9th Annual End of Year Meme
Dec. 13th, 2013 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
askygoneonfire1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Interviewed a lot of strangers after putting adverts on the internet. Even a year ago I didn't really believe in my ability to do this - the key data collection method of my entire thesis - and I've not only surprised myself in my ability to do it, but found I absolutely love interviewing and have so many complex emotions tied up in talking to people about their lives.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My resolutions for 2013 were:
> Get a part time job - this isn't so much something I can force to happen, but I can make continued and concerted efforts to that end. It will give me a great deal of financial security and I hope very much I manage it. This was reasonably successful, I got seasonal work from May working as an exam invigilator at a local school, then I did a bit of admin/casual work at the university. Going into 2014, I have teaching work scheduled.
> Complete research paper. Yep. I did it. It was awful but it was done - and then I went on to surprise my supervisors with something else which better reflected my ability and that was wonderful.
For 2014, I resolve to:
> Make a habit of looking up signs in BSL and learning interesting bits with a view to to taking classes in 2015.
> Code all interview data and plot out all my thesis chapters around the themes that emerge.
> Present at at least one external conference.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My good friend J and his wife had their first child, born on her Dad's birthday. Soon - before December is out - my brother's fiancee is due to have his second child and I will be an Aunt again, although I wrote more about this earlier in the year.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thank goodness no. 2012 contained quite enough of that.
5. What countries did you visit?
Germany. For the first time on a flying, impulsive trip withforthwritten I also travelled to Scotland for three interviews for my research, although that was not my first trip to our Northern neighbour.
6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
In the early part of the year I was really lacking self confidence around my PhD to such a degree I seriously considered leaving but that has changed in the last 4 months or so. In some ways there's nothing I need more than that continued sense of purpose (I know 'confidence' is an impossible ask for a PhD, but the knowledge I know where I am going and will keep on going will be enough) So perhaps I want 'consistency' in 2014.
7. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
It's been a funny old year. It has passed incredibly quickly. The only dates I can pull up from my mind with no hesitation are the dates of conferences I helped organise this year and the conference I presented at but actually, none of them were especially memorable other than having to keep the dates in mind and working around them. Perhaps, instead, I'll name the beginning of my birthday extravaganza week (comedy gig, dinner, drinks, manics, dinner) as I looked forward to it, and enjoyed it so much, so...
22nd September, Adam Hills comedy gig at the Hammersmith Apollo where I came over all Northern and genuinely couldn't believe the price of a bottle of water
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Making it to my second year of my PhD. It's not as though it were ever in doubt from the university's point of view - I was always going to fulfil their criteria for progression - it's more my own belief in myself, and feeling very strongly that I know what I'm doing, it's achievable, and having a real excitement about my research.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I think, honestly, my only failure this year could be described as those moments, hours, or days where I gave up on myself. Where I no longer strived to be the best I can be, or where I no longer believed I could achieve on the path I have chose. They were only moments though, and I hope I can keep learning from my successes how to reject these moments of failure.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
My shoulder problem was diagnosed and some treatment began with physio for several months which restored full range of movement to my right arm before plateauing, now I'm waiting to learn if a second, ultrasound guided steroid injection will work or if I will need surgery to reshape the offending bone/part of the joint. I am grateful nothing more befell me this year.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My tablet! It took me bloody ages to justify it and decide but I haven't looked back. I spend less time in a day looking at my laptop screen, have saved myself the weight of carrying my laptop around on about 70% of the occasions I would ordinarily have carried it.
Plus, you know, shiny!
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Lots of people. For all I complain, there is always someone around to listen to me complain! In addition to a number of people at uni,forthwritten is always so generous with their time - thank you!
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
There were, sadly, so many people in the running this year but, rounding the corner into first place, it's.....DEFRA.
Abandoning all science, logic, reason...everything and pursuing the unfounded and unnecessary and supremely political badger cull with a bloodlust that would make fox hunters blush. I cried, I protested, I wrote letters, and I cried a few more times. Animals are dead. The Environment Secretary, absurdly, incredibly, as though he were reading his lines from a satirical play, claimed "the badgers have moved the goalposts" and I lost all belief in governance and rationality. And now they are threatening to gas badgers - a method of culling categorically found to be inhumane and almost impossible to do in such a way to ensure the death of the entire sett. I fear 2014 will bring more tears and anger and sadness for me on this issue.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent and bills. A huge proportion of my income goes on that - about 80-90%. It's not exciting, but this year, at least, my rent was spent on somewhere that feels like home.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to Scotland on a sleeper coach - I do love combining transport with other necessities! I got really excited about my trip to Berlin. And, in a more general way, I became excited, over the course of the last 7 months or so, about my research. My thesis and I began to click.
16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
'Where are we now' - David Bowie. As well as the obvious element of this being the surprise single of the decade, I listened to The Next Day in Germany, had a photo on the bench at Potzdamer Platz, and dreamed of Berlin.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder? Happier. Not in a big or noisy way, more a quiet, things are settled, things are working kind of way. But yes, happier.
ii. Thinner or fatter? Fatter. Although I think fitter, so that's something.
iii. richer or poorer? A little richer, I think. No big house moving bills, greater month-to-month living costs but it feels in control in a way it didn't last year.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Enjoying life, celebrating, relaxing, letting myself go.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying! As mentioned several times, I spent a lot of time considering what I was doing - if I could do it - with the PhD and that took a lot of energy and time. But, you have to go there to come back, perhaps.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my parents and cat, in the East Midlands. Like many years before. Unlike many others though, I have to spend my holiday transcribing and coding interviews, a laborious and wonderful task all at once.
21. Did you fall in love in 2013?
No. I sort of don't believe I ever will in the way I once knew, although I hope to be in love again one day.
22. How many one-night stands?
2ish, depending on definitions.
23. What was your favourite TV program?
There were a couple of things I never missed - Nashville and Masters of Sex. Neither are particularly life changing or contributing to something I believe to be important to the world. But they were there, and so was I.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Again, I am glad I can say no. Something of my lifelong resolution in there.
25. What was the best book you read?
The Great Gatsby. Astonishing though it may be that I had never read it before. I found it a compelling and moving read. My full list of books read this year is here.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I honestly don't think I listened to anyone new and noticed or cared. Public Service Broadcasting who supported the Manics were great and made a really engaging support band but I don't imagine for a minute their soundscapes and performance translates to a studio album.
27. What did you want and get?
A bit of structure, a bit of work. 2013 has been a lot about working out how to live and work with the PhD (see a theme?!) and getting casual work in May and June, and then an office space from August has helped with that tremendously. I feel ready to work.
28. What did you want and not get?
A girlfriend. I went into the year sort of maybe seeing someone which developed and then dissolved in a peculiar afternoon in a faintly trainwrecky way (or perhaps it's just that she was a trainwreck and I got pulled into a mini crash? It was all very odd). Perhaps 2014...
29. What was your favourite film of this year?
I barely went to the cinema this year. I suppose I must say Star Trek Into Darkness, eagerly anticipated as it was. It had problems though, and I'm in no hurry to watch it again.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 29. Like last year, I spent it in one of my favourite pubs in Hove but this time, unlike last year, I didn't cry into my wine glass. And I was joined by a large group of friends from Uni and outside Uni. My generous friends bought me wonderful cards and gifts and I went home, drunk and merry, in a taxi. I also, in the days surrounding my birthday, went to see Adam Hills at the Hammersmith Apollo, went to see the Manics at Shepherd's Bush Empire, and went out for dinner with J, his wife, and their new baby.
In a slightly broader sense, I felt something shift within me. I recognised for the first time the things I need - want - need to have in my life long term to feel content with the choices I've made.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Trying to mature. I've vetoed a number of types of print t-shirt for myself and tried to think about how others see me, and not how I see myself.
34. What kept you sane?
A home - a place I can close the door on the world and be alone to decompress and revive. Visits to the country. Friends. Vincent the cat. Swimming.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Bowie! Lovely, lovely man that he is, giving me all the feelings at David Bowie Is in March, then the new album and yes...he's cracking.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Badger cull (see above), the situation of LGBTQ rights in Russia, the situation of trans people and people in socially-fringe groups in Greece, the continuing fuck up of this government with regards to disability and welfare, and the reprehensible inclusion of the spousal veto in the same sex marriage bill.
I've protested this year too. Against the privatisation of University services and the sell off of education in general - a protest which is ongoing at my university. I attended a rally in support of LGBTQ people in Russia earlier this year and plan to join protests at the Russian Embassy on 7th of February 2014. Those two issues matter to me deeply.
37. Who did you miss?
Lu. This month, as the anniversary rolls around, I've been thinking of her. Today I looked up her old blog but it's gone, purged from the internet. And that made me sad too.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
*coyly* well there's a girl what I met a few times, she's nice....
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
I heard it a long time ago, perhaps it is this year I truly believed it; just keep plodding on, you get there in the end, or as a little blue put it...
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
How I hate middle age/in between acceptance and rage
Interviewed a lot of strangers after putting adverts on the internet. Even a year ago I didn't really believe in my ability to do this - the key data collection method of my entire thesis - and I've not only surprised myself in my ability to do it, but found I absolutely love interviewing and have so many complex emotions tied up in talking to people about their lives.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My resolutions for 2013 were:
> Get a part time job - this isn't so much something I can force to happen, but I can make continued and concerted efforts to that end. It will give me a great deal of financial security and I hope very much I manage it. This was reasonably successful, I got seasonal work from May working as an exam invigilator at a local school, then I did a bit of admin/casual work at the university. Going into 2014, I have teaching work scheduled.
> Complete research paper. Yep. I did it. It was awful but it was done - and then I went on to surprise my supervisors with something else which better reflected my ability and that was wonderful.
For 2014, I resolve to:
> Make a habit of looking up signs in BSL and learning interesting bits with a view to to taking classes in 2015.
> Code all interview data and plot out all my thesis chapters around the themes that emerge.
> Present at at least one external conference.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My good friend J and his wife had their first child, born on her Dad's birthday. Soon - before December is out - my brother's fiancee is due to have his second child and I will be an Aunt again, although I wrote more about this earlier in the year.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thank goodness no. 2012 contained quite enough of that.
5. What countries did you visit?
Germany. For the first time on a flying, impulsive trip with
forthwritten I also travelled to Scotland for three interviews for my research, although that was not my first trip to our Northern neighbour.6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
In the early part of the year I was really lacking self confidence around my PhD to such a degree I seriously considered leaving but that has changed in the last 4 months or so. In some ways there's nothing I need more than that continued sense of purpose (I know 'confidence' is an impossible ask for a PhD, but the knowledge I know where I am going and will keep on going will be enough) So perhaps I want 'consistency' in 2014.
7. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
It's been a funny old year. It has passed incredibly quickly. The only dates I can pull up from my mind with no hesitation are the dates of conferences I helped organise this year and the conference I presented at but actually, none of them were especially memorable other than having to keep the dates in mind and working around them. Perhaps, instead, I'll name the beginning of my birthday extravaganza week (comedy gig, dinner, drinks, manics, dinner) as I looked forward to it, and enjoyed it so much, so...
22nd September, Adam Hills comedy gig at the Hammersmith Apollo where I came over all Northern and genuinely couldn't believe the price of a bottle of water
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Making it to my second year of my PhD. It's not as though it were ever in doubt from the university's point of view - I was always going to fulfil their criteria for progression - it's more my own belief in myself, and feeling very strongly that I know what I'm doing, it's achievable, and having a real excitement about my research.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I think, honestly, my only failure this year could be described as those moments, hours, or days where I gave up on myself. Where I no longer strived to be the best I can be, or where I no longer believed I could achieve on the path I have chose. They were only moments though, and I hope I can keep learning from my successes how to reject these moments of failure.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
My shoulder problem was diagnosed and some treatment began with physio for several months which restored full range of movement to my right arm before plateauing, now I'm waiting to learn if a second, ultrasound guided steroid injection will work or if I will need surgery to reshape the offending bone/part of the joint. I am grateful nothing more befell me this year.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My tablet! It took me bloody ages to justify it and decide but I haven't looked back. I spend less time in a day looking at my laptop screen, have saved myself the weight of carrying my laptop around on about 70% of the occasions I would ordinarily have carried it.
Plus, you know, shiny!
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Lots of people. For all I complain, there is always someone around to listen to me complain! In addition to a number of people at uni,
forthwritten is always so generous with their time - thank you!13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
There were, sadly, so many people in the running this year but, rounding the corner into first place, it's.....DEFRA.
Abandoning all science, logic, reason...everything and pursuing the unfounded and unnecessary and supremely political badger cull with a bloodlust that would make fox hunters blush. I cried, I protested, I wrote letters, and I cried a few more times. Animals are dead. The Environment Secretary, absurdly, incredibly, as though he were reading his lines from a satirical play, claimed "the badgers have moved the goalposts" and I lost all belief in governance and rationality. And now they are threatening to gas badgers - a method of culling categorically found to be inhumane and almost impossible to do in such a way to ensure the death of the entire sett. I fear 2014 will bring more tears and anger and sadness for me on this issue.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent and bills. A huge proportion of my income goes on that - about 80-90%. It's not exciting, but this year, at least, my rent was spent on somewhere that feels like home.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to Scotland on a sleeper coach - I do love combining transport with other necessities! I got really excited about my trip to Berlin. And, in a more general way, I became excited, over the course of the last 7 months or so, about my research. My thesis and I began to click.
16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
'Where are we now' - David Bowie. As well as the obvious element of this being the surprise single of the decade, I listened to The Next Day in Germany, had a photo on the bench at Potzdamer Platz, and dreamed of Berlin.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder? Happier. Not in a big or noisy way, more a quiet, things are settled, things are working kind of way. But yes, happier.
ii. Thinner or fatter? Fatter. Although I think fitter, so that's something.
iii. richer or poorer? A little richer, I think. No big house moving bills, greater month-to-month living costs but it feels in control in a way it didn't last year.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Enjoying life, celebrating, relaxing, letting myself go.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying! As mentioned several times, I spent a lot of time considering what I was doing - if I could do it - with the PhD and that took a lot of energy and time. But, you have to go there to come back, perhaps.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my parents and cat, in the East Midlands. Like many years before. Unlike many others though, I have to spend my holiday transcribing and coding interviews, a laborious and wonderful task all at once.
21. Did you fall in love in 2013?
No. I sort of don't believe I ever will in the way I once knew, although I hope to be in love again one day.
22. How many one-night stands?
2ish, depending on definitions.
23. What was your favourite TV program?
There were a couple of things I never missed - Nashville and Masters of Sex. Neither are particularly life changing or contributing to something I believe to be important to the world. But they were there, and so was I.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Again, I am glad I can say no. Something of my lifelong resolution in there.
25. What was the best book you read?
The Great Gatsby. Astonishing though it may be that I had never read it before. I found it a compelling and moving read. My full list of books read this year is here.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I honestly don't think I listened to anyone new and noticed or cared. Public Service Broadcasting who supported the Manics were great and made a really engaging support band but I don't imagine for a minute their soundscapes and performance translates to a studio album.
27. What did you want and get?
A bit of structure, a bit of work. 2013 has been a lot about working out how to live and work with the PhD (see a theme?!) and getting casual work in May and June, and then an office space from August has helped with that tremendously. I feel ready to work.
28. What did you want and not get?
A girlfriend. I went into the year sort of maybe seeing someone which developed and then dissolved in a peculiar afternoon in a faintly trainwrecky way (or perhaps it's just that she was a trainwreck and I got pulled into a mini crash? It was all very odd). Perhaps 2014...
29. What was your favourite film of this year?
I barely went to the cinema this year. I suppose I must say Star Trek Into Darkness, eagerly anticipated as it was. It had problems though, and I'm in no hurry to watch it again.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 29. Like last year, I spent it in one of my favourite pubs in Hove but this time, unlike last year, I didn't cry into my wine glass. And I was joined by a large group of friends from Uni and outside Uni. My generous friends bought me wonderful cards and gifts and I went home, drunk and merry, in a taxi. I also, in the days surrounding my birthday, went to see Adam Hills at the Hammersmith Apollo, went to see the Manics at Shepherd's Bush Empire, and went out for dinner with J, his wife, and their new baby.
In a slightly broader sense, I felt something shift within me. I recognised for the first time the things I need - want - need to have in my life long term to feel content with the choices I've made.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Trying to mature. I've vetoed a number of types of print t-shirt for myself and tried to think about how others see me, and not how I see myself.
34. What kept you sane?
A home - a place I can close the door on the world and be alone to decompress and revive. Visits to the country. Friends. Vincent the cat. Swimming.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Bowie! Lovely, lovely man that he is, giving me all the feelings at David Bowie Is in March, then the new album and yes...he's cracking.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Badger cull (see above), the situation of LGBTQ rights in Russia, the situation of trans people and people in socially-fringe groups in Greece, the continuing fuck up of this government with regards to disability and welfare, and the reprehensible inclusion of the spousal veto in the same sex marriage bill.
I've protested this year too. Against the privatisation of University services and the sell off of education in general - a protest which is ongoing at my university. I attended a rally in support of LGBTQ people in Russia earlier this year and plan to join protests at the Russian Embassy on 7th of February 2014. Those two issues matter to me deeply.
37. Who did you miss?
Lu. This month, as the anniversary rolls around, I've been thinking of her. Today I looked up her old blog but it's gone, purged from the internet. And that made me sad too.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
*coyly* well there's a girl what I met a few times, she's nice....
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
I heard it a long time ago, perhaps it is this year I truly believed it; just keep plodding on, you get there in the end, or as a little blue put it...
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
How I hate middle age/in between acceptance and rage
