Year-end meme

I warned you all at the start of the Holidailies endeavor that I would be writing a bunch of filler entries, if the Japan entries weren’t proof enough. (Although given the focus of the site, those entries weren’t exactly off-topic.)

I usually fill out the following meme every two years, but now that we’re in the final stretch of Holidailies, I figure I may as well get lazy.

Yes, I have a whole bunch of stuff I could be reviewing, but I need a break too, you know?

We’ll get back to the regularly scheduled punditry tomorrow. Perhaps.

  1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
    Travel to a foreign country! I also visited Seattle.
  2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

    No. I thought I would learn how to swim this year. I was too pissed off at 70 days of triple-digit heat to bother.

  3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

    No.

  4. Did anyone close to you die?

    Not yet, and not fast enough.

  5. What countries did you visit?

    Japan!

  6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

    Five percent of my salary and a raise.

  7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

    Nov. 17-24, the week I spent in Japan. Also Sept. 4-6, the weekend I spent in Seattle.

  8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
    Surviving this goddamn past fucking summer.
  9. What was your biggest failure?
    I’m still living in Austin.
  10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    I sprained my knee when I went running one day.
  11. What was the best thing you bought?
    Digital food scale.
  12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
    My brother.
  13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
    My dad.
  14. Where did most of your money go?
    Japan!
  15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    Japan! Do you see a pattern here? I was also really glad to travel to Seattle to visit friends I had seen in years.
  16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
    Probably anything off of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea. I played that album to death this year.
  17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

    a. happier or sadder

    b. thinner or fatter

    c. richer or poorer?

    a. Angrier b. Thinner c. Fuck you

  18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
    Job hunting
  19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
    Living in Austin
  20. How will you be spending/did you spend Christmas?
    Had Christmas dinner with friends, then played Scrabble.
  21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
    With whom?
  22. How many one-night stands?
    One, and it was so not worth it.
  23. What was your favorite TV program?
    Ace of Cakes, BLEACH, Death Note, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. Oh, that’s four.
  24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
    No, I still hate pretty much the same people.
  25. What was the best book you read?
    Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager by Michael Lopp, a.k.a. Rands of Rands in Repose.
  26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
    Although I downloaded it last year, I spent most of 2009 listening to Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea.
  27. What did you want and get?
    A trip to Japan!
  28. What did you want and not get?
    Five percent of my salary and a raise.
  29. What was your favorite film of this year?
    BLEACH the Movie 2: The DiamondDust Rebellion.
  30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
    I turned 37, and I probably went out for margaritas.
  31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    Five percent of my salary and a raise.
  32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
    Size 34 jeans.
  33. What kept you sane?
    N/A.
  34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
    Matthew Bomer.
  35. What political issue stirred you the most?
    Equality.
  36. Who did you miss?
    Same answer as last year, despite visiting him in Seattle. Probably because I didn’t realize how much I really did.
  37. Who was the best new person you met?
    My social circle is still small.
  38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
    Brown rice really is better than white rice.
  39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
    It doesn’t sum up my year, but I sang along with it enough times: But now we must pick up every piece / Of the life we used to love / Just to keep ourselves / At least enough to carry on — "Holland 1945", Neutral Milk Hotel (On second thought, maybe it does.)