2008 in review

[oloriel]

Probably nobody cares at this point, but I'm sure I'll be glad to be able to find this in a coupla years time when I go "2008? What was that again?"

1.) What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Hm. Organised a three-week vacation all by myself. Came back from Japan. Worked with a jackhammer. Did loam plastering. Won NaNoWriMo. Worked as an extra for a movie production. Accepted a proposal of marriage, and got married ^____^

2.) Did you keep your New Year's resolutions?
Not really - not all. I did manage to be a little creative despite everything else. But did not get my room organised. Did not finish my studies. Did succeed in making this a good year, though!

3.) Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not quite, but the sister of a close friend had twins! And two acquaintances are pregnant.

4.) Did anyone close to you die?
I think not.

5.) Which countries did you visit?
Japan; England; Rohan ;)

6.) What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Self-discipline, especially as pertains to university work. A thesis topic, and the willpower to write the bloody thing. Possibly a baby, but that might collide with the other points.

7.) What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory and why?
My first impulse was to say "Pretty much all February, my wild journeyings through Japan", but since I actually keep forgetting that I actually was there - hm. Still.
July 1st - Roman armour, campfire and a proposal, oh my; October 10th and 11th, the wedding.

8.) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Being... erm... involved in the wedding preparations. And all the work on the house. And those 50,000 words in 30 27 days. Oh, and being content for most of the year!

9.) What was your biggest failure of the year?
Not registering for the exams. Not getting the last two bloody credit points I need for doing that, in the first place.

10.) Did you suffer illness or injury?
Well, I fell down the stairs some time in September, but that only gave some bruises. Had a kind of mini-lumbago, and a nasty sore throat for a week, but nothing serious.

11.) What was the best thing you bought?
Erm...
Good question. The books I bought in Kanazawa's used bookshoppe, possibly. (And the JR ticket, but I bought that in 2007 already...)

12.) Where did most of your money go?
FUEL. Mostly fuel. And building materials. And food. But above all, fuel. >.<

13.) Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Oh, many many people's. Jörg's, his mother's, my brother's, my grandmother's, that of various friends... even my own, occasionally.

14.) Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Again, miscellaneous. My own, Jörg's, my parents', MOST DEFINITELY that of pseudo-boss and other people at work.

15.) What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The wedding? :D And the three LARPs I went to this year, all of which were better than any I'd been to before, despite some glitches. The US elections, wtf.

16.) What song will always remind you of 2008?
Schandmaul's "Dein Anblick", to which we danced our Wedding Waltz That Worked; Dragonforce's "Dawn of a New World"; Coldplay's "Viva la Vida"; "Lasse redn" by Die Ärzte; the Tudors title theme; and - shame, shame! - SMAP's "Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana". See, this is why I am incapable of making ONE Soundtrack Of My Life CD: There are waaaay too many songs.

17.) Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Happier, though it's hard to compare.

ii. thinner or fatter?
The same according to the scales; I feel - not exactly thinner, but better in shape.

iii. richer or poorer?
Definitely poorer *sigh*

18.) What do you wish you'd done more of?
University work.

19.) What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinating.

20.) How did you spend Christmas?
With the family on my and on Jörg's side - and it was surprisingly relaxed, for my family.

21.) Did you fall in love in 2008?
Nope - I was there already ;)

22.) How many one-night stands?
Whenever I come to this question, I wonder whether there actually is a majority of people doing this meme who have one-night stands habitually. I don't.

23.) Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate is such a strong word. But I certainly like certain people at work even less than before.

24.) What was your favourite TV programme?
The Tudors, Scrubs, and Battlestar Galactica. And parts of Heroes.

25.) What was the best book you read?
Hm... assuming that this means "... for the first time": Empire of Ivory and Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik, and that insanely entertaining book on SGGK, Trawthe and Treason (that was the one with the erotically charged syntax). Twilight Watch and Last Watch by Sergej Lukianenko. First among Sequels by Jasper Fforde. As for re-reads - for ever and ever Night Watch by Terr--- I mean, SIR Terry Pratchett, and various other Discworld novels I re-read, and The Silmarillion, like anyone's surprised now.

26.) What was your favourite film of this year?
Assuming this means "films that hit cinemas this year and that I actually saw": Elizabeth: The Golden Age (whaat? In Japan that came out in January), The Counterfeiters (see comment on Elizabeth), The Dark Knight, and Inkheart.
... eclectic, eh?

27.) What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don't actually think I made any musical discoveries. Oh wait, yes I did - Bear McCreary! Although to be fair that was my brother's discovery, and he forced it upon me. *g*

28.) What did you want and get?
Wedding, wedding!

29.) What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I turned 25 - there goes my first quarter-of-a-century- and I actually celebrated on my birthday rather than months after. I invited friends over to our house, and most of them came, and we had a nice calm little party, although we ran out of food way too soon >.<. Next time there will be a barbecue or fondue or something like that. Got a Schachtelkranz from my brother which was actually a wreath of socks (but with little boxes inside the socks) because it was a leap year. The 25 little boxes were recycled for the Advent calendar I made for Jörg. :D

30.) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If I had written those papers and gotten those credit points and found a thesis topic and signed up for the exams.
Mind you, the latter two points would also have made it immeasurably more stressful.

31.) What kept you sane?
Jörg, fandom, and a strange but satisfying "It's going to turn out for the best" attitude. As the Colognian would have it, Ett hätt noch emmer jot jejange, or as the Icelander would say, Þetta reddast.

32.) How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
I had a fashion concept? Well, perhaps "If it isn't torn and doesn't smell funny yet, wear it".

33.) Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Barack Obama *embarrassed look*.

34.) What political issue stirred you the most?
Erm... see above? >_>

35.) Who was the best new person you met?
The JAPANESE Japanese relatives, and Mr. Onoe of the Abashiri Tourist Information centre, who tried to find my lost camera and gave me a free tour of Abashiri's big museums with a horde of exchange students from Iraq to lift my mood.

36.) Who did you miss?
Jörg and the kittens, in the first two months; Elia, towards the end of the year. Various friends, whom I didn't see as often as I would've liked to, really.

37.) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Ett hätt noch emmer jot jejange. No, seriously.

38.) Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Huh.
This is going to be cheesy, but:
So soll es sein, so kann es bleiben/ Genau so ist es gut./ Alles passt perfekt zusammen/ weil endlich alles in mir ruht ~ Ich + Ich, "So soll es bleiben"
(Translation: "This is how it should be, this is how it can remain/ This was is exactly right./ Everything fits together perfectly/ because finally everything is at rest within me")

The song as such is rather Faustian, actually - the lyrical ego explains how he is still searching for the perfect moment when he can say the above-quoted lines - but despite the whining about university and stuff, most of this year has been a really good year for me. So... yeah.

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