2006 Year in Review: Angels and Demons

First off, I figure I'd better explain the title of this post. I read "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown about a year and a half ago, so this is not a literary review of a book I recently read. For that matter, it actually has nothing to do with angels or demons or anything remotely having anything to do with heaven or hell. No, it has to do with comparing my year to that book.

Ok, here's a little more of an explanation. When I read "Angels & Demons" I'll admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the plot was interesting (probably even better than "DaVinci Code") and it kept my attention for the most part. That's the problem, it was only for the most part. In my opinion, the ending was, well, terrible. As a result, a book that I really enjoyed and looked forward to reading, was ruined by a bad ending. Instead of having a satisfied feeling after the completion, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. It's kind of like finding out who the murderer is halfway through a mystery. No matter what else happens, the feeling of dissatisfaction drowns everything else out and forever frames your opinion.

And that in a nutshell was 2006 for me. The vast majority of the year was a well-written, intricately-plotted, engrossing story that held my attention and left me excited about the next chapter and looking forward to the dramatic and satisfying climax. Then, unfortunately, I encountered the "Angels & Demons" Effect. I was suddenly faced with a really bad ending that made it impossible to look back on the rest of the story with anything but contempt for what might have been.

Fortunately, "Angels & Demons" is going to be made into a movie following the success of "The DaVinci Code." So there is still a chance for it's story and unfulfilling ending to be tweaked and improved. As a matter of fact, the story is going to have to be tweaked as it was announced that it is going to follow the events of "DaVinci Code" chronologically instead of preceding them as it was written. Maybe the ending will be updated and improved after all. Unfortunately, a year can't be rewritten or tweaked to shoehorn it better into events chronologically.

But, as the end of this year and the beginning of a new one approaches, the chance arises to create a brand-new story - one that doesn't require any tweaking. I know it's a cliche, but the coming year is like a blank piece of paper. The good news is that I have the opportunity to craft something entirely new. I can dictate how the plot unfolds. Hopefully, I'll also be able to create for myself a better ending too.

Song o' the Moment

Over at another bulletin board where I frequently post, I do a thing called the "Song o' the Week." Basically, I post the lyrics to whatever song strikes my fancy at that time. I'm a big music person (hence the multiple posts on the topic in this blog) and most of the time when I'm sitting at my computer I have my MP3 library on shuffle. So usually the songs I post come from that collection. I decided to bring my Song o' the Week over here for today because the song I posted this week has struck a chord (no pun intended...ok, maybe it was) with me. It could probably serve as my theme song at the moment. It's a song called "I'm Waiting for My Real Life to Begin" by Colin Hay. It came from the TV series "Scrubs." I'm a huge fan of the show and I've watched it since it came on the air 6 seasons ago. Now, it's on every day in syndication and I try to catch it whenever I can. Anyway, the song is not only a great song, but it comes from a great episode. So without further ado...

"Waiting For My Real Life to Begin" by Colin Hay

Any minute now my ship is coming in
I'll keep checking the horizon
And I'll stand on the bow
And feel the waves come crashing
Come crashing down, down, down on me

And you said,"Be still, my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in"
Don't you understand?
I already have a plan
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

When I awoke today suddenly nothing happened
But in my dreams I slew the dragon
And down this beaten path
And up this cobbled lane
I'm walking in my own footsteps once again

And you say,"Just be here now
Forget about the past
Your mask is wearing thin"
Let me throw one more dice
I know that I can win
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

Any minute now my ship is coming in
I'll keep checking the horizon
And I'll check my machine
There's sure to be that call
It's gonna happen soon, soon, oh so very soon
It's just that times are lean

And you say,"Be still, my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in"
Don't you understand?
I already have a plan
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

Hey heyeyeyeyey
Hey yeeeeeee
Hey heyeyeyeyey
Eeh eeh eeh eeh eh x5

On a clear day
I can see, see for a long way

On a clear day
I can see, see a very long way

O, Christmas Tree...

I guess this serves as a follow-up to my last post. Anyway, I finally got my new Christmas tree out of the box. As a matter of fact, I even put it up and plugged it in. All I can say is I'm never going back to a non-prelit tree again! So it's up, deocrated, and everything. That's the problem. This is the first year that I've had an apartment that set up for a full size tree. Up until now, I've always had the little 4 foot junior trees. So I had ornaments for a 4 foot tree - not a 7 foot one. Needless to say, it looks a little sparse - kinda like the Charlie Brown tree on growth hormones! I'm trying to decide if I should just bite the bullet and get some more ornaments or not. If anyone is willing to donate, I'll gladly accept.

Of course, I know you're all wondering why, after the overwhelming positivity of my last post, I decided to put up my tree at this time. Well, there were a couple of reasons. To answer the most basic question - no, I don't consider myself to be in the Christmas spirit yet. That actually had very little to do with it. No, the reasons I decided to open the box and put up the tree were, I hate to say, much more practical.

First, whenever I saw the box sitting on my office floor unopened, I was reminded of exactly how much money I spent for the unopened box sitting on my office floor. Of course, I was also reminded of the person who persuaded me to buy it and helped pick it out which is why it was still sitting in an unopened box on my office floor. Anyway, as I realized the financial obligation that already went into it, I figured that it only made sense to get it out of the box and actually get my money's worth out of it. My dad would be so proud!

Secondly, I played Santa at a kids' playgroup Christmas party yesterday. Yep, I donned the warm, itchy, red suit and everything. In spite of the fact that the fake beard was extremely warm and pinched the side of my head and in spite of the fact that one little kid attempted to yank off said beard, which due to the fact that it was itchy and pinching the side of my head didn't seem like too bad of an idea to me, I had fun doing it. However, afterward I realized that it was awfully hypocritical for Santa to have his Christmas tree sitting in an unopened box on his office floor. So I guess you could say I put it up to avoid the feeling of hypocrisy.

See, I told you my reasons weren't exactly warm fuzzy ones. But still, I think the fact that I actually do have a Christmas tree up and lit shows great progress on my road towards the Christmas spirit. At this rate, you never know, I might actually do a little Christmas shopping too.

Happy #$%&@!{ Holidays

Well, it's that time of the year again. It's the holiday season. Unfortunately, I'm just not in the holiday spirit yet. I don't mean to sound like a Scrooge, it's just I don't feel very Merry at the present time. I'm not as disgruntled as the title of this post might appear though either. I mean, it's not like I'm knocking over the Salvation Army change buckets or anything. To be honest with you, I just wanted to steal a page from the comics section and blank out an expletive with symbols. Yeah, I'm a nerd.

Anyway, I haven't started either my Christmas shopping or my Christmas decorating yet. I bought a new Christmas tree about a month ago. It's still in the box. I'm in no hurry to get it out of the box either. While I don't normally get into Christmas to the point of a total immersion, you know - holly and nog and all of that fun stuff - I do normally feel a little more festive. I guess in light of recent events, I just don't feel like it. I'm not ready to dive into the season yet.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. It's just that the majority of the holiday season is designed around doing things with your significant other and/or kids. When you don't have either, you sorta feel left out.

I'm sure as Christmas gets even closer, I'll begin to feel a little more festive. In fact, I know I will. It pretty much always happens that way. You never know, I might even get my tree out of the box too. Come to think of it, I could use a little nog right about now.

Follow-up:

Speaking of Christmas shopping, I do have a little something to be excited about. I already know one thing I'm getting that I'm excited about. It also provides a follow-up to something I posted on here awhile back. In case you haven't read previous entries (and I know it's hard to since there are so many of them), this summer my beloved chair broke and I've been without one ever since. Ok, so here's the follow-up on that. My parents took the chair home to have it fixed at the furniture store where it was purchased. They took it out of the back of the truck and set it on the sidewalk outside the store to go in and talk to someone about it. When they came back out 15 minutes later, the chair was gone. Someone stole my broken chair off the sidewalk in broad daylight! Anyway, my birthday gift from my parents was a replacement chair. I picked it out this past weekend. Let me tell you, it is nice. It's overstuffed and leather. It's a very manly chair! The only problem is that it's on backorder until the end of this month. So, I'll get it, I just have to wait a little longer. Anyway, that's my follow-up and my little nugget of Christmas spirit.