(no subject)
Dec. 29th, 2015 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hathycolI've been doing this meme for 12 odd years now. Bloody hell. I do actually start thinking of answers part way through the year, then I sit down and can barely remember what I had for lunch. Still, here goes...
01. What did you do in 2015 that you'd never done before?
Joined tumblr (it's still horrid)
Running! Lots of running! According to my wee app I've done 131.14km this year, and there were some unlogged runs as well, so, yeah. GO ME.
Really got into graphic novels and comics, enough to be able to occasionally recommend things to people rather than my previous 'check on Wikipedia if this matches the films'
02. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Last year: ...I would like to ensure that I work on talking to more people and trying to... if not make new friends, at least securing now acquaintances.
Oh such a failure. Unless 'interviewing people to work in your company and then losing all credibility with them at the Christmas party' counts.
Next year, I would like to take it back a level and just plain be a better friend. I think of people a lot, and love reading social media updates and doing cards and catching up at weddings, but I want to be better at just dropping a text and saying hey. Just because I'm lazy and cheerfully don't think any worse of anyone for not contacting me for months and end doesn't mean others feel the same.
Also: I have signed up for a 10km in May. So that's a thing.
03. Did someone close to you give birth?
Yep! Katie had baby Alba at the start of the year. Current money is that she will be known as Baby Alba until she is at least 36.
04. Did anyone close to you die?
My nan died in January. It sucked. I really missed her this Christmas.
05. What countries did you visit?
Corfu! Which is Greece, obviously. I can't say I saw a lot of the island, but I drank a lot of watered down Zorba beer and discovered that the wine on Corfu is a damn sight better than Crete.
06. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?
Last year I wanted a new bed. This was ACHIEVED and lo for I am SO WELL RESTED you guys.
I think in 2016 I would like some career progression, or at least a plan in place for it. I have my appraisal next month, so this might actually happen.
07. What date from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
23rd March 2015. Also, there are lots of events I can't remember a precise date for but I will remember the actual events, such as my grandmother's funerals, the wedding of Ali and Andrew, the holiday. A really lovely evening out when we celebrated mutual awesome work things and drank champagne and cocktails in the Oxo Tower.
08. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Passing my college course and not killing anyone.
Completing the Couch to 5km app, meaning I will survive the zombie apocalypse for an extra 40 minutes at least.
09. What was your biggest failure(s)?
See above re: friends.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I referred to disastrous laryngitis in last year's answer. Oh, god, plus ca change. Plus also my significantly un-fun ear infection.
The biggie, of course, is that this year I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I've obviously had it for years, but 2015 is the year I had to deal with it. (I got drunk and told my mum and sister about it in detail on Christmas Day evening and then we swapped assorted gynecological issues for half an hour. When I say I'm an evolutionary cul de sac I really ain't kidding.)
11. What was the best thing you bought?
MY BEAUTIFUL BED, IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL. It turns out that not feeling the springs is the bare minimum for most other people but after our last bed it's like sleeping on AIR.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Friends. Family. Richie.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Marian. The Corporate Mothership on too many occasions.
14. Where did most of your money go?
This year we paid off the last of our debts and lo, for 2016 shall dawn bright. For about 20 minutes, and then we'll start bunging all the money we were paying on that into saving to buy a house. The rest was probably on food and booze, which definitely counts as a hobby, right..?
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Every time I had to chance to catch up with friends. Marvel films and geeky stuff. MEETING RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON, if by 'excited' you mean 'cried'.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or Sadder? Happier, just about; I have a better awareness of being sad, at least, rather than a constant ennui.
ii. Thinner or fatter? The scales are about the same but the clothes are fitting better. You tell me at this point.
iii. Richer or Poorer? Richer - more payrises and did I mention the debt free?
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing - I have a Peggy Is Friends With Janet Van Dyne, This Is Canon Now half finished and I can't quite work out how to link it all together. (But I did do more this year. It's been eight months and I still get daily kudos updates on Coda! How lovely.)
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Low-level fretting. You know, the type that's about nothing big but you just don't sleep for a week? Yeah. That.
And less CIPD work, but that was a necessary evil and frankly I had that down to the barest minimum.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
See last update :)
Tomorrow we are having a Friendsmas party (be ye in London? Come along!) where from 5pm onwards it's open house. Buffet starts about 6.30pm-ish. Come along, nibble, leave when you want. This is to accommodate the people who are working that day (in a couple of cases, on shifts) or working the next day (which includes me, alas). I keep thinking I don't have enough food for it, but I just made a list of everything to calm me down and it's half an A4 page long. Narrow-ruled. And I didn't even list the puddings (inc. cheeseboard) separately!
22. Did you fall in love in 2015?
Does Cap/Bucky fic count
23. How many one-night stands?
Does Cap/Bucky fic count
24. What was your favorite TV program?
Hrm. That's a tricky one. Doctor Who was great this year. I fell in love with Agent Carter. We had Jessica Jones and Daredevil give us the two greatest Marvel villains who were so scary because they didn't want to rule the world, they just wanted what they thought was their right. And The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, apart from anything else, gave us a song about Pinot Noir. And Wolf Hall, which was so like I had imagined the books it may as well as been filmed in my head.
Not a bad year!
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Developed work nemesis. Had several other people reveal to me he was also their work nemesis. He has now resigned. We had a very quiet party.
26. What was the best book you read?
Argh, this is another tricky one! I read The Dark Tower books, and loved three of them and read the rest and then shouted crossly at the person who recommended them to me. So I would perhaps recommend The Wolves of Calla if they all matched it.
I read lots of graphic novels this year. Big points to Hawkeye, Ms Marvel and Sex Criminals but the overall victor by a country mile is Saga. Not read it? Read it. Don't like graphic novels? Read it and be converted.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Patti Smith. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT HER BEFORE?
28. What did you want and get?
That bed, which I know I keep wanging on about, but still.
29. What did you want and not get?
That lottery win still hasn't turned up. Also: a Labour government.
30. Favourite film of this year?
This year we got Ant-Man and Age of Ultron. I am as surprised as you that my answer, therefore, is Mad Max: Fury Road.
Then again, it's a dystopian arthouse patriarchy destroying car chase, so perhaps not so surprising.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 28 and I went to work. At the weekend beforehand I meant to go out and drink with people but it sort of didn't happen as intended. But Louise was staying on the actual ay, so we got a curry in and watched terrible films.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Socialising more over a more sustained period of time, rather than SEE ALL THE PEOPLE FOR EVERY WEEKEND FOR TWO MONTHS IN A ROW and then hiding in a cupboard for three weeks.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?
'Jeggings: Because Waistbands Are Tricky With Your Metabolism'
34. What kept you sane?
Fandom; running; yoga; Richie; remembering the light always comes back in the end.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Chris Evans (not the ginger one). Weirdly, Sebastian Stan. I don't find Sebastian Stan attractive. I mean, I actually don't. And yet my subconscious says otherwise.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The idiocy and short-sightedness of too many of the right wing, to vote them back in despite this screwing over the most vulnerable, the continual screwing over of the most vulnerable in the quest for some sort of imaginary future where there are no poor people without anything to alleviate poverty.
37. Who do you miss?
Nan.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON. Let's just say that again: RICHARD DEAN 'JACK O'NEILL' ANDERSON.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015:
You are not just a consciousness in a meatsack. This is the only body you have. It can do terrible things. This year you've worked out a lot of it doesn't work right. But you've also worked out a lot of stuff you thought was broken isn't. You can run for a bus. In heels, on one notable day. You can stretch and make beautiful lines. You can comfort. You can look good but it also doesn't matter, perhaps, so much. You have done bad things. You are not a perfect person. Stop feeling guilty for what you are doing, for what you are not doing, and concentrate on being proud for what are doing, for what you are not going. Stop apologising. You are improving. You are enough.
In short, I am... making peace, a little, with what and who I am. "I know my value. No one else's opinion really matters."
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Two of repeated and sprung up in the most unlikely places, and they're related:
"I will show you my sins/and you will sharpen the knife."(Hozier, Take Me To Church)
"Jesus died/for somebody's sins/but not mine." (Patti Smith, Gloria, emphasis mine.)
It's all linked in with the above, I think.
Overall: a mixed bag, but miles better than 2014. Roll on 2016.
01. What did you do in 2015 that you'd never done before?
Joined tumblr (it's still horrid)
Running! Lots of running! According to my wee app I've done 131.14km this year, and there were some unlogged runs as well, so, yeah. GO ME.
Really got into graphic novels and comics, enough to be able to occasionally recommend things to people rather than my previous 'check on Wikipedia if this matches the films'
02. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Last year: ...I would like to ensure that I work on talking to more people and trying to... if not make new friends, at least securing now acquaintances.
Oh such a failure. Unless 'interviewing people to work in your company and then losing all credibility with them at the Christmas party' counts.
Next year, I would like to take it back a level and just plain be a better friend. I think of people a lot, and love reading social media updates and doing cards and catching up at weddings, but I want to be better at just dropping a text and saying hey. Just because I'm lazy and cheerfully don't think any worse of anyone for not contacting me for months and end doesn't mean others feel the same.
Also: I have signed up for a 10km in May. So that's a thing.
03. Did someone close to you give birth?
Yep! Katie had baby Alba at the start of the year. Current money is that she will be known as Baby Alba until she is at least 36.
04. Did anyone close to you die?
My nan died in January. It sucked. I really missed her this Christmas.
05. What countries did you visit?
Corfu! Which is Greece, obviously. I can't say I saw a lot of the island, but I drank a lot of watered down Zorba beer and discovered that the wine on Corfu is a damn sight better than Crete.
06. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?
Last year I wanted a new bed. This was ACHIEVED and lo for I am SO WELL RESTED you guys.
I think in 2016 I would like some career progression, or at least a plan in place for it. I have my appraisal next month, so this might actually happen.
07. What date from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
23rd March 2015. Also, there are lots of events I can't remember a precise date for but I will remember the actual events, such as my grandmother's funerals, the wedding of Ali and Andrew, the holiday. A really lovely evening out when we celebrated mutual awesome work things and drank champagne and cocktails in the Oxo Tower.
08. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Passing my college course and not killing anyone.
Completing the Couch to 5km app, meaning I will survive the zombie apocalypse for an extra 40 minutes at least.
09. What was your biggest failure(s)?
See above re: friends.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I referred to disastrous laryngitis in last year's answer. Oh, god, plus ca change. Plus also my significantly un-fun ear infection.
The biggie, of course, is that this year I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I've obviously had it for years, but 2015 is the year I had to deal with it. (I got drunk and told my mum and sister about it in detail on Christmas Day evening and then we swapped assorted gynecological issues for half an hour. When I say I'm an evolutionary cul de sac I really ain't kidding.)
11. What was the best thing you bought?
MY BEAUTIFUL BED, IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL. It turns out that not feeling the springs is the bare minimum for most other people but after our last bed it's like sleeping on AIR.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Friends. Family. Richie.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Marian. The Corporate Mothership on too many occasions.
14. Where did most of your money go?
This year we paid off the last of our debts and lo, for 2016 shall dawn bright. For about 20 minutes, and then we'll start bunging all the money we were paying on that into saving to buy a house. The rest was probably on food and booze, which definitely counts as a hobby, right..?
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Every time I had to chance to catch up with friends. Marvel films and geeky stuff. MEETING RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON, if by 'excited' you mean 'cried'.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or Sadder? Happier, just about; I have a better awareness of being sad, at least, rather than a constant ennui.
ii. Thinner or fatter? The scales are about the same but the clothes are fitting better. You tell me at this point.
iii. Richer or Poorer? Richer - more payrises and did I mention the debt free?
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing - I have a Peggy Is Friends With Janet Van Dyne, This Is Canon Now half finished and I can't quite work out how to link it all together. (But I did do more this year. It's been eight months and I still get daily kudos updates on Coda! How lovely.)
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Low-level fretting. You know, the type that's about nothing big but you just don't sleep for a week? Yeah. That.
And less CIPD work, but that was a necessary evil and frankly I had that down to the barest minimum.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
See last update :)
Tomorrow we are having a Friendsmas party (be ye in London? Come along!) where from 5pm onwards it's open house. Buffet starts about 6.30pm-ish. Come along, nibble, leave when you want. This is to accommodate the people who are working that day (in a couple of cases, on shifts) or working the next day (which includes me, alas). I keep thinking I don't have enough food for it, but I just made a list of everything to calm me down and it's half an A4 page long. Narrow-ruled. And I didn't even list the puddings (inc. cheeseboard) separately!
22. Did you fall in love in 2015?
23. How many one-night stands?
24. What was your favorite TV program?
Hrm. That's a tricky one. Doctor Who was great this year. I fell in love with Agent Carter. We had Jessica Jones and Daredevil give us the two greatest Marvel villains who were so scary because they didn't want to rule the world, they just wanted what they thought was their right. And The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, apart from anything else, gave us a song about Pinot Noir. And Wolf Hall, which was so like I had imagined the books it may as well as been filmed in my head.
Not a bad year!
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Developed work nemesis. Had several other people reveal to me he was also their work nemesis. He has now resigned. We had a very quiet party.
26. What was the best book you read?
Argh, this is another tricky one! I read The Dark Tower books, and loved three of them and read the rest and then shouted crossly at the person who recommended them to me. So I would perhaps recommend The Wolves of Calla if they all matched it.
I read lots of graphic novels this year. Big points to Hawkeye, Ms Marvel and Sex Criminals but the overall victor by a country mile is Saga. Not read it? Read it. Don't like graphic novels? Read it and be converted.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Patti Smith. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT HER BEFORE?
28. What did you want and get?
That bed, which I know I keep wanging on about, but still.
29. What did you want and not get?
That lottery win still hasn't turned up. Also: a Labour government.
30. Favourite film of this year?
This year we got Ant-Man and Age of Ultron. I am as surprised as you that my answer, therefore, is Mad Max: Fury Road.
Then again, it's a dystopian arthouse patriarchy destroying car chase, so perhaps not so surprising.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 28 and I went to work. At the weekend beforehand I meant to go out and drink with people but it sort of didn't happen as intended. But Louise was staying on the actual ay, so we got a curry in and watched terrible films.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Socialising more over a more sustained period of time, rather than SEE ALL THE PEOPLE FOR EVERY WEEKEND FOR TWO MONTHS IN A ROW and then hiding in a cupboard for three weeks.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?
'Jeggings: Because Waistbands Are Tricky With Your Metabolism'
34. What kept you sane?
Fandom; running; yoga; Richie; remembering the light always comes back in the end.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Chris Evans (not the ginger one). Weirdly, Sebastian Stan. I don't find Sebastian Stan attractive. I mean, I actually don't. And yet my subconscious says otherwise.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The idiocy and short-sightedness of too many of the right wing, to vote them back in despite this screwing over the most vulnerable, the continual screwing over of the most vulnerable in the quest for some sort of imaginary future where there are no poor people without anything to alleviate poverty.
37. Who do you miss?
Nan.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON. Let's just say that again: RICHARD DEAN 'JACK O'NEILL' ANDERSON.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015:
You are not just a consciousness in a meatsack. This is the only body you have. It can do terrible things. This year you've worked out a lot of it doesn't work right. But you've also worked out a lot of stuff you thought was broken isn't. You can run for a bus. In heels, on one notable day. You can stretch and make beautiful lines. You can comfort. You can look good but it also doesn't matter, perhaps, so much. You have done bad things. You are not a perfect person. Stop feeling guilty for what you are doing, for what you are not doing, and concentrate on being proud for what are doing, for what you are not going. Stop apologising. You are improving. You are enough.
In short, I am... making peace, a little, with what and who I am. "I know my value. No one else's opinion really matters."
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Two of repeated and sprung up in the most unlikely places, and they're related:
"I will show you my sins/and you will sharpen the knife."(Hozier, Take Me To Church)
"Jesus died/for somebody's sins/but not mine." (Patti Smith, Gloria, emphasis mine.)
It's all linked in with the above, I think.
Overall: a mixed bag, but miles better than 2014. Roll on 2016.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-30 04:10 pm (UTC)I have just started watching Jessica Jones (three episodes in) and find Kilgrave completely terrifying. It took ages for my heart rate to come down again after the first episode, because the tension was so huge.
Yay for new beds! Ours is okay, but the springs are slightly pokey; it is much better than the one in Rob's old flat, which had an old blanket over the mattress and still left me with sore arms/hips on the side I'd slept on due to springs jabbing me. (Nothing, however, compares to the Premier Inn we stayed at after a friend's wedding, in which I had the best sleep I have had in my life. I wanted to stay forever.)
YAY FURY ROAD (always my reaction).
Looking forward to Friendsmas! (Especially the half-an-A4-page's worth of food.)