1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Graduated Uni, worked in an office, went to a festival abroad, went abroad without any parental / school supervision, went abroad on two seperate occasions ... maybe others

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I can't remember making any New Years Resolutions last year ... um, the only resolution I can think of for next year is to sort out a list of favourite albums / films / computer games / books of the decade. I know, I'm unusual

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousin did. The baby is called Bean! :-)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No *touches much wood*

5. What countries did you visit?
Germany, Spain, and I was in France and Belgium briefly on the way to Nuremberg

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Erm, I dunno ... financial security, a permanent job, and an idea of what I am gonna do when I move out of my house

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
October 19th (mine and Katy's one year anniversary), July 6th (which I think is the date of Graduation), 4 - 9 of June (Rock Im Park festival)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Graduating with a 2:1 and travelling abroad without supervision

9. What was your biggest failure?
Er, I dunno actually. Generally it's been alright. Maybe getting too drunk sometimes. Actually, succumbing horrendously to anxiety was kind of a failure

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Much hangover sickness, a cold, fortunately that was the worst of it ... I did get diagnosed with both Restless Leg Syndrome and Anxiety though, but they were already there

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Gig tickets, erm ... I dunno what else!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Why would you celebrate someones behaviour? I'm not gonna throw a party because someone helped an old lady across the street!

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
No one especially

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food, drink, gigs, rent

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Lots of gigs!

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
That's tough. Lots of songs might, I guess time will tell

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Hard to say.
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter I think :( Not a ridiculous amount though
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer I'd assume, but I do have a job now, which is nice :)

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing songs, learning keyboard, listening to music

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being horrendously anxious - it really fucked me up at the end of August, most of September, and still does on and off. Arguing. Procrastinating.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my family - Mum's side of the family on Christmas Day, Dad's on Boxing Day

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I already was :)

23. How many one-night stands?
None

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Doctor Who I guess, I don't really watch much TV

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Er, not that I can think of!

26. What was the best book you read?
... Twilight or New Moon I think. They're not new books though. Actually, the entire Twilight series. And I read all 5 Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy Books, so that was cool. And lots of Star Wars books. Never The Bride and Something Borrowed were great too. Oooh, and Wicked. And The Book Thief. This, evidently, is rather difficult for me. I also read Catcher In The Rye for the first time, which was pretty good.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Protest The Hero, The Gutter Twins, and Innerpartysystem. Also, I discovered that new GnR are great (not as good as old GnR, but that was pretty much a given), and that Wednesday 13 does have some good songs

28. What did you want and get?
For what? The whole year? To get a 2:1, to get a job

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
The Dark Knight, Sweeney Todd, Twilight, Quauntum Of Solace, Indiana Jones

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
22, I had people round for a cheese and wine party, drunk many vodka martinis, and watched Casino Royale

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More of the answers to the good questions in this meme, and less of the answers to the bad questions

33?

34. What kept you sane?
Katy first and foremost helped me through a very bad time. My friends, distractions, and hope

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
*shrugs*

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Various things like unemployment, crime etc. (I decided I might write a manifesto of my policy ideas), and the US election obviously.

37. Who did you miss?
The people I care about who I wasn't with at the time?

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I seem to have met very few new people this year ... I can't think of any interesting Freshers that I've met yet. Oh, perhaps some of the people I haven't met before from the Jovitalk meetup, like Emil and Deb, they were cool

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
I'll actually give you a few:
1) Sometimes, things do go better than you expect
2) Not worrying about things that make you anxious but that you can't change is one of the hardest things in the world to do, but it's really worth trying
3) A change of perspective can often help a lot

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Again I might give a few

From Scraped, by Guns N' Roses:
"Sometimes I feel like
My life's a catastrophe
Can't understand why
It seems like it has to be
Sometimes I feel like
It's all opened up for me
Nothing's impossible
I am inconquerable"

From It's Not My Time by 3 Doors Down:
"Cause it's not my time I'm not going
There's a fear in me it's not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Oh but I won't go"

From It's The Only One You've Got, also by 3 Doors Down:
"Have to try
And you won't have to fail
If you're afraid to fight
Then i guess you never will
You hide behind your walls
Of maybe nevers
Forgetting that there's something more
Than just knowing better
Your mistakes do not define you now
They tell you who you're not
You've got to live this life you're given
Like it's the only one you've got"

From Keep The Faith, by Bon Jovi
"Lord, we've gotta Keep The Faith"

From Let Me Sign, by Rob Pattinson (at least, my interpretation of it)
"Standing by, broken she
Has her arms twisted
Is pointing at me
I was damned by light
Coming over all I see
She spoke with a voice
That disrupted the sky
Said walk on over, yeah
To a bit of shade
I will wrap you in my loving arms
And stay
Let me sign"

From Gypsy Woman, written by me:
"When I'm sucked down to Hell,
She's the one who's got the spell
To set me free
Oh, Gypsy Woman
Only you can take my pain away"


January:
I HATE WRITING ESSAYS SO BAD!!!!

February: Grrrrrrrr

I genuinely was going to go to my European Law seminar for the first time since like November (actually I haven't been to any seminars for that long ... they seem rather pointless), but then I couldn't find a pen, or my writing pad, and then the landlady arrived to collect my rent... and by this time it was 10 to 5, I still hadn't found a working pen or a pad of paper, and I just couldn't be bothered to practically run up to campus to get there in time. RAAAAAR.

March:
In response to Katy's post, just say no, kids

April:
I am the stupidest person alive.

Today, I found out one of my essays, which I am still working on, was due in 3 WEEKS AGO. For some reason, I totally didn't read the deadline date, and just assumed it was the end of term. Even worse, it's for one of the only 2 modules I'm doing this year where that one essay will count for 50% of the marks for the module.

May:
Raaah, I am bored. Revision is boring! And I haven't even actually done any today yet. But just the thought of it bores me

June:
Well, tomorrow I will be heading off to Nuremberg for the Rock Im Park Festival! The travelling is most likely going to be a nightmare .... 16 hours coach on the way there, and 20 hours on the way back! Madness

July:
Katy has gone home now :( In the past two and a bit weeks of her being here, we / I have ....

August:
Ahoy Livejournal!

Things of note:

1) Last week I was in Margate visiting Katy. It was fun, we went around Ramsgate and Broadstairs, saw some of the Gay Pride celebration, did some cycling around Margate, went out for a meal, cooked dinner a few times, and other such things. It was nice that the weather was so awesome that week, Seaside Town + Sun = Good.

September:
And now for a small rant

October:
Well, it's been a little while since I updated, eh? This update is brought to you mainly by the fact that I have been relegated to using the computer in the Library, due to my computer monitor catching the bubonic plague and me being too lazy / indecisive / unwilling to part with money to buy another one. I booked an hour slot on this computer, and now after 21 minutes I have pretty much run out of stuff to do. So you get this.

November:
Today, I got my braces off! Braces which I have had since February 2004 ... which is a long time. It feels incredibly odd

December:
Coheed And Cambria Neverender: Good Apollo Volume 1 - London Astoria - 03/12/2008


 
These are a bit late cos my computer is virused to high hell, and  I've been having some difficulty turning it on. Possibly because my Norton Internet Security subscription expired in November 2007, and I never bothered to renew it. Well, now I have a new Internet Security package (Kaspersky), and am running a virus scan with that, so fingers crossed!

Me and Katy spent NYE at Megan/Mark/Alley/Brad's place. It was quite a good night, Ciaron was there, as was Jerry (fairly randomly, but it was good to see her as I haven't since June). At midnight, instead of singing Auld Lang Syne, we saw in the New Year with a rousing rendition of the pirate song, which was cool! And I wasn't even particularly drunk, so there was no spending New Year's Day throwing up for me!

Oh, and in my last entry I mentioned having to get up at 5:45 am to get back to Canterbury for work? Well, due to the fact that Monday evening, after failing to last more than 5 minutes in the car without needing to be sick, we went back home and I slept for a couple of hours, I was unable to sleep at all on Monday night. I mean literally, zero. So, needless to say, Tuesday at work was fairly grim! And Tuesday and Wednesday the offices were so understaffed that I got there at 9am Wednesday morning, and no one else was there and I couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on. So I had to sit there in the dark, by myself, for like an hour til someone else showed up.

And apart from having been reading Slash's autobiography and watching Indiana Jones, that's about it for now!