What to make of it all? For me, 2005 was a year with a number of disappointments and harsh realizations... some of which I've already written enough about. But toward the end this year started turning into something with a lot more optimism and hopefulness. On one front in particular, I couldn't imagine being more happy.
I can't say that this was a year without some action. 2005 saw friends and I doing some pretty crazy things especially regarding the hooplah surrounding the last Star Wars movie. Speaking of which, one of the highlights was the 1200-mile round trip that Lisa and I made to Star Wars Celebration III... which I still haven't gotten the pics online from it, but only because there were so many. This blog was the first place where it was announced anywhere that one of my best friends is getting married. Not long after that I got to finish and premiere my first movie, and Lord willing there will be more in the future. And speaking of that, there was my excursion deep into the bowels of a nuclear power plant to help with some filmmaking this past summer.
Admittedly, there were some upsets this past year. But now that it's winding down, and looking back on it all and what I went through and now that I'm still standing and able to smile about it all, and with all the positive that did happen... I don't know if I would have changed anything about my personal life this past year. In a weird sort of way, it all worked together to bring me to the point that I'm at now, and I'm really thankful to be here.
So... where do I go from here?
I've no idea what to say to expect. I do plan on "reinventing" this blog though, and sometime soon. The way it looks doesn't reflect who I am anymore all that well. I'm probably going to make it more serious somewhat. However, sometime in 2006 is when I will finally use my funniest graphic ever, I think. So there's one or two surprises that I plan on unloading sometime in the next several months.
So here it is, my final blog post for 2005 after several hundred I've written since last January 1st. I'm glad that I got to chronicle most of the madness and mayhem and merriment that took place during the past 365 days, for the amusement of anyone who might happen to find this blog in years to come.
Here's hoping and praying that all of us will have a great new year in 2006 :-)
So here is Otto. He's not doing much in the picture because I took his photo while he was asleep. So far I've taught him his name and trained him to sit, speak, and shake hands, and I'm working on having him wiggle his butt in the air on command. Otto likes to play ball but for some reason he's scared of the stick when I throw it for him to fetch. He's pretty friendly to other dogs that he meets when I take him out for a walk (usually about twice a day) but sometimes he's too curious for his own good (like yesterday when he ate a bag of popcorn that was laying in the street). He's a pretty clean dog: he "relieves" himself just about every time we go for a walk, and I've only had to give him a bath once since we've been together. He seems to get hungry an awful lot though, but I guess that's 'cuz he's still a puppy, although one of the nice things about Nintendogs is that the pups never get any older.
Vincent Schiavelli was one of the most well-known character actors of the past thirty years. He first came to prominence as Frederickson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Later on he appeared in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Amadeus. Fifteen years ago he had a memorable role in Ghost: he played the ghost in the subway who taught Patrick Swayze's Sam Wheat character how to move physical objects. Not long after that he played the Organ Grinder in Batman Begins, which I always thought was a role that he should have been given a lot more to do with: I mean c'mon, a guy with a Gatling machine gun built into his grind organ is a pretty cool thing. Maybe no one else will remember this but I gotta mention that he was pretty good in Tim Conway's "Dorf" videos too. Schiavelli wasn't just a great actor, he was also an accomplished gourmet chef who wrote three cookbooks and articles for various cooking magazines. He died of lung cancer at his home in Sicily (where he'd been busy directing some plays) at the age of 57... way too young for a guy with his talents, if you ask me.
Then not long after hearing that Schiavelli had left us, it came down the wire that Michael Vale died on Christmas Eve at the age of 83. Vale will forever be remembered by those of us who lived in the 80s and 90s as Fred the Baker, for whom it was always "Time to make the donuts!" at Dunkin' Donuts. So many hilarious commercials that Vale did for Dunkin' that come to mind. My favorite was the one where Fred dresses up as a woman in the aisles of some supermarket before confronting the store's bakery about how fresh their donuts were. Another one had him constantly going out his front door saying "Time to make the donuts!" before literally meeting himself at the end of the commercial saying "I made the donuts!" Vale retired from the Dunkin' Donuts commercials eight years ago, but to this day his is the face that always comes to mind whenever I drive past a Dunkin' Donuts store. In a far more serious vein, Vale also played a jewelry salesman in Marathon Man.
