Everybody's doing it, I'll do it... too
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Had a DJ Residency. Oh, and NaNoWriMo! Quite proud that I won (even if I didn't finish the novel)
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I made a resolution in 1989/90 to never make another resolution again, and I never have
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Lots of people had babies. It seems to be kinda fashionable this year
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes. And the shattering realisation that the suicide of someone you've never "met" but only know through the internet, talking to every day for up to 8 hours a day, can be just as painful and raw as someone you know in the flesh.
5. What countries did you visit?
I went back to NYC for the first time since 9/11. So much nostalgia and so much change.
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Sex.
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory?
None, really. Oh, I guess 9-10 April which may have been the best (and the last) birthday celebration ever.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a job. Keeping that job.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Failing to get Shimura Curves back together, despite an album deal.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
SWINE FLU
11. What were the best things you bought?
Loads and loads and loads of music. I've been on a permanent CD buying binge since getting this job. Oh, and my beautiful PARKA. It is the warmest thing I've ever owned and I love it.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
fucked if I know
13. Whose behavior appalled you?
certain vultures on the internet who shall remain nameless
14. Where did most of your money go?
iTunes, HMV, Rough Trade
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
various Erol stuffs
16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
not a *song* per se, but Aeroplane remixes. Especially Kilometre. RIGHT OVER THE TOP
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder? Happier definitely. Having settled and steady employment takes a great deal of angst out of life.
ii. Thinner or fatter? Fatter. The downside of having a desk job.
iii. Richer or poorer? Much, much, MUCH, richer. This job pays me so much money I don't actually know what to do with it all.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
could probably have stood to do more socialising
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
clubbing. I'm too old for that shit. Seriously.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
By myself, with the phone turned off, eating crap, watching last year's entire series of Doctor Who back to back. It's becoming kind of a tradition.
21. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
Not a fucking clue. Waiting to see if anyone invites me to any parties, but I strongly doubt it. I haven't even been invited to a single Xmas party, by *anyone* so I'm doubting anyone will remember me at New Years.
22. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes. Unfortunately not with any "real" people.
23. How many one-night stands?
None.
24. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't own a tv.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don't think so, but I'm certainly hated by people I wasn't hated by this time last year.
26. What was the best book you read?
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk. It was so amazing I went out and read everything he's ever written.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That I fucking LOVE dance music. Well, I kinda knew that already. But I have discovered so much much much more of this than I ever knew existed. Cosmic Disco, Balearic, Acid, Minimal, Progressive... it's like candy to me.
28. What did you want and get?
A job.
29. What did you want and not get?
Sex.
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I only saw one film in the theatres this year. I went with GiaScala for her birthday to see this art film about a bunch of mad Anatolian villagers who decided to fly to the moon.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went to see Erol Alkan do a 6-hour set and danced til I physically could no longer move. My god, it was fun, but never doing that again.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Sex, sex, sex, ssseeeexxxxx...
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Psychedelic bag lady gets a job in IT.
34. What kept you sane?
The same thing that drove me mad. The internets and my wonderful friends on it.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
First half of the year: Erol Alkan
Second half of the year: Richard D. James
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
It was the year I kind of rediscovered feminism. Mainly through working at a job which totally violated so many feminist principles I kind of took for granted - this whole experience has made me see gender issues in such a different way.
37. Who did you miss?
Someone I'm not going to mention on LJ. But this was the year that I finally accepted that a really important (and I thought) long-term friendship really was over. Or rather, I stopped trying, and she stopped even noticing.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
My colleagues! My boss, Gora, the sys admin, Adam and the general crawling-under-desks IT lad, Gavin. We are the IT Team. We ROOOOOL. We download MP3s and watch Predator vs. Alien clips on YouTube all day long, and occasionally fix computers and it is ACE working with them.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Compromising on politics and philosophical beliefs isn't necessarily the same thing as "selling out". You can survive.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"YOU DON'T FUCK US, N****R WE FUCK YOU" - Electrik Red