The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

40 things in 2005

This time last year, I found a list on Marc Canter‘s blog and wrote my own 40 things. I thought I’d follow up with a sequel.

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before? I rode over 6500 miles (out of a goal of only 5000) on my bicycle, broke some bones in my face, and had major surgery to repair them.
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions and will you make more for next year? I blew away my cycling goal by more than 30% and stayed employed.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My cousin and his wife had a baby girl in November.
4. Did anyone close to you die? No.
5. What countries did you visit? I did not leave the United States.
6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? Increasing musical skill, guitar lessons, piano lessons, the discipline to podcast regularly.
7. What dates from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory? January 19 (hot new Powerbook), February 25 (first CMS on this site since 1996), July 1 – 3 (Jay visited), August 12 (the last Dubtribe Sound System performance in Northern California), August 20 (reaching my yearly cycling goal), September 3 (writing a complete track for the first time in 7 years), September 30 (Serenity premier), October 29 (crash), November 8 (surgery)
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I set a goal on January 1 to ride 5000 miles in 2005 on my bicycle. I went over by 1,720.84 miles by the time I crashed into the ground just before Hallowe’en.
9. What was your biggest failure? I really should have responded to your signals. You and you and you and especially you. We’d have had a good time, I’m sure.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Yes. Please wear your helmet whenever you ride a bike. And when you’re driving, you need to watch the bike lanes before you turn across them. I suffered an orbital fracture (right eye), bilateral condylar fracture at the TMJ, and some broken teeth. My last totally solid meal was on October 29. There is an inch-long dent in my helmet and a bicycle with a bent front rim at the bike shop to be repaired whenever the lawyers green light it.
11. What was the best thing you bought? 12″ PowerBook G4 (1.33 GHz), Reason 3.0, 60 GB video iPod, and M-Audio Oxygen 8
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Emmett came through once again, this time calling to inform my family about my crash, wrangling doctors and nurses to get me released from Stanford Hospital, and generally being my hero. You are a prince, Emmett. I don’t even have words strong enough to express my appreciation and affection for you.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The dude in the car that hit me.
14. Where did most of your money go? Food, cycling, hospital bills, and dancing.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Wayfaring, writing music again, cycling, dancing all night at lots of clubs with oodles of beautiful strangers.
16. What song/album will always remind you of 2005? Sunshine Jones broke a five-year rut with a spectacular marathon of musical exploration, entitled “Seven Tracks in Seven Days.”
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    1. happier or sadder? happier
    2. thinner or fatter? thinner
    3. richer or poorer? richer
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I should have spent more time wrecking hardwood in the city.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worry. Procrastinate. Stay home on Friday and Saturday nights.
20. How did you spend Christmas? I visited my family in Idaho. I got to hang out with my brother, my sister, my four nephews and nieces, my children, my grandmother, and my musical collaborator and designated ass-kicker, Jay.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? My kids.
22. Did you fall in love in 2005? Yes. Let’s sing it again, “House music all night long.”
23. How many one night stands in this last year? None.
24. What was your favorite TV program? Extinct: Firefly, Wonderfalls, Undeclared. Drama: Battlestar Galactica, The 4400, The West Wing. Nonfiction: Globe Trekker, Mythbusters. Animated: The Simpsons, The Boondocks, Family Guy.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No.
26. What was the best book(s) you read? American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? That you can use classical theory in house music.
28. What did you want and get? My PowerBook, my iPod, my Oxygen, and some software.
29. What did you want and not get? Miles in my stats for November and December.
30. What were your favorite films of this year? Serenity, The Station Agent, Cinema Paradiso, Monsieur Ibrahim, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? On my 34th birthday, I went to work, but on the weekend, I danced all night on a dancefloor in San Francisco.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Interacting more with people at the clubs where I get down. It’s not only about the music.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005? What?
34. What kept you sane? My bicycle. The music.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Female: Jewel Staite (Firefly), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Carla Gallo (Undeclared), Caroline Dhavernas (Wonderfalls). Male: Lance Armstrong — cancer to seven wins in the Tour de France? You are the most magnificent example of what a man can do.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? I was generally pissed off by everything the government did.
37. Who did you miss? My friends in Idaho, Greg, Jonathan, Daniel, my family, a social circle.
38. Who was the best new person you met? I’m not sure. There were a couple of friendly new people at work (one of whom is also stupefyingly adorable), but I don’t think I really met anybody new this year — other than the ones I shared the dancefloor with.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005. I have the power to do anything I want. I wasn’t trained as an athlete, but I still rode over 6700 miles on a bicycle. If I can do that with my body, there’s no reason I can’t do the same with my music. Consistency is key. Don’t wait. Do it now.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year? “For there’s no yes in yesterday. And who knows what tomorrow brings or takes away? As long as I’m still in the game, I want to play for laughs, for life, for love. So here’s to life. And every joy it brings. So here’s to life. For dreamers and their dreams. May your storms be weathered and all that’s good get better. Here’s to life. Here’s to love. Here’s to you.” – Here’s to Life by Shirley Horn (May 1, 1934 – October 20, 2005).