I first saw this particular meme on drivelikejehn's LJ, and of the several variations I've seen, I think I like hers the best. Here goes:

For each month of 2005, go through your LJ and post the title and the first sentence (or paragraph if it helps the context) from your first post for that month.

January: "Orange Bowl Recap...finally!"
"So...for those of you who were wondering about how the Orange Bowl was, here's my recap: WE WON! 55-19! That, and Ashlee Simpson should really find something else to do with her life, as should Jason White."

February: "Top 10 Albums of 2004...finally!"
"Yes, it's been over a month since I first made mention of this list--I tell you no lie, though, it wasn't until this week that I made the FINAL list."

March: "Time to weigh some options"
"Mister Softee just called and put an offer on the table (and sadly, no, it wasn't the real Mister Softee, as in the guy with the head made of ice cream...it was just one of his reps)."

April: "I only wish this was an April Fool's Joke"
"Mitch Hedberg, my favorite comedian, died on Wednesday of apparent heart failure."

May: "So good, you won't ever know / I never hear it on the radio."
"So during last night's sunnyside@seven, I gave the best vocal performance I've given in a long long time, if not ever."

June: "Dave's New Toy"
"I just picked up one of these bad boys: (picture of an iBook)."

July: "Ya regrese. (I think that means 'I'm back,' but I'm not sure.)"
"I'll update more later, I promise, but I wanted to get the ball rolling again and post something."

August: "It still amazes me..."
"...that despite living in a city of 8.5 million people, I can still walk down the block to Bagels on the Square on an ordinary Monday morning in August (whoa, August, already?) and bump into a friend from LA whom I haven't seen in two years."

September: "Post-Labor Day post"
"So I'm back after a bit of an LJ hiatus. Everything that was going on with me seemed kinda moot in light of the situation down in New Orleans, Biloxi, etc., so I didn't feel like doing any LJing for a while."

October: "closing time."
"Tonight was our final sunnyside@seven worship experience, having run for 20 months. As you might imagine, it was pretty emotional."

November: "Nashville Autumn Nights"
"Monday Night, 10/31: Having gotten maybe--maybe--3 hours of sleep over the previous 36 hours, I turned down the kind offer to go trick or treating with the family I'm staying with, and elected instead to call it an early night. Sound asleep by 8 PM CST."

December: "First things first"
"First things first: Jonathan, I never should have doubted you. I, too, should've been rooting for the dirty bruins so that they would be undefeated coming into Saturday's game. That may have been the only thing that would've made the victory any sweeter."

I found the following quiz while cruising the web tonight, and I decided to do it myself. You'll find my answers are pretty typical and unoriginal, but a) it's late; and b) did you really expect anything different from me? Me neither. OK...here we go:

Your Life: The Soundtrack
Opening credits: "How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us" - R.E.M.
Waking up: "You Get What You Give" - New Radicals
Average day: "Jesus, etc." - Wilco
First date: "City of Blinding Lights" - U2
Falling in love: "Superman" - Five for Fighting / "At My Most Beautiful" - R.E.M.
Love scene: "This Modern Love" - Bloc Party
Fight scene: "Love and Death" - The Stills
Breaking up: "Harder Now That It's Over" - Ryan Adams
Getting back together: "The Scientist" - Coldplay
Secret love: "Take Me Away" - Delirious?
Life's okay: "Stay Where You Are" - Ambulance Ltd.
Mental breakdown: "The Bends" - Radiohead
Driving: "Under the Milky Way" - The Church
Learning a lesson: "Chocolate" - Snow Patrol
Deep thought: "Talk About the Passion" - R.E.M.
Flashback: "White Shadows" - Coldplay
Partying: "Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand
Happy dance: "Everything Counts" - Depeche Mode
Regretting: "Motorcycle Drive By" - Third Eye Blind
Long night alone: "Transatlanticism" - Death Cab for Cutie
Death scene: "Casimir Pulaski Day" - Sufjan Stevens
Closing credits: "The Great Beyond" - R.E.M.

According to the questions provided, my life is apparently the subject of an angsty-yet-innocuous teenage chick flick. Yeah, that seems about right.

OK, it's your turn.

(And yes, that's the second survey-type thing I've posted here in a matter of days. Quite frankly, I'm starting to worry myself.)

All American Kid

Popular but not plastic. Athletic but not a jock. Smart but not a brain. You were well rounded and well liked in high school.

...

My lil' sis Renee always disparagingly calls me "a prep," to which I always respond by saying, "I'm not a prep...I'm All-American." Well, this official test from the good folks at BlogThings (though it does depict me as an attractive young redhead) pretty much puts an end to that debate. Ha!

In other news, jet lag is still crampin' my style, but it's slowly getting better. I fell asleep on the couch around 6 tonight, but I'm awake now. Again, I say: Ha!

Just doin' what I'm told here:

List 5 songs that you are currently loving. it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether or not they have words, or even if they're any good. However, they must be songs that you are enjoying right now.

Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your xanga or blog. Then tag 5 other people to see what they're listening to.

The Five I'm Currently Digging:

1. The New Pornographers - "Sing Me Spanish Techno"
2. U2 - "Fast Cars"
3. Ryan Adams - "The Hardest Part"
4. Nada Surf - "In the Mirror"
5. David Crowder*Band - "Secret Ambition" (gotta love the MWS cover!)

I also finally purchased the Wolf Parade cd today, which I'm looking forward to listening to tomorrow.

Oh, and TAG: kuhn, rollotomossey, scmeggiry, helenmelon, and mblgator.

A slow day at the office + A lack of interest in writing anything overly-meaningful = SURVEY!

It's of the 10-9-8-7... variety, and it might make for some interesting reading if your day is going as slowly as mine has. If, after reading it, you haven't a) learned something new about me, or b) laughed or even chuckled at least once, I'll find a way to refund the 3 minutes of your life that I've wrongfully taken.

( Here it is... )

This music survey made the LJ rounds over a year ago, and I feel like busting it out again. Here we go:

Step 1: Open your MP3 player.
Step 2: Put all of your music on random.
Step 3: Write down the first 25 songs it plays, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 4: Profit from seeing how lovely and diverse your friend's tastes are (hopefully)!

1. The Beatles - "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
2. Elliot Smith - "The Last Hour"
3. Nick Drake - "Pink Moon"
4. Wilco - "Heavy Metal Drummer"
5. Delirious? - "Revival Town"
6. Sarah McLachlan - "Angel"
7. The Shins - "Your Algebra"
8. Fleetwood Mac - "Big Love"
9. Bob Dylan - "Simple Twist of Fate"
10. Low - "California"
11. U2 - "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
12. Bob Dylan - "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts"
13. Pavement - "Gold Soundz"
14. Ryan Adams - "So Alive"
15. Bruce Springsteen - "Johnny 99"
16. Wilco - "Be Not So Fearful (live @ KCRW)"
17. They Might Be Giants - "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"
18. Interpol - "C'mere"
19. The Decemberists - "On the Bus Mall"
20. The Wallflowers - "One Headlight"
21. Oasis - "She's Electric"
22. Matt Redman - "Facedown"
23. The Beatles - "You Won't See Me"
24. Snow Patrol - "Tiny Little Fractures"
25. Bruce Springsteen - "Backstreets"

You know what's really scary? A good 1/10th of my 2,000+ .mp3 collection is R.E.M., and they didn't come up once in this list. Strange things are afoot.

Tagging: You know what? I hate "tagging" people to do these kinds of things. I say: if you read this, have a blog, and would like to kill 10 minutes and do this, cool. *Tag*

Instructions:
List five songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words or even if they're any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist and the song in your blog along with your five songs. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

"White Shadows" - Coldplay
"Kohoutek" - R.E.M.
"Helicopter" - Bloc Party
"Everything in Its Right Place" - Radiohead
"Harder Now That It's Over" - Ryan Adams

( See the five other songs that could've easily been in this list. )

I'm tagging:
phatfhorn
abbynormal05
semajim
cadyc
laulaa

I'll talk about last night's show when I get a chance to step off of cloud nine and come back to Earth.

Here it is: the last interview (as far as I can tell). Again, I thoroughly enjoyed thinking about and writing my responses to all these questions, and I hope they weren't too ridiculously long that you didn't enjoy reading them. This time 'round, the questions are courtesy of firecrackerrr; answers are courtesy of me. Melissa's five questions were as follows:

1. What has been your highest point in your faith? Your lowest?
2. Describe your best childhood memory.
3. If you could ask G-d one question, what would you ask?
4. You had an incredible college experience. What is one thing you wish you could have done differently?
5. You meet an incredible girl. She's beautiful. She's intelligent. She's funny. She's perfect. You get to know her, and the more you know, the more you want to know her even better. Before you know it you've fallen in love with her. One problem. She's not a Christian. What do you do?


( And Dave's answers are as follows... )

Today's first interview questions come from Aaron (thelpslayer)...I'll be tackling Melissa's (firecrackerrr) questions next, and that will end what has become a 6-part interview. I don't know if it's 'cause it's Friday and I just can't think straight, or if these questions were particularly hard to answer, but it's taken me a while to think up the responses to these last two interviews. In any case, I've enjoyed answering all the questions posed to me--it's been quite an exercise in creative and analytical thinking. I'm sure it's been more interesting and fun for me to do than for you to read, but nevertheless...here are the next five:

1. The Office Space question: What would you be doing with your life if money wasn't an issue? What's your "dream job"?
2. I know you're not here to witness it firsthand, but based on your experiences and what you hear, what do think is AGO's greatest strength/weakness?
3. What thing that you've created are you most proud of (it could be a song, a photo, a thesis, etc.)?
4. The two schools I had a tough time choosing between were NYU and USC. I liked USC better as a school but NYC far better as a city. What's your prognosis on the schools and their respective cities?
5. How did you feel right before "Operation: Closure"? You had to be at least a little nervous.

( And now, the next batch of long, drawn-out responses. )

Quincy (rollotomossey) was kind enough to submit questions for the never-ending interview (and as he puts it, "they're longer than most, but that's because they're more important.").

You'll notice that my answers are a vain attempt to be just a fraction as witty as he is. I fail miserably, but I encourage you to read on just the same.

( you know the drill by now. )

OK, I'm spending entirely waaay too much time doing these--I think I've asked one other person for questions, but that'll be IT (unless a certain J. Quincy Miller wishes to interview me, in which case I'm up for a good laugh).

Today's questions come from scmeggiry:
1. You're 10-year-old Dave and you're going to stay at a friends house overnight. What's in your backpack?
2. Who was your first real crush and who was your first celebrity crush?
3. What are the best qualities you got from your mom and dad. What are the worst?
4. What is your favorite part of your New York day?
5. You've met the girl of your dreams, you're ready to propose. And you're gonna do it right. How would you propose if money and logistics weren't an issue?

( Click to read some soul-baring and wordy answers. )

I'll probably have a few more of these popping up in the next day or so, seeing as how it's become the latest craze (thanks a lot, shaggy). Nah, it's kinda fun, and it allows me a bit of self-indulgence.

These questions are from pbxtrjn4lfe:
1. (I like this one from Jon so I'm gonna steal it...) What's your first memory of knowing me?

2. What's your funniest memory of living in LA & NY and which still makes you laugh the hardest?

3. Do you think you'll continue to live in NY or do you think you'll move elsewhere? If so, any clue where?

4. Do you think you'll ever get a job involving your degree?

5. And lastly, what would be your advice to someone (i.e. like me) to get their spiritual life back on track?

( click here to read the responses )

I found this on kuhn's journal, and decided to ask him to interview me. Seeing as how it prompted a number of comments on his LJ (15 at last count), this looks to be a popular meme. So here are the instructions...comment, and I'll "interview" you:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are the five questions Jonathan asked me:
1. Do you actually remember meeting me at Orientation, and if so what was your first impression? (If not, then what was your first impression when you actually did meet me?)

2. What would you like to do on your honeymoon? (besides have sex of course)

3. You can only listen to one CD for the rest of your life. What is it?

4. If you had a chance to "do over" anything in your life so far, what would it be and why?

5. What do you consider the worst thing about USC?


And here are my answers: ( click here to read 'em )

Back.

I had a great week spent hanging with Jonathan (kuhn) and Corey, who were here for Spring Break. Many, many fun times and mucho, mucho dinero spent. It was quite nice. I may write more about it later, but in case I don't, you can rest assured that Jonathan most certainly will (and he'll spare no detail, I'm sure).

Speaking of Jonathan, he's the source of today's Quote of the Day:

"That's the thing, the weirdos are so much more endearing here in New York [than in LA]."

Anyway, I'm working on getting all caught up with returning phone calls, e-mails, IMs, and LJ comments from the last 2-3 weeks, so don't feel like I'm avoiding you if I never responded to your communique. Unless you're...well, you'd know if I'm intentionally avoiding you.

In the meantime, if you're truly bored, you can marvel at the fact that a) I have done 39 of the items on this ridiculously silly survey (more than firecrackerrr and kuhn, ha!), or b) that I decided to do this ridiculously silly survey in the first place.

( Either way, enjoy! )

*Self-imposed, both intentional and unintentional. Intentional: I felt that my letter to Rachelle deserved to be the latest post for several days, so that everyone would get a chance to read it and know what a wonderful person she was. Unintentional: I spent nearly every moment of free time I had with Jonathan and Corey, so even if I did want to LJ about something, I really didn't have the time or energy to give a solid effort that my lousy perfectionistic tendencies demand.

It's Saturday morning, and I have internet access in my room (again, I cannot begin to tell you how revolutionary this is, despite the poor wi-fi reception I'm currently getting). It's time to kill some time by doing SURVEYS!

First, The Random Music Survey (taken first from T-Mac, then from Kyle).

( first survey here )

And now, the 10 Random Things You May Not Have Known About DT (taken from Tracy's LJ)
( second survey here )