The End of Days
30/12/2015 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIt's that time of the year again.
It's been a rather more eventful year than usual due to certain overseas adventures.
1. What did you do in 2015 that you'd never done before?
Visited several amazing Rare Book rooms. Two in Amsterdam and one in Vienna.
Visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam which was closed for renovation when I was last there in 2006
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions but I do have a little green book for plotting and planning with deadlines for 3 months, 1 year and 5 years. Of course the map is not the territory and the grand plans are more honoured in the breach than in the observance, but the simple act of doing this ritual between 6 and 8 times a year does result in some items being almost inadvertently getting completed and draws attention to those that keep rolling over again and again.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No. Not even the neighbour’s cats. They seem to have found greener pastures or maybe got eaten by some rottweiler
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Winnie and Bella Nina
Two gorgeous old souls who I knew from work
5. What countries did you visit?
The Netherlands and Austria.
6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?
Some grand plan and purpose for existence.
A bunch of book cases to sort the stash
A waist!
7. What dates from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
There are simply too many to choose from. Some are personal and others are political.
So I picked some days that were a bit of both.
7 January visit to the Ritman library including the Rare Book Room which had a rather fascinating collection of banned books from the 1600s including the Koran.
7 January Charile Hebdo massacre in Paris
As an addicted collector of political cartoons and fan of most things snarky and satirical, this was an issue dear to the serpent heart. It brought back memories of the ridiculous drama over those Danish cartoons and of course “The Satanic Verses”. Being in Amsterdam at the time, it was not some drama in some far distant land. I guess no one expected at the time that even worse was in store for the citizens of Paris.
14 September - the demise of the mad monk. This was Schadenfreude on steroids. It was so good to see Terrible Tony get a taste of his own medicine.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Planting and keeping alive 15 trees and a whole bunch of pecan and macadamia nuts many of which have started sprouting.
Winning Camp Nano in April and July and the main event Nanowrimo in November
9. What was your biggest failure?
Doing nothing whatsoever with all those first drafts and all that stuff learnt in those online courses
Procrastinating big time on getting the Lair sorted. Especially all the homeless books
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just the usual serpent insanity
11. What was the best thing you bought?
A 30 minute guided tour of the Ritman Library in Amsterdam which turned out to be 60 minutes and included a visit to the rare book room where I got to see one of the original Rider Waite tarot decks and some very old and amazing alchemical texts and dark grimoires. (But not the Necronomicon :( )
In June I managed to snaffle a couple of Moleskine A5 2015 diaries for the princely sum of $3 each. One I used for the remainder of this year and the others I get to recycle in 2020 where they will work perfectly for the bit of the year after that pesky 29th February.
Books, books and more books and most of them for 2 or 3 silver sickles. It’s one of the perks of working in a charity shop
12. Where did most of your money go?
The biggest expense for the year were the annual council rates and water charges as well as paying to get the gutters replaced. Most likely followed by bus fares and lots of pots of tea. Being mortgage free means there’s more left over for the important things in life
13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The Streets of Amsterdam
The Rare Book Room
The freaky fringe festival
The Mad Monk gets tossed on the scrap heap of history
Coursera
This is an online arena for folks addicted to learning all sorts of strange and peculiar things and long may they be of no use to anyone
The best course by far was “Internet History, Technology and Security”
Edx also have excellent courses but their platform is sucky especially the discussion forums
The most difficult was their “Paradoxes and Infinities” - the poor old green cells got totally fried but it is worth going back for another fix provided the serpent spends the time the material deserves and stays away from the endless temptations and distractions
Nanowrimo
An ounce of achievement beats a tone of entertainment. It’s fun to go unleash the inner beast on a crazy squiggling fest.
14. What song will always remind you of 2015?
Strong - London Grammar.
15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Older or wiser?
Obviously older and hopefully wiser too
Thinner or fatter?
Fatter. Ask Petunia - that's the only bit of Izzie that she is capable of noticing.
Richer or poorer?
Poorer. The unexpected European Adventure gobbled up most of the remaining nest eggs from the ancient days of paid work. But that aside, I’ve got everything I need and most of what I want so that makes me much better off than most folks
16. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Gardening and growing things
17. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being a gloomy doomy Dementor
18. How did you spend Christmas?
At the Dursleys. It was sort of doomy as Uncle Vernon is such a miserable Grinch.
19. Did you fall in love in 2015?
What is love?
20. What was your favorite TV program?
Since the analog signal got nuked I no longer have a television.
21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate is too strong a word. Loathe is more appropriate but since the Mad Monk has been on the serpent radar for a good six years then he just does not count. But some of his minions like the Rotweiller Eric Abetz, the terminator and Poncy Poodle Pyne have made it onto the hit list. But a week is a long time in politics and yesterday’s rooster is today’s feather duster. Watching the slow six month demise of the mad monk was Schadenfreude on steroids.
Now one of his creepy friends across the water - the real estate racketeer and loud mouth Donald Trump has been added to the Izzie ‘loathe list’
22. What was the best book you read?
How can I be expected to pick only one?
Non Fiction
The 5 elements of effective thinking - Michael Starbird and Edward Burger
short and sweet but sensible and straight to the point
Paranormality - Why we see what isn’t there - Richard Wiseman
a book about why people believe weird things and how the mind makes sense of the world
Fiction
The Girl with all the Gifts - M C Carey
Melanie is a young girl with a crush on her teacher but that is the only normal thing about her
Jennifer Government - Max Barry
A wicked twisted goblin comedy with frequent buyer points where all is permitted in the pursuit of profit
The Dark - James Herbert
A spooky house with some very strange dead tenants
The Pelican Brief - John Grisham
Never get in the way of a Goblin and his profit margins
23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Divna - the spooky voice of an angel as beautiful as the Celestial Siren herself - Lisa Gerrard
London Grammar
24. What did you want and get?
A bunch of books on the Izzie wish list at bargain basement prices
25. What did you want and not get?
A paid job
26. What was your favorite film of this year?
I’ve only managed to see two
Enigma
Spooks, geek and codes and the mysterious Bletchley Park
99 Homes
A feast of goblin evilness. Izzie cannot resist a tale of doing deals with the devil.
27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I’m pleading the 50th amendment on this one.
28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
No Job Goblins.
In spite of being an ancient serpent and working about 18 hours per week doing voluntary work, the government agencies still insist on a whole bunch of ridiculous box ticking and jumping through hoops.
29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?
Fashion is an alien concept to this slobbish serpent. But we are rather partial to green hats, baggy blouses and long skirts to hide all the blubber
30. What kept you sane?
Sane - Izzie sane? Never ever?
31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Fancy is not the right word but I was definitely impressed by Gillian Trigg - a sort of public servant who had to endure months and months of savage personal attacks for the crime of having a conscience and refusing to be silenced.
While not quite a whistle blower, she was speaking truth to power and they did not like what they heard.
First Dog on the Moon
A sick and twisted cartoonist who goes where others fear to tread. Michael Leunig has his adorable ducks and goats. First dog has a whole menagerie of monsters and the very scary Ministry Van.
32. What political issue stirred you the most?
All of them but especially watching the insidious influence that power has on people and the elaborate justifications conjured to explain the complete trashing of a whole bunch of election promises.
Watching how the mad monk was working his way through the ten commandments of keeping power until he was robbed of the top job
One of his favourite tricks was to “Kill the messenger”. Not literally of course but anyone who disagreed with him was assumed to be either mad, bad, dangerous or some evil terrorist who did not need to be taken seriously.
Gillian Triggs - the president of some human rights watchdog was a favourite target. She remained cool, calm and dignified and logically argued her case while under fire from the mad monk and his attack dog minions who became ever more vicious day by day.
Especially juicy was the time her integrity was called into question on a television show by no less than the now ex Speaker of the Lower House. Even her own side were embarrassed by her outrageous one-sidedness.
It was so sweet to see the same Madame Bronwyn booted out within a month or so for some very dodgy travel claims which spawned a multitude of magnificent memes worthy of Apocalypse Now.
Her Lord and Master followed not long after. Such poetic justice.
33. Who did you miss?
Bella Nina - a gorgeous Italian lady who never did quite make it to her 100th birthday. Some people make you happy just to think of them. She was one of them.
34. Who was the best new person you met?
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015:
I can think of two
It is better to be a fountain than a drain
Habits begin as cobwebs and end as cables
36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Another one bites the dust
It's been a rather more eventful year than usual due to certain overseas adventures.
1. What did you do in 2015 that you'd never done before?
Visited several amazing Rare Book rooms. Two in Amsterdam and one in Vienna.
Visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam which was closed for renovation when I was last there in 2006
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions but I do have a little green book for plotting and planning with deadlines for 3 months, 1 year and 5 years. Of course the map is not the territory and the grand plans are more honoured in the breach than in the observance, but the simple act of doing this ritual between 6 and 8 times a year does result in some items being almost inadvertently getting completed and draws attention to those that keep rolling over again and again.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No. Not even the neighbour’s cats. They seem to have found greener pastures or maybe got eaten by some rottweiler
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Winnie and Bella Nina
Two gorgeous old souls who I knew from work
5. What countries did you visit?
The Netherlands and Austria.
6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?
Some grand plan and purpose for existence.
A bunch of book cases to sort the stash
A waist!
7. What dates from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
There are simply too many to choose from. Some are personal and others are political.
So I picked some days that were a bit of both.
7 January visit to the Ritman library including the Rare Book Room which had a rather fascinating collection of banned books from the 1600s including the Koran.
7 January Charile Hebdo massacre in Paris
As an addicted collector of political cartoons and fan of most things snarky and satirical, this was an issue dear to the serpent heart. It brought back memories of the ridiculous drama over those Danish cartoons and of course “The Satanic Verses”. Being in Amsterdam at the time, it was not some drama in some far distant land. I guess no one expected at the time that even worse was in store for the citizens of Paris.
14 September - the demise of the mad monk. This was Schadenfreude on steroids. It was so good to see Terrible Tony get a taste of his own medicine.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Planting and keeping alive 15 trees and a whole bunch of pecan and macadamia nuts many of which have started sprouting.
Winning Camp Nano in April and July and the main event Nanowrimo in November
9. What was your biggest failure?
Doing nothing whatsoever with all those first drafts and all that stuff learnt in those online courses
Procrastinating big time on getting the Lair sorted. Especially all the homeless books
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just the usual serpent insanity
11. What was the best thing you bought?
A 30 minute guided tour of the Ritman Library in Amsterdam which turned out to be 60 minutes and included a visit to the rare book room where I got to see one of the original Rider Waite tarot decks and some very old and amazing alchemical texts and dark grimoires. (But not the Necronomicon :( )
In June I managed to snaffle a couple of Moleskine A5 2015 diaries for the princely sum of $3 each. One I used for the remainder of this year and the others I get to recycle in 2020 where they will work perfectly for the bit of the year after that pesky 29th February.
Books, books and more books and most of them for 2 or 3 silver sickles. It’s one of the perks of working in a charity shop
12. Where did most of your money go?
The biggest expense for the year were the annual council rates and water charges as well as paying to get the gutters replaced. Most likely followed by bus fares and lots of pots of tea. Being mortgage free means there’s more left over for the important things in life
13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The Streets of Amsterdam
The Rare Book Room
The freaky fringe festival
The Mad Monk gets tossed on the scrap heap of history
Coursera
This is an online arena for folks addicted to learning all sorts of strange and peculiar things and long may they be of no use to anyone
The best course by far was “Internet History, Technology and Security”
Edx also have excellent courses but their platform is sucky especially the discussion forums
The most difficult was their “Paradoxes and Infinities” - the poor old green cells got totally fried but it is worth going back for another fix provided the serpent spends the time the material deserves and stays away from the endless temptations and distractions
Nanowrimo
An ounce of achievement beats a tone of entertainment. It’s fun to go unleash the inner beast on a crazy squiggling fest.
14. What song will always remind you of 2015?
Strong - London Grammar.
15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Older or wiser?
Obviously older and hopefully wiser too
Thinner or fatter?
Fatter. Ask Petunia - that's the only bit of Izzie that she is capable of noticing.
Richer or poorer?
Poorer. The unexpected European Adventure gobbled up most of the remaining nest eggs from the ancient days of paid work. But that aside, I’ve got everything I need and most of what I want so that makes me much better off than most folks
16. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Gardening and growing things
17. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being a gloomy doomy Dementor
18. How did you spend Christmas?
At the Dursleys. It was sort of doomy as Uncle Vernon is such a miserable Grinch.
19. Did you fall in love in 2015?
What is love?
20. What was your favorite TV program?
Since the analog signal got nuked I no longer have a television.
21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate is too strong a word. Loathe is more appropriate but since the Mad Monk has been on the serpent radar for a good six years then he just does not count. But some of his minions like the Rotweiller Eric Abetz, the terminator and Poncy Poodle Pyne have made it onto the hit list. But a week is a long time in politics and yesterday’s rooster is today’s feather duster. Watching the slow six month demise of the mad monk was Schadenfreude on steroids.
Now one of his creepy friends across the water - the real estate racketeer and loud mouth Donald Trump has been added to the Izzie ‘loathe list’
22. What was the best book you read?
How can I be expected to pick only one?
Non Fiction
The 5 elements of effective thinking - Michael Starbird and Edward Burger
short and sweet but sensible and straight to the point
Paranormality - Why we see what isn’t there - Richard Wiseman
a book about why people believe weird things and how the mind makes sense of the world
Fiction
The Girl with all the Gifts - M C Carey
Melanie is a young girl with a crush on her teacher but that is the only normal thing about her
Jennifer Government - Max Barry
A wicked twisted goblin comedy with frequent buyer points where all is permitted in the pursuit of profit
The Dark - James Herbert
A spooky house with some very strange dead tenants
The Pelican Brief - John Grisham
Never get in the way of a Goblin and his profit margins
23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Divna - the spooky voice of an angel as beautiful as the Celestial Siren herself - Lisa Gerrard
London Grammar
24. What did you want and get?
A bunch of books on the Izzie wish list at bargain basement prices
25. What did you want and not get?
A paid job
26. What was your favorite film of this year?
I’ve only managed to see two
Enigma
Spooks, geek and codes and the mysterious Bletchley Park
99 Homes
A feast of goblin evilness. Izzie cannot resist a tale of doing deals with the devil.
27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I’m pleading the 50th amendment on this one.
28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
No Job Goblins.
In spite of being an ancient serpent and working about 18 hours per week doing voluntary work, the government agencies still insist on a whole bunch of ridiculous box ticking and jumping through hoops.
29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?
Fashion is an alien concept to this slobbish serpent. But we are rather partial to green hats, baggy blouses and long skirts to hide all the blubber
30. What kept you sane?
Sane - Izzie sane? Never ever?
31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Fancy is not the right word but I was definitely impressed by Gillian Trigg - a sort of public servant who had to endure months and months of savage personal attacks for the crime of having a conscience and refusing to be silenced.
While not quite a whistle blower, she was speaking truth to power and they did not like what they heard.
First Dog on the Moon
A sick and twisted cartoonist who goes where others fear to tread. Michael Leunig has his adorable ducks and goats. First dog has a whole menagerie of monsters and the very scary Ministry Van.
32. What political issue stirred you the most?
All of them but especially watching the insidious influence that power has on people and the elaborate justifications conjured to explain the complete trashing of a whole bunch of election promises.
Watching how the mad monk was working his way through the ten commandments of keeping power until he was robbed of the top job
One of his favourite tricks was to “Kill the messenger”. Not literally of course but anyone who disagreed with him was assumed to be either mad, bad, dangerous or some evil terrorist who did not need to be taken seriously.
Gillian Triggs - the president of some human rights watchdog was a favourite target. She remained cool, calm and dignified and logically argued her case while under fire from the mad monk and his attack dog minions who became ever more vicious day by day.
Especially juicy was the time her integrity was called into question on a television show by no less than the now ex Speaker of the Lower House. Even her own side were embarrassed by her outrageous one-sidedness.
It was so sweet to see the same Madame Bronwyn booted out within a month or so for some very dodgy travel claims which spawned a multitude of magnificent memes worthy of Apocalypse Now.
Her Lord and Master followed not long after. Such poetic justice.
33. Who did you miss?
Bella Nina - a gorgeous Italian lady who never did quite make it to her 100th birthday. Some people make you happy just to think of them. She was one of them.
34. Who was the best new person you met?
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015:
I can think of two
It is better to be a fountain than a drain
Habits begin as cobwebs and end as cables
36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Another one bites the dust
