been involved in delivery industry since beginning my first real jobs actually. Be it FedEx, USPS, DHL and now this. However not everything i delivery at this job is as cut and dry as delivery a box or letter. Conduit regardless of the jokes Jamie and others have made about it being delivered is a different thing on its own Steel, PVC coiled aluminum in bulk! I also don’t know much about what i deliver, but im getting there now. *its taken about 6 months* I enjoy it, and will take it as far as i can. However i still take my security job seriously, because i don’t know who or what i wanna be still, is it wrong, should i put stakes in the ground at 28 years old? Ahhh well. I mean i’m typing this as i think it, and wonder now is it a good idea to be at this age, and not feel solid on my outlook? 

I mean since i bring up my security job with LTG Security its given me some of the basic ‘rent-a-cop’ things like standing all day in a department store. However its given me wedding for upper class people, to graduations for rich entitled kids to Photoshoots for models, TV shows being filmed, Fashion Week and being the security details for the white witch, and possible 2012 contender for an Oscar Tilda Swinton. Hell even one of the biggest pop stars in the world Lady Gaga.

I can’t help but wonder what 2012 is gonna bring me from continuing at this. I do know my boss at the company is someone who branches out to many different things, and he wants to develop a webpage, and wants my input. I feel very rusty when it comes to all things HTML or HTML5 *yea…. i don’t know anything of the structure behind creating that* However i hope i can contribute something. 

I think 2012 is gonna be great, because of the lessons learned in 2011… so for the above image. Fuck you 2011 its on to 2012.. clean slate. more focused, and more driven than ever!

Fuck everything about this! I don’t care that these people shouldn’t have been doing the type of rioting they were doing especially to some of the small businesses, but the bigger picture here is
CONSTANT MONITORING

thedailywhat:

Bigger Brother of the Day: MI5, the British intelligence agency normally tasked with hunting down terrorists, will collaborate with the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to assist police in locating individuals suspected of using social networking services to orchestrate looting raids.

The agencies will employ their advanced technologies to track down alleged instigators using intercepted BlackBerry Messenger broadcasts that police were unable to decrypt or trace.

In related news, two men in their early twenties were sentenced today by a court in Cheshire to four years in prison for inciting local “riot events” via Facebook. “You sought to take advantage of crime elsewhere and transpose it to the peaceful streets of Northwich,” Judge Elgan Edwards QC said during sentencing. “No one actually turned up due to the prompt and efficient actions of police in using modern policing.”

Meanwhile, Chinese state media published words of praise for UK PM David Cameron’s proposed banning of social network users for appearing to plot criminal behavior, saying “Britain’s new attitude will help appease the quarrels between East and West over the future management of the Internet.”

[guardian: 1,2 / slashdot / image: techdirt.]