…that silly little quiz-thing.

So, I’ve done one of these every single year since I was 13, (I think, maybe even younger) and even though it’s kind of ridiculous, I’m going to do one this year! For old times’ sake. Reading over my answers from last year is kinda fun, though!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?:
Um, drank enough to say things like, “I’m going to go walk off ‘the drunk,’ guys” and “The heat, it’s just *waves hands towards face* RISING.” I spray painted snow (haha, SUCK IT, EXAMZ), tried cookie dough for the first time, cooked a full meal (i.e. involving meat) and got a job/quit it!

Well, this is going to be a fun one! I got kissed for the first time, drove on the highway, tried out fitness classes, smoked up…and got my face mauled by a guy friend. Man, the latter was bad times.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?:
I didn’t make any…just cos I always break them. Oops.
Yeah, I don’t make any; I just have ever-changing goals throughout the year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?:
Nope, not that I’m aware of…
Yes! My friend had a baby boy!

4. Did anyone close to you die?:
Nope, knock on wood.
Dodged that bullet for another year.

5. What countries did you visit?:
Croatia, Bosnia and Germany.
I only went to Montreal this year. Boo.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?:
Well, to be honest, a dude and some self-confidence.
More self-control.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?:
There is no one date that sticks out impressively, but definitely the Alexis show (13.12.2007), my 19th birthday, and the two crazy nights at Eleni’s.
My 20th birthday, Warped, the day TREOS broke up…and that’s about it.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?:
Well, I managed to lose about 30 lbs from April to August…
Funny; did the same thing, only just from August to September.

9. What was your biggest failure?:
Gaining that weight and more back again. Oh, and organic chemistry.
Gaining it back (I hate my yo-yo weight), and trusting people too much.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?:
Yeah, I sprained my ankle, but other than that, just colds and such.
Holy crap, my life is so lame. I re-sprained that same ankle, nearly exactly a year later. I also added a thumb sprain to that.

11. What was the best thing you bought?:
My supras were my fave thing…and then they ended up annihilating themselves…I think, my Saosin booty shorts are up there. Actually, just all the CDs, show tickets and merch. It all rocked.
My Bench hoodie, CDs, show tickets, merch…yeah, pretty much. A few books here and there, as well.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?:
Umm…?
Yeah, ummm…?

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?:
A certain someone I don’t talk to anymore, and my brother’s.
Another certain someone I had a massive falling out with. My brother’s been okay this year, haha.

14. Where did most of your money go?:
Shows, merch, CDs and Starbucks. Oh man.
Food, shows, merch and CDs. I am SO predictable!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?:
ALEXIS. The new TREOS album. Transformers. Our XBOX 360 and Halo. My new iPod. The ATL/BLG secret show. I tend to get excited a lot.
Um. Shows and albums. Clare coming back, finishing second year, starting third, my then-bf, life in general…

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?:
This is always so bloody hard. Um, I’ll go for albums first…

1. The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi – TREOS
2. So Wrong, It’s Right – All Time Low
3. Infinity On High – Fall Out Boy
4. Chase This Light – Jimmy Eat World
5. Saosin – Saosin

Songs:
1. Awakening – Switchfoot
2. Glass Danse – The Faint
3. There Is No Mathematics To Love and Loss – Anberlin
4. Dismantle.Repair – Anberlin
5. Pages – There For Tomorrow

…and the song that is currently taking over my life: A Cause des Garcons – Yelle ♥
MULLET, MULLET, WIN, FLEAS, FLEAS, WIN, WIN.

I think that this year has been dominated, once again, by TREOS, closely followed by Thrice and Cut Copy…and most recently, Lady Gaga and Moving Mountains.
Picking one song is actually impossible.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or hardened?: Hardened, for sure. Even more hardened…
ii. thinner or fatter?: Um, the same. Yeah, same.
iii. richer or poorer?: Richer…thanks, ‘Blaws. Richer, thanks to the Rog + coaching.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?:
Relaxed. Taken risks.
Relaxed, for sure.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?:
I wish I hadn’t stressed out as much and wasted my energy on people who didn’t deserve it.
Yep. I wish I had stressed and pined less.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?:
With friends and fam, cooking, baking, listening to music and eating.
Spent it the same way! =)

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?:
No, fell out, more like.
Nope.

23. How many one-night stands?:
None.
Same deal.

24. What was your favorite TV program?:
ONE TREE HILL, CSI, So You Think You Can Dance,’Allo ‘Allo, and Firefly.
BATTLESTAR FRACKIN GALACTICA, Red vs. Blue.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?:
Again, hate is a rough word, but some people that are douches aren’t in my life anymore, so it’s all good.
Same deal this year!

26. What was the best book/fanfic you read?:
1. Shoebox Project
2. I Am America, and So Can You
3. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Jeff Moon – Nymphomation

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?:
OMG, Saosin. Holy fuck. Also, The Summer Obsession, All Time Low.
Moving Mountains, Emery, Family Force 5, 3OH!3, Lady Gaga, Metro Station, MGMT, Cut Copy, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Take the Crown, We the Kings.

28. What did you want and get?:
A new iPod…and the XBOX 360 =)
A boy…

29. What did you want and not get?:
A dude. Sigh.
Complete control of my life. Although, that’s in my hands, rather than fate’s.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
TRANS-MOTHERFUCKING-FORMERS.
The Dark Knight. Hands down.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?:
I turned 19 and I went to Zaphod’s and Zak’s with my closest friends. It was SO AWESOME.
I turned 20, and hosted a black tie dinner at my house, followed by cocktails at Alex’s. There was so much hilarity with some of my best friends. Win.

32. What’s one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?:
*COUGH*A dude*COUGH* This is getting sad, isn’t it?
Having kept the weight off. Oh well.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?:
Trying to ditch the whole ‘man’ thing and embracing the fact I’m female and LOVE fashion.
Same as usual, really, just starting to up the class a bit.

34. What kept you sane?:
Music and a couple of select awesome people.
Yeah, same deal this year.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?:
Huh…I tend to not entirely focus on one individual. I kinda fangirled All Time Low. Mmmm…Zack.
Hmm…I didn’t really fancy any people that weren’t ‘real,’ so to speak.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?:
Politics, in general, piss me off…
The godforsaken coalition and Harper winning again.

37. Who did you miss?:
During the summer, my friends. Generally, my dad.
Clare, during the summer, and Carolyn.

38. Who was the best new person you met?:
Um, well, I just got to know a bunch of people a lot better…
Alain and Melina, for sure, followed closely by all the other veebs people.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Stop putting yourself second to everyone else.
You’re the one holding on to the reins.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“…hey now, the past is told by those who win, my darling,
what matters is what hasn’t been.”

“There’s got to be more than this, I don’t want to just exist.”

…and that’s it! All in all, nothing to different occurred…same shit, different…year. Hah. The stuff that did change, though, all happened in the last month or so, pretty much. Weird.  It was a good year, though.

…the best of 2008!

I’m usually a complete failure at remembering these things, mainly because my sense of the length of a year is rather impaired. I can never remember whether something came out this year or last, and frequently, I buy albums years after their release, and watch shows way after they’ve finished. I don’t know. In any case, here is what I actually can remember from this year (in no particular order).

ALBUMS

1. Funeral for a Friend – Memory and Humanity

2. Senses Fail – Life is Not a Waiting Room

3. Anberlin – New Surrender

4. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

5. Thrice – The Alchemy Index, Vol. 3 + 4

6. Britney Spears – Circus

7. Lady Gaga – The Fame

8. Story of the Year – The Black Swan

9. Family Force 5 – Dance or Die

10. Forgive Durden – Razia’s Shadow

11. There for Tomorrow – S/T

Yeah, I’ve decided that 11 is an appropriate number…which makes me think of Red vs. Blue. Hahaha.

“There is no 11, you fucking WHORE!” – Church

TV

1. Red vs. Blue

2. Battlestar Galactica (forever the best show.)

3. Guy’s Big Bite

4. Manswers

SHOWS

1. July 12^th – Warped Tour; Story of the Year, Anberlin, 3OH!3, Just Surrender, We the Kings, Every Time I Die, Family Force 5, Cobra Starship

2. February 26^th – Cobra Starship, Metro Station, We the Kings, The Cab

3. September 3^rd – Fedstock; Alexisonfire

4. April 2^nd – Between the Buried and Me, Goetia, Lye By Mistake

MOVIES

1. The Dark Knight

2. Ironman

3. Role Models

4. Quantum of Solace

…and that’s it for my year-end lists. Writing out why I liked each one of these items would have taken me the better part of the rest of this year, so just take my word for it; shit’s awesome.

…wake up, you’re sleeping behind the wheel.

I am due to start my studying schedule of the day in 24 minutes, and am really dreading it. The only exam that I am currently worried about is physchem, and it is this Sunday…urghhh. The other two I have to write, the German oral and Intro to Biz, are going to be straightforward, and not particularly demanding, thankfully.

I have been massively hit with the exam crazy, which as a result, is making me hate everything about the holidays and life. I’m stressed out, have gained weight, and am not entirely sure I remember what joy feels like.

In any case, I came back to this blog to write down things I appreciate, in hopes of throwing me back into a normal sphere of thought. That is to say, I want to focus on the positive again.

So, without further ado, I will list the things I currently appreciate:

1. All the music currently keeping me going (particularly the songs “Yellow Angels” by Senses Fail, and “Control” by Alexisonfire)

2. Clare, Jenn, Alex and Maja; without them, I’d have probably driven my head through a window by now.

3. The Food Network and our absurdly large new television

4. All the lovely snow!

5. My badass winter jacket and how bright it is.

…and that’s what I am thankful for today.