Meme Shmeme

I tried to nonchalantly drop the term "meme" into a conversation today. Then I had to define it. So I actually looked like a bit of a nerdy dufus rather than a nonchalant cool web-savvy chick. Cest la vie. So because I mainly pinch half my ideas from Miss B. Sue. Here's my (slightly modified) 2004 run down. You may want to view it as a game of "pick the odd one out". Or not.

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
Took a language class, ate a tequila worm, swam at Bondi Icegbergs, kept up a webdiary for 12 months.

5. What strange frontier Australian towns did you spend the night at?.
Cooktown, Laura (where I met the one-handed, dirtbike riding "Joe"), Cardwell (rockabilly haven of the Far North), Coffs Harbour (right nextdoor to "Mermaids" brothel); Pt Douglas.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
Style, decorum, wisdom, painless periods, tact, world peace.

7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The one at the tequila bar in Surry Hills. Not telling.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Coordinating my skirt and my shoes. Camping for, like, 2 nights in a row. In two states.

12. Whose bee-haviour merited celebration?
Arhundati Roy.

13. Whose bee-haviour made you slightly cranky and gave you something meangingless to carp about in airports?
Those trashy tramps who made the Von Dutch brand ubiquitous. A curse on both their houses! Look, really what is with that label, it was a damn motorbike parts guy who hated consumerism. I mean is that just the final word in bullshit appopriation of counter culture or what?

13A. What were your most oft-referenced authors or commentators that you haven't actually read much of?
Naomi Klein, Germaine Greer, Ms A. Roy (whoops), John Quiggin.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Savings. And into the ocean via our industrial revolution-era seweraage system, my kidneys and more beer than is healthy for a woman my age (in reverse order).

16. What song will always remind you of 2004?
Anything by Little Birdy.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Bitching and moaning. Club-hopping and cocaine snorting. Procrastinating. Making shit up.

20. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Cleaning the flat. (See earlier post on flea control). Dancing.

22. How many one-night stands?
I made a coffee table that doubles as a lamp-stand.. does that count? Oh hang on, probably not as it was in the new year. It was entirely constructed from found objects though. Neat huh?

23. What was your favourite NSW Government program?
Er.. the one they didn't shut down. The Christmas decorations, oh no, wait, that was the City of Sydney. (ha ha little local insiders joke that one, fellow emerald city locals). No really, the one where they decimate the level of service on the trains then put more inspectors on stations. Or the one where they amalgamate all the environmental agencies to create super-departments with less funding overall but bigger policy areas. Oh its just too close to call.

25. What was the best book you read?
Oryx and Crake

27. What did you want and get?
A new computer. To be distracted by other people's problems. A brand new pair of rollerskates.

28. What did you want and not get?
To win an argument with Bizarro.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
"The guy threw a Birkenstock, he doens't even understand fashion yet"

33. What special new skill did you acquire?
Knitting. I made a whole scarf. Yay me.

33.a Who was the best teacher of sacred female arts and crafts in 2004?
--Mango Mitzu
33.b Who had the most patience for arabic fantasy whims, bad taste stage cossies, and workplace overanalysis?
--Betty Sue
33.c Who did the bestest post card correspondence from the most variety of locations?
--Miss J
33.d. Who made the best Calzone in the Inner West?
--Bizzo Bomba
33.e. Who made th most triumphant return to the antipodes with natural accessory talent in-tact?
--Missy D

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.
Spanish has two words for the verb "to be".

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"They laugh because they know they're untouchable, not because what I said was wrong" - Sinead O'Connor.

40. What is the meaning of life?
Practice, practice, practice.