What better way is there to break a long silence (one which I feel I need to break by updating what I’ve been up to) than to recap the events of the year… thanks to these questions I nicked off Nathanael’s blog.
1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Prayed much more specifically than I ever have before, and had those prayers answered.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t recall making any for 2008. I’ve never really been into NYR’s, but there are certainly things I would like to do for 09, such as read more, eat healthier, exercise more, pray more, give-up on things less, and pay more attention to friendships/relationships. Rather than making these resolutions though, I need to make a resolution to plan to achieve these wishes…Rodney Olsen explains well!
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
5. What countries/states did you visit?
Thailand. In Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Wow. Um. Less laziness. The ability to get more things done, or to at least use my time wisely. More time with friends.
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I don’t recall anything big happening this year – just a number of smaller things. I imagine the dates and period of the year will fade over time.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Nothing that I feel was big – but there were many smaller achievements in getting over hurdles at work in order to realise our vision.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Allowing insecurities to get the best of me in too many circumstances.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My iPhone 
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
A few close friends.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Won’t mention it in this public space.
Although for people in public life, Robert Mugabe will easily take that cake.
14. Where did most of your money go?
That’s a good question… probably into rent, actually . Aside from that, I donated a lot to various causes.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Really, really, really excited about? I honestly don’t know… I don’t think I get that excited…
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
I haven’t been that into music lately, and probably all that will remind me of the year is a song that came out this year. So it’d have to be something recent…. perhaps Gabriella Cilmi’s multi-Aria award winning Sweet About Me.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:?
a) happier or sadder: about the same, maybe? And that’s because I think I’ve gone both ways. I know more now than I did last year, and some of it makes me expectantly happy, and some of it makes me sad at the state of some people.
b) thinner or fatter: probably a little fatter. Just a little.
c) richer or poorer: the same! but I need to save more.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
I touched on this in question 6. I wish I’d spent more time with friends and got to know people better. I also wish I’d done a few other things (such as cook a few more meals and read more). All in all, I wish I hadn’t wasted so much of my time being lazy!
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Wasted so much of my time being lazy!
20. How did you spend Christmas?
With family . In Samut Prakan, Thailand. Last Christmas together as an immediate family – in fact our last time together as an immediate family. Karis gets married in August 2009 and will have her own family as her husband-to-be brings in his foster son, and I likely won’t see Karis again until a week or so before the wedding!
21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
No.
22. How many one-night stands?
Hang on, just gotta count…. kidding. Zero!
23. What was your favourite TV program?
Gossip Girl probably takes it… others would be reruns on Comedy Channel such as The Wedge, The Late Shift, Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister, and Are You Being Served?.
24. Did you make a friend with anyone that you didn’t know this time last year?
Yes, quite a few.
25. What was the best book you read?
Arhm….. probably the latest Neue Resources book (which I haven’t finished yet) from the guys at neueministry.com. There are many more lining my bookshelf which I’m sure would have been great if I did read them.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Haha, didn’t make many discoveries I’m afraid.
27. What did you want and get?
Stop asking me questions!
28. What did you want and not get?
Many things. 10 million dollars, a house, a car…. ok, fine. Just getting sick of questions that I don’t know how to answer right away.
29. What was your favourite film of this year?
Australia was pretty good. But I also didn’t see many films.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 20 in January this year, and I went out to a quiet dinner with 4 friends.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If you’ve read this far, you will be able to answer this from my previous answers.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Hahaha hopefully it improved a bit. I’m trying to look modern and sophisticated. There’s a few more things I need to do… such as get new glasses.
33. What kept you sane?
Laughing during our crazy conversations at home.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Paris Hilton? No, kidding. Really, probably no-one.
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
I’m not going to be able to boil this down to one, so: Robert Mugabe’s continuing control over Zimbabwe, the blocking of foreign aid after Burma’s Cyclone Nargis, and the crazy back-and-forth of pro and anti government protesters in Thailand.
36. Who did you miss?
My family in Thailand…
37. Who was the best new person you met?
Wow… it would have to be someone I met through my job, hard again to bring it down to one person but it would be Nathaniel Garvin.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
That sometimes, other people really are completely f**ked up and you really don’t have to comply with their demands as soon as you’ve figured that out!
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Skipping this one because I’ll have to go off and find a song just to answer the question.
And that’s it… I’m really not a fan of these hot seat questions, but in a way it’s nice because it makes me analyze further what I have learned this year. To sum things up, I’ve become more secure in who I am and what I believe in, I’ve gotten to know myself a bit better, and I’ve learned to be more discerning of other people. I still have further to go though!
We’re going out tonight to Central World Bangkok for New Year’s Eve celebrations… and are trusting that the red shirt anti-government protesters (the more peaceful ones) don’t find reason to bomb the celebrations like it was rumored they did after the coup two years ago.
See you in 2009!
(posted 6:16pm Thailand time)
Great list. I love number one especially and will be setting goals for something similar this year.
Thanks for the link.
Interesting list. I started to do one of these yesterday but there are just too many things that I would prefer to either not remember or make public from 2008, so I decided to delete what I had written after about the tenth question.
On the plus side, I can mirror your answers to questions 21 and 22 (OK, so 21 might not be considered a plus by some people, but at this point in time I consider it a positive thing), but I’m a tad concerned that I may be the subject of your answer to question 13 after a few things that happened during the year.
I hope you’re enjoying your time out of the country.
Samuel,
I can assure you that you are not the subject of question 13. And you probably never will be…. well, aside from one thing which we both know
I try to be very open on my blog and through social networking – and in most cases am very much when it concerns only me – but this is the type of post where some things get closed up… I think I was probably cryptic for several questions. Some things just have to stay out of the public arena!
Anyway, I think its helpful to do – even if its not posted – because there is so much that you can realise about yourself as you fill it out.
See you soon
Cheers
Tim
Brilliant list of questions there…and great answers Tim! First time on your site and am very impressed. Inspiring. Any suggestions as to how to go about making a site? Anyway, questions 6 and 35 I wholly and utterly agree with. My goodness, I could write a 6-page essay on question 6, though if it was mid-2008 or earlier, I would’ve been too lazy and ignorant to write it, if you know what I mean! Frankly, the first 7 months of 2008 was a mess for me in more ways than one…but I’ve learnt a lot along the way.
It was GREAT though to catch up in November…along with India in January, that was a highlight for me in 2008. Cheers! =]
Love the social networking blog post too. Very interesting.
Ciao =]
Thanks Steve – sure, more than happy to chat with you about a website; we will have to do that when we catch up again (February?
)