Here's some of the things that touched my bean in 2005:

• One word: unicorns. 
• Hearing two Americans close to me who voted for George W. Bush to admit they were wrong.  I wasn't exactly sympathetic to their plight, as I continued to call them stupid and told them it was a little late now. 
• The rediscovery of marble dust in my canvas preparation.
• LOST, the soap opera that never airs and moves slower than molasses, but yet drags me in every time its shown.
• The Blue Genie Christmas Bazaar.  Ten million times better than the old Austin hippies' standard Armadillo Christmas, this year's artists pulled out all the stops and put together a dazzling show. 
• Craiglist, the Austinist and blogs from across Austin - spreading news faster and better than any print publication at a fraction of the cost too. 
• Capote was a damn fine movie.  Sad, oddly jarring, and just swept away by Phillip Seymour Hoffman's title role, it was a great exploration into the creation of great art alongside the reprehensible flaccid lifestyle of lavish shallow party scenes that always seem to follow the arts crowds too close. 
• Lance Armstrong's retirement.  Now maybe that one balled man will finally take his doping allegations home and leave the limelight and keep his mouth shut like that sluggin' steroid poppin' hero Mark McGwire?

And this is what NOTs are all about:

• IPODS - When was the last time you listened to a Walkman?  When was the last time you paid $200 for a Walkman?  Although my vigorous hatred of IPODS broke a bit towards the end of the year, I still can't take them seriously or anyone who proudly brags about theirs. 
• Cellphone users only get worse, don't they?
• Coverage of the arts in Austin.  Beyond a mostly comprehensive section of listings between the Chronicle and Statesman, the river runs dry.
• The ARTHouse charging artists admission to attend the gala opening consisting of donating works from those very artists so the fashionable, rich and fashionable rich don't have to put up with the artists stinking up the place.
• King Kong, Harry Potter, and Star Wars.  Hell, put the Lord of the Rings in there too, for good measure.
• Liberals in Texas who literally cried when the Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment passed by nearly 80% of the vote.  Sure, I think its a pretty ridiculous, needless, and theologically based law, but seriously, were you expecting something else in Texas?  And liberals wonder why they are so hated.
• The continued branding and marketing of America.  Advertising is everywhere and brand names are our new gods.  Why eat Chocolate Lucky Charms when you can buy the original and better Count Chocula?