Don't Look Back In Anger

So, what can I say about this foul year of our lord, two thousand and nine?

I look back at my experiences and the experiences of my friends and I see a lot of pain and grief and strife. There have been so many deaths of great public figures as well as people my friends hold dear. There have been business fuck ups, relationship breakdowns, family feuds and a general negativity for most of the year. Perhaps it's a lunar thing, perhaps it just so happens that the majority of my circle of friends and I were destined to be shafted in the arse for the better part of this year.

The thing is, even though a lot of crap has happened this year of immense fucking proportions, I'm glad it all happened. Why? Because of the transformative effect of emotional buggery. I like to think that everything that happened this year happened for a reason, and the sheer gargantuan attack it took on was God/Karma/Life's way of getting my attention - "Buck up, you fucktard! Changes need to be made and if you're not gonna do them I'm gonna fuck you up well and good my friend until you get the picture!"

Needless to say, I hope I got the picture.

Since the days of the falling out with the Angry Fat Man, I've been different. Things have been restrained and left to rot deep inside. In it's wake, I ended up hurting a lot of people and myself and I was on a crash course to nowhere. So I thank the crap that's happened, the glorious crap that it is, because without it I would never have bettered myself.

And through the fires the phoenix dies and is born again (and by phoenix, I mean the mythical creature, not Jean Grey going apeshit). As the final quarter of the year came around things picked up quite substantially.

1. I lost a ton of weight.

Mid-2009 on the set of 'Healthy Paranoia'

Late 2009 and for some reason looking like I need to poop

2. I was a part of 15Malaysia and walked the red carpet at the Pusan International Film Festival.

3. I performed stand-up comedy for the first time.

4. I performed in a play for the first time since 1999.

5. I took part in a photo exhibition for the first time.

6. Things with the band are better than ever and the recording process is really picking up speed now.

The recording set-up in the Hub, early 2009

The recording set-up in the Hub, December 2009

And lastly (and most importantly), new friends have been found, old friends have been rediscovered, friendships have evolved and friends in general have been the light of my life as the year ends. If there's anything that helped me through the year and has kept a smile on my face throughout these past months, it's the people around me, those wonderful friends of mine that are beyond cool.

You know who you peeps are. This post is for you. Have a good one tonight and bring on 2010.

It's a celebration, bitches.