In just twelve short months:
Personally, professionally, and by just about every other metric, 2011 was the best year of my life. I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store.
You can view all 264 photos I posted in 2011 on Flickr. For those of you who want even more photographic fun, subscribe on Facebook, where I post more (albeit less polished) photos of us and our adventures.
Without Steve Jobs I wouldn’t be who I am today.
So many memories collected in one place. Wondering if there will ever be a point in my life where I can read the words “Altered Beast” without immediately and uncontrollably yelling, “Rise from your grave!”
I was across the street working in World Financial Center 2 the morning of September 11, 2001. I heard the second plane hit, heard the explosion, and for a moment thought I was going to die. But I didn’t.
I walked out of the building alongside hundreds of others and looked across the street at two burning skyscrapers, amazed and horrified, confused and nervous. We watched as people leapt to their deaths to avoid burning and heard the sound of human bodies hitting concrete after falling 70 stories. We stood, unable to help, unsure what to do next. And then we fled the city. I was on a train in NJ when someone announced the first tower had fallen.
For the next month, I couldn’t sleep without nightmares. I became a news radio junkie. I developed troubling, severe anxiety. I wondered if I would ever feel comfortable on a plane or in a tall building again. I read countless stories about the day and couldn’t stop looking at photos that made me sob. I spent several months unemployed, sitting at home in front of my computer all day, truly depressed for the first time in my life. Everything felt broken and wrong and terrifying. I wasn’t sure how to get back to my normal life.
Little things helped. Spending time with friends, finding a crummy job that gave me somewhere to go every day, something to do with myself. Family. Eventually, I began to heal. I moved to Brooklyn. I passed the WTC site every time I went to see a movie at my favorite theater. I rode the subway without constant fear of terrorism. I flew more and more to various cities in the US, first with the help of large doses of Xanax and then more and more without it. I began to feel comfortable in the world again. I fell even more in love with the city I had always dreamed of living in.
I spent the majority of this past decade living in New York City. The same city I fled that morning, the same city I came back to a few months later, worried but defiant. The city I truly grew up in, for better or worse. I’ve moved away now, but New York City will always be my home.
iTunes Visual Comparison Update
Took a few minutes today to update my iTunes Visual Comparisons for the newly released iTunes 10.4. Roll over images (or on iOS devices, touch) to see the differences between 10.4 and 10.0.
While you’re there, you can check out past comparisons (9 vs 10, 8 vs 9) as well as look at the big jump from 8 to 10.4.
Tonight, two days shy of my 30th birthday, the two-hour series finale of Smallville will air. It’s a bittersweet early birthday present. As silly as it sounds, I’m a bit emotionally unprepared to handle the end of this series. Most people who know me know I’m a huge Superman fan, and to have had a television show about Superman to watch every week for the past 10 years has been amazing. Even more amazing is that Smallville started just after my 20th birthday and will run until my 30th, which means I’ve been watching this show throughout my entire 20s.
The series has definitely had its ups and downs. Many people who started watching it gave up after a few seasons because of its teenage angst love stories between Clark Kent and Lana Lang, stories that made for some truly painful and slow episodes. And believe you me, there were times where even I was having a hard time dealing with the ratio of teenage drama to Superman moments. But eventually, and slowly, the show grew up. Clark Kent went from being a confused and lonely teenager to an anxious and lonely adult. The writers introduced other DC superhero characters including the Green Arrow, who ended up being a great series regular. And, most notably, they brought in Lois Lane, a character who eventually brought more gravity and maturity to the storylines.
Smallville has always lived in its own version of the Superman universe. They’ve changed Clark Kent’s path through history and made interesting updates to various aspects of the canon. At its heart, the show was always about Clark Kent becoming Superman, and so we’ve never seen him in a suit or really flying. Of course, for Smallville to be truly successful, I can only imagine the last shot of the show must be that critical moment, when 10 years of development leads to donning the suit and that first takeoff as Superman.
I’m sad to see the show go, but it has provided me with pretty solid entertainment for the past decade. During the run of the show I’ve moved three times (in two different states), held five agency jobs, started two companies, bought 3 cars, traveled to seven countries, posted nearly 5,000 photos to Flickr, lost two grandmothers and a great aunt, made an award-winning short film, got married, and planned a cross-country move to Los Angeles. And that’s not even the half of it. Sure, Smallville isn’t directly responsible for any of those things, but I watched it every week as I grew to become the person I am now and even for all of its goofy, melodramatic scenes of Clark yearning for love, it still means a hell of a lot to me.
Anonymous asked:
In an old episode of MRPC, you talk about receiving a Sea-Monkey Aquarium from a friend Stacey. Is Sea-monkey Stacey == Wife Stacey?
This is one of the best questions I’ve ever been asked via Tumblr. Yes, Sea-Monkey Stacey is now wife Stacey. Also, from this day forward, Stacey’s new nickname is Sea-Monkey.
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