As seen at Ramblin’ with Roger, like most of the memes I respond to.
Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t think I have ever made a New Year’s resolution in my life.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
One of my daughter’s best friends.
Did anyone close to you die?
No, but there was at least one close call.
What countries did you visit?
Stayed right here in Los Estados Unidos all 365 days of 2011.
What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Patience.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finding a job.
What was your biggest failure?
Didn’t write about everything that I wanted to.
What was the best thing you bought?
A Frankenputer built by my buddy Brian in the wake of the death of our 7-year-old PC. The replacement isn’t perfect — the bolts in its neck are rusty — but it works, and lets me do many things I would be lost without, like blogging and keeping in touch with friends on distant shores.
Whose behavior merited celebration?
The Occupy Wall Street folks finally made a move I’d been waiting for since December of 2000, when an entire, exhausted nation relinquished democracy.
Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The moneyed monsters mocking and undercutting the Occupy movement and disregarding their very real concerns, and the armoured, anonymous thugs wielding batons and tasers in the name of preserving the corrupt and destructive status quo.
Where did most of your money go?
Groceries and rent.
What did you get really excited about?
The possibility of real change, unlike the phony bill of goods sold to over half the country by the current resident of the White House.
What song will always remind you of 2011?
I didn’t listen to much music in 2011, and none of it was new. This might be the first year since my early teens that not one new song penetrated my consciousness.
Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
Happier.
Thinner or fatter?
The same.
Richer or poorer?
The same.
What do you wish you’d done more of?
Spending time with my kids.
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying.
How did you spend Christmas?
Chinese food and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Our favourite local Chinese place was unexpectedly closed (we went there Christmas 2010 and had a wonderful time), so we had to go to the other local Chinese place, a very utilitarian-feeling buffet in a worn-out strip mall. The food was mediocre-to-terrible. The movie was incredibly fun and more than made up for the lousy lunch.
Did you fall in love in 2011?
Not that I recall, and I think I would recall something like that.
How many one-night stands?
None.
What was your favorite TV program?
Homeland blew everything else away. Dexter criminally mis-used Edward James Olmos and really slipped a bit in my estimation, although its final-seconds cliffhanger has me dying to see what they do next. More of my 2011 TV thoughts here.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No.
What was the best book you read?
New? Roger Ebert’s Life Itself: A Memoir, which I reviewed. Classic? Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, which is perhaps the most dazzling piece of writing I’ve ever experienced. I read it for the third time in 2011 and still found new surprises in the narrative and profound appreciation for the actual writing itself.
What was your greatest musical discovery?
Late in the year I found a new appreciation for latter-day U2. Songs like Beautiful Day, No Line on the Horizon and Magnificent got under my skin and reminded me of how much I loved the band during and just after college. U2 is the only band I’ve seen live twice (once in Syracuse on the Joshua Tree tour, once in Saratoga Springs during, I think, the Pop Mart tour, if that’s what it was called. The one where Bono talked to people on a giant screen via satellite hookup, anyway.
What did you want and get?
A Blu-ray player for the holidays. The first movie I bought on Blu-ray was J.J. Abrams’s 2009 Star Trek, which came out so long ago that my review of it is on the version of this blog previously hosted on Comic Book Galaxy.
What did you want and not get?
An eBook reader.
What were your favorite films of this year?
Margin Call had me mesmerized for virtually every moment of its run time. Nothing thrilled me more in the theater than Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, I am almost embarrassed to admit. An action movie starring Tom Cruise? It’s crazy, but man, I loved it.
What did you do on your birthday?
I don’t remember. I checked my blog for memory-jogs, but didn’t find any. I’m sure a good time was had by all.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
“Oh, hey, I forgot I had this. And it still fits!”
What kept you sane?
Reading.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don’t have a crush on any celebrities, if I’m reading the question correctly.
What political issue stirred you the most?
Equal marriage rights.
Who did you miss?
My wife, who did a lot of overtime and weekend hours this year to keeps ends meeting.
Who was the best new person you met?
I don’t think I met any new people in 2011, but one friendship expanded into a weekly breakfast get-together that became the highlight of most weeks. Tea, breakfast, and good conversation. What more could you want?
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
Persistence almost always pays off in the end.
Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
She comes back to tell me she’s gone
As if I didn’t know that
As if I didn’t know my own bed
As if I’d never noticed
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead
And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow…
— Paul Simon, Graceland
