Liquid Nonsense

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Remained a full-time employee for a full year and traveled to China.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
To the best of my knowledge I didn't make any resolutions last year. I'm going to continue my efforts to try and gain a little weight :-).

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, but my morally bankrupt cousins adopted an Ethiopian child because Ethiopian children look good with Prada.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Personally, no. Still a little close, yes.

5. What countries did you visit?
China over the summer.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A better understanding of what I would actually like to dedicate a reasonable portion of my career to doing.

7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why:
Jan. 14th, 2006. Met Phil. I remember because one month from when we met was Valentines Day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Traveling to China and working with the real Shaolin monks in a training pavilion at the temple in Deng Feng.

9. What was your biggest failure?
My complete and utter lack of interest in closing out the undergraduate stage of my academic career. All the classes are done, but it took me forever to actually fucking graduate. Lousy bureaucratic process.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing outside of the usual sparring accidents. I took an amazing spinning back kick to the ribs sometime late in the summer. That was fun.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I wish I could have said a house, but that will have to wait until 2007. Probably my new LCD tv.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Phil's at several points deserved celebration. My job was sucking my soul out via my anus around April of 2006 and I felt he was a champ putting up with my emotional distress. The innumerable hours spent laughing with Heidi about all the things ridiculous in this world also deserve a mention.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Virtually no day goes by without somebody offending my sensibilities in a way that makes me want to either gag, or severely and irreparably harm their genitalia. Seriously, working at a company that bends to the conservative side makes me question how, as a species, we have ever gotten this far. Boggles the mind!

14. Where did most of your money go?
Miscellaneous classes and food take up the most. Martial arts, yoga, gym, and everything else associated with those activities. Plus all the food required to recover from those activities. Surprisingly, there was also some legitimate savings in there as well.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Receiving my black belt in China, but strangely enough I actually think I was slightly more excited to the see The Fountain by Darren Aaronofsky.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
"Sleeping In" by The Postal Service

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Definitely not fatter. Hopefully not thinner.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer. I've never been a full-time employee before.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Tying up loose ends. I'm far too comfortable leaving things in indeterminate states.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Staying up late and then being tired in the morning? That just sounds like a generic, shitty answer. How about spending less time in crazy boy state?

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Christmas with my family is a 25 minute event that is followed up with nothing in particular. I made my parents watch both Super Size Me, and Thank You for Smoking. Only in retrospect did I appreciate the fact I made my parents watch movies about over-indulgence and bad habits on Christmas Day.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Phil. No question about it. I have the summer cell phone bills to prove it when he went a'travelin'.

22. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Actually, yes.

23. How many one-night stands?
They had their place.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
The only TV show I watch is House. Thank you Mr. Internet.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
A handful of individuals. I don't necessarily hate them... I definitely would not actively seek to harm them, but if I saw them stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire I wouldn't stop to help them.

26. What was the best book you read?
"Lapsing into a comma," by Bill Walsh and "Eon," by Greg Bear. I think.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Dresden Dolls

28. What did you want and get?
My black belt and the opportunity to see China.

29. scene missing

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Toss up between The Fountain and Casino Royale. Secretly I'm a pretty big James Bond fan.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you (optional)?
I survived to be 24. Phil and I had a small gathering at his house where we drank and played Lunch Money. Spending an evening pretending to be little Catholic school girls beating the everliving piss out of each other is an absolutely wonderful way to spend one's birthday.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Coworkers that knew a green lifestyle was an environmental reference, not an economic one.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
Callow youth standing in his Merrell shoes and comfy pants.

34. What kept you sane?
The time spent with Phil and being able to periodically retreat to one of my various projects (e.g., photography, gaming, wandering).

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Hugh Laurie from House.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The most stirring event would have to be watching the Democrats seize control of the House and the Senate. In a close second would be all the smaller events centered around the banning of gay marriage; 'cause I'm happy with my status as a second-class citizen.

37. Whom did you miss?
Phil, when he was traveling or inaccessible due to academic woes. Susahnn for moving to Colorado. Heidi for almost moving away, but brought back by a cruel and twisted yet comically absurd fate.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Phil for being my boyfriend.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006:
It is possible to be someone's friend or boss, but not both at the same time. I have also had it beaten into my head how difficult it can be to relate to people with drastically different world views. For the first time I feel like I am surrounded by people with a completely different ideology, and it's fucking hard. I am honestly not sure how long I will remain with my current company, but the next one will definitely be of a liberal bent and very likely based on renewable economics.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"Don't wake me. I plan on sleeping in."

Labels: meme