don't make resolutions, continue revolutions

every year people around the world make so-called "resolutions" for the next year of their life. they start their year off totally wrong by reflecting back upon all the stuff they did or didn't do in the previous year and then "resolve" to make sure things change in the future.

i'm sick of beginning my year by trying to figure out what's wrong in my life... dammit... i'm starting my own new years tradition.

invariably, each of us has had something that has gone miserably wrong in the past year... but each of us has probably also seen major changes in our lives because of that event. mindsets change and we find the good out of an evil situation... this drastic change in thinking is a revolution in your life. a revolution is defined as "a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving."

this year, instead of focusing on the resolutions to "fix" your life, pinpoint the revolutions that occured in your life in the last year, celebrate them, and vow to continue that revolution into next year.

now, for my first 2004 revolution:
in 2004 i ended a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. unfortunately it ended with me needing to get a restraining order and needing to go to court to argue my case. this situation is quite possibly one of the most trying and emotionally fucked-up times of my life.

in 2004 i had a revolution in my life. i realized that i didn't have to take shit from anyone. i realized that friends are one of god's greatest gifts to a person, and i realized that true friends will do anything for you. i realized how wonderful strangers can be in a person's life. i realized that i am a stronger man than i ever thought i could be.

in 2005 i vow to continue this revolution in my life so that i may become even stronger as a gay man... even better of a friend... and even more of a humanitarian to strangers.

i pass this new tradition on to you, my friends. please start your own years off with these blessings, please find your own revolutions, please continue to change your lives.

i love you all = ) happy new year.

shit...

116,000???

jesus man...

i think life in the pink has put into words my exact feelings on this situation...

"
December 30, 2004
Tidal Wave of Denial
I haven't mentioned the tsunami here because I've decided to deal with it by going into deep denial. I have enough things to be neurotic and upset about: the last election, how I'm totally not going to get into grad school, whether or not my pores are too big, the war in Iraq, gay people being defined as second class citizens, my job, etc. If I have to really comprehend this latest tragedy, I'm pretty sure that I will never sleep again.
"

*huge sigh*

the few, the proud, the gmailers...

i am totally PSYCHED to announce that i now have an ever-so-coveted gmail account!!!

i can now be reached at tnechodomu@gmail.com.

(thanx brain!)

*** UPDATE ***
thanx for the question bruce... for the rest of you, he asked what was so great about gmail anyway.

GMAIL, is a new, currently in pilot-mode, email host provided by google. gmail gives you 1 whole gig of storage (1,000 mb) and also a slew of other features, including email searching, intuitive and killer organization functionality, as well as showing whole conversation strings when you bring up an email. and quite possibly the coolest thing about gmail... you can only join if you're invited by an existing member. *grin*

now for a question to my friends around the world... do i officially ditch my yahoo email account for my new gmail account??? hmmmm...

ho ho ho!

i'm in good ol' nebraska right now, and having a very nice time w/ my family. the trip down was freakin' awesome with my new mercury grand marquis from enterprise car rental place-ish thingy = ) what a smooth ride!

and now i'm helping mom with last minute baking and such.

church tonight and then let the holiday goodness begin, hell, the holiday goodness has already begun.

merry christmas everyone!!!

tom's "be sure to" list

when you're an old man driving north on cretin avenue in saint paul at 7:50 in the morning in -20 degree weather be sure to look before pulling out of your lane in front of a 2002 mazda 626.

when the officer arrives at the scene of your newly formed accident be sure to flirt. yes, even if he's a man, he'll enjoy it.

when you work with a lot of people be sure to know their work phone extensions so you can call them in the case of an unplanned morning prediciment

when you're about to miss the bus be sure to drive a tad bit faster. if you don't, you'll most certainly miss it.

if you miss the bus be sure to bundle up.

when you are going to teach a class about the mainframe be sure to check the computers in the room first to see if they even have the mainframe on them.

when you schedule an important meeting in lotus notes be sure to look for a meeting acceptance, if there isn't one, chances are there is no meeting on their calendar.

when ordering chicken fingers at the minnesota life cafeteria be sure to check them before you eat them, they may be raw still.

when you get raw chicken fingers from the minnesota life cafeteria be sure to bring them back, they give you WAY more food than you can eat because they feel so bad that they almost killed you.

and the most important one:

when you're day is going shitty and nothing seems to be going right be sure to remember that it can get worse. keep smiling.

i've learned a very important lesson today, when you feel like breaking out in tears, try smiling and thinking of the good stuff. like i'm going home tomorrow to spend a week with my family. christmas is in 3 days. i have all my christmas shopping done. and amazingly so, this year i was able to keep my final christmas costs significantly lower than in previous years. and quite possibly the most important: only my car is bruised... i'm fine... and i still have the most important things to me; my friends, my family, and yes, my health.

merry christmas everyone! may the spirits bring you a most blessed holiday this year.

happy friday!

well my friends, it's friday. and a hell of one too. what a week... what a week.

good news though, not only did i get a new pic of myself on here (it's actually my headshot) but i also just finished two MAJOR projects at work as well as put another major one into review status which means it's out of my hands until monday afternoon!

unfortunately i won't have a very relaxing weekend, but it'll be a very fun one regardless = ) it includes a concert, several brunches, shopping (hopefully to complete the xmas list), a party, church, decorating the church, and a callback for a play (see the sidebar). so you can see the most relaxation i'll get is on sunday after the callback in which i'll prolly be so wired i won't be able to sleep.

184 hours till christmas!!!

trot down memory lane...

this posting will prolly bring warm fuzzies to amber and jen... for the rest of you - enjoy it anyway!

so anyway, i came across some pics today from my college years, so's i thought i'd give you all a glimpse to my past so you can, well, see some pics from my college years! hold on, here we go!!!

this pic was at the end of my freshmen year. in the picture is the new and fresh faces of the ambassadors, grace university's premier traveling and singing group. we rocked! (pssst! the one on the far right is amber).

and this pic was the NEXT year's ambassadors (yes, i was in it two years... yay for me!!!). we were making a CD that we totally ROCKED on! and note again, amber made it two years also! as a matter of fact, we're all buddy-buddy in this pic. we're so FREAKIN' CUTE!!! and notice erin looking at us like we're freaks... *giggle*

the FINAL pic is of my friend joe and i. we were the bestest of friends first semester of our freshmen year. it was not long after that that i realized i was actually pretty much in love with him. and why not!?! look at him, he's fucking GORGEOUS! plus, we look pretty hot together... don't-cha think? *huge sigh* even now, i'm still in love with that concept of him and i together. he was my first love you know. truly! after looking back in my life i realized i first fell in love when i met joseph. hey, joe... if-n you're out there, come back to me (foks, there's a much larger story to this, yes, he was in love with me too as i found out years later... trust me, it gets even more complicated, no need for it now).

so THAT'S some of my past! hope you enjoyed it!!!

*sentimental hugs* to jen and amber

la La LA it's CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

tommy is really happy today = )

CAUSE IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!

AND because his picture hosting is back... so here we go w/ some christmas time pics brought to you by nakachunkoff's personal universe!!!

this is [part of] my apartment at christmas time... notice the warm glow that i've created in the rooms in an attempt to usher in the beauty of a homey atmosphere. if you were there you would have heard soft carols in the background...

this is my christmas tree up close. i add to it every year. yes, it's all gay-ish and such, but isn't it still FABU!?!?!?!

this is my cat gus looking all artsy-fartsy and stuff (he's being lit by the christmas tree you know). yeah, he likes doing these art photo shoots - all bohemian-ish and such. what a cutie

and this is my other cat alma trying to look like she's all cool with the whole christmas thing (all teen-ish and all) although i have a feelin' that deep down inside all that hair is a little gingerbread cookie that is shitting gumdrops in excitement for christmas morning.

so, that's my apartment and my family at christmas. hope you enjoyed this presentation... yes, i'm a christmas freak... but how many times a year do you get to decorate your home so extravagantly and truly be festively all happy-ish!!!

enjoy your weekend everyone!!!

ahhhh

i feel so much better now that i have my picture hosting back again. and because you asked amber, i'll have a comparison pic up soon so you can see me before and after the "makeover!"

oh for fun!

my friends/co-workers can be so cute sometimes.

background: last night i gave myself a "makover." i got a haircut, dyed it dark brown, and shaved off the beard that's been 2 months in the making. then this morning i actually dressed up for work so i look like a stunning not-quite-the-swan presentation of the new tom.

now back to where i was.

my friends/co-workers can be so cute sometimes. with the exception of the two people i told i was going to do this... everyone else looks at me and can't figure out what i did. some say, "you look nice today - you dressed up!" others say, "you cut your hair." yet others say, "did you shave?" and my favorite, "something's different... but what?"

i just have to laugh... do one change and everyone notices. do four changes and for the life of themselves people can't even pick out one! = )

jews on the mind

today my unkymood is zen-like because it's the only religious one i could find. you see, tonight at sundown begins one of my favorite holidays... chanukah. yes my friends, i celebrate chanukah. why?

WHELL...

the way i figure it... w/out the jews there wouldn't be any christians. without the jews there wouldn't be any muslims. and without the jews we wouldn't have those FABULOUS menorahs = ) so celebrating chanukah is like celebrating an ancient festival that has been lost and forgotten by so many people who take christianity for granted to the point that they've pretty much convinved themselves that christianity was created by god on the eighth day (hell-OOO people!!! remember abraham, the exodus, the diaspora???). sheesh.

so to bring this blog back to where it began. i chose "zen-like" as my mood because there wasn't one out there called "jewish".

barukh atah Adonai...

never the needy

so the girl who sits next to me at work won $100k on the powerball game this weekend. yeah, you read that right, one hundred THOUSAND dollars.

when asked if they got their picture taken and such for the papers she responded with "no, they don't take pictures for the smaller amounts, i mean, it's not a million dollars or anything."

yeah... i guess 100k really isn't that much when you look at it. come to think of it, i'm glad i didn't win it myself... it's really not enough to do anything significant with.

what a waste of perfectly good lottery cash.

fuck.

one day more

that's what i keep telling myself...

"self," i say "just one more day... one day more... 8 more hours of this crazy thing we call work."

then i remind myself that dad is coming up this weekend.

"hey," i say to myself "your dad is coming up tomorrow and you're going to have a hell of a time with him on your first annual father-son weekend."

then i usually sing a song.

"i've got a love-e-ly bunch of coconuts (doo doo doo doo) there there are a-standing in a row (bum-bum-bum)"

it's usually around this time i remember i'm supposed to be working.

"fuck," i say "i'm at work, i better get some work done so i can say i did SOMETHING at my update next week."

and then i almost invariablly end up singing another song.

"merry christmas darling, happy new year too..."

to which the response is kind-a repetetive.

"fuck," i say again "work goddammit!"

and then it comes full circle.

"just one more day... one day more... 8 more hours of this crazy thing we call work."

and now you know what it's like to be in my head.

"sometimes you wanna go, where everybody knows your naa-aaaa-aaame (bum-bum-bum-bum) and they're always glad you caa-aaa-aame (bum-bum-bum) you wanna go where people know... troubles are all the same... you wanna go where everybody knows your name (ba-da ba-da bum bum... boom-boom... ba-da ba-da bum bum... boom boom)"