Meme of the Year 2010
Dec. 29th, 2010 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freya
1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
I moved to the south and started living with my boyfriend. It was quite awesome!
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn’t do them, really, but I should resolve to do something like, um, get back down to a size 14. Being a 16 is too big bottomed for me. *shakes giant booty*
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?4. Did anyone close to you die?
No one, fortunately.
5. What countries did you visit?
I went to Spainland for a holiday, with Senor [ LJ User: malachan ]. We went to Seville, which was really lovely. It was seriously so very beautiful that I went completely mad with the camera. We had a volcano on the way back and had to make our way home from Malaga whilst thoroughly hungover. We had skillz.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
A pony! Um. Am not sure. I don’t really want for much, which is really awesome. I think I’d like to have a work ethic. And maybe some friends in Brighton.
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Maybe the day I moved down to Brighton, the 18th of September. Not sure I can even reverse engineer to work out any other day.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting the PhD offer, and the studentship. It are really quite awesome. I was so scared I wouldn’t get it and then I would be left without a basket to put my eggs in.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Um, I suppose being a lazy sausage over the summer; eating delicious chocolate too much, um. Who knows?
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had a burst of labyrinthitis early in the year and a couple of nasty depression flare-ups through the year. Otherwise, hale and healthy.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Probably my bus pass; it’s a giant saver of money. I also bought a laptop and that is useful. Could never regret any of the train tickets I bought to anywhere. :D Seeing people is always lovely.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
I certainly celebrated my little socks off when my supervisor offered the studentship, but I suspect that is not the kind of shizzle of which they talked. [ LJ User: radinden ] is so utterly wonderful that words cannot express it. He looks after me very well, and cooks and feeds me and makes me so, so happy.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Noone’s really, although there are a few people who have made me make a “Hmmm. I vaguely disapprove of that.” but, there are two sides to every story, and in each instance, the other side has been so understandable, that I can’t go around being appalled or depressed at people.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent and bills are expensive, and the move wasn’t the cheapest ever. Now a goodly portion goes into savings, a goodly portion goes to the house and gardens and the rest is for fun and profit!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving to the south. It’s not always perfect, but it is the right thing to do.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
The fact that this question put ’J’ai En Marre’ by Alizee into my head probably answers it for me. It is a happy, bouncy song that will never leave your head ever.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
I’m happier than a penguin sliding on its belly!
ii. thinner or fatter?
Am a fat panda. My therapist early in the year told me to keep eating chocolate till I was sane. I am putting off being sane until chocolate is less delicious. Am fat panda-pops.
iii. richer or poorer?
Richer, as I no longer live all alone in a flat of my own self-ness.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Concentrating. I’m not very good at it. And hard work and things like that. BAH. It is trouble.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Eating chocolate. It’s bad for me. Sleeping- needing to sleep so much is oppressive.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Was up at the Grandparents with the family. It’s not often my sister and I are in the same country, let alone the same house, so it was nice for the parents. And my Granddad is a great cook and makes delicious food.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Seriously, it is disgusting how much I love him. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have someone I love so much that is mine.
22. How many one-night stands?
None! I really ought to change the question. I never have any and I’m not really a very one night stand type of person.
23. What was your favorite TV program?
True Blood rocked my socks hard and long. It is utterly ridiculous and stupid, so I loved it. Dexter has been utterly amazing this season. Seriously, utterly splendiferous. They do it so well. I really love Merlin. Arthur is so pretty, the boys are SO IN LOVE and Gwen and Morgana are brilliant. It’s such a shame Arthur and Gwen have to be in love because, really, Angel Coulby and Bradley James have NO CHEMISTRY.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Dear lord, what on earth for? Who has time for that sort of silliness.
25. What was the best book you read?
I really liked ’Fire’ by Kristen Cashore. She’s that amazing thing, a really good female character who kicks awesome ass. I loved it.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Oh, dear. It’s terrible. So embarrassing. Do not mock me too hard. *hide, blush*. Lady Gaga. Am late to the party, but oh, what a party it is. :P
27. What did you want and get?
It’s a terrible thing. I got absolutely everything I wanted this year. I’m so lucky, so amazingly lucky.
28. What did you want and not get?
I don’t think I even wanted anything that I didn’t get this year. I slightly wish I’d got tickets to see ’After.Life’ at Frightfest, but that it is largely because I am a lazy sausage and found the airmattress in the lovely Ms [ LJ User: kay taylor ]’s flat.
29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Frightfest was utterly amazing this year. It wasn’t so much a Horrorfilm Festival, as a festival of films that absolutely aren’t rom-coms. It was amazing. There were so many things which were just beautiful examples of the film craft. ’Monsters’ was a great display of Central America and a love story in a distopian world, ’Bedevilled’ was a really, sad, infuriating and empowering film- it’s the saddest thing I’ve seem all year. ’Buried’ was claustrophobic, terrifying and pointed, and ’Outcast’ was an urban fantasy of the type that doesn’t usually make it into film. They were all so different and amazing.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 24. I think I had some people come to ’Georgetown’, a Malaysian restaurant in London Bridge. It was super nice and had some really lovely some people there.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not sure. I suspect having the ability to concentrate would have made it better. Perhaps having Rob in the country a bit more, but I’m not too morose about that. He suffers from the being away more than I do.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Jeans, gypsy neck t-shirts and cardigans. I have also worn through several pairs of linen trousers. ’Scruffy Git’ features highly on the list of themes I follow.
33. What kept you sane?
Baby meerkats. Seriously. Go crazy in the spring- the baby animals fix you right up. Also, knowing that I was going to leave Leeds and that it was all just temporary, and now, knowing that this is my one big chance and I can’t fail. I have to keep sane because, well, I really want to succeed.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I love David Mitchell. I love him so much. I love his glassy little eyes, his wonky teeth and his arched nose. OM NOM NOM. Also: Arthur from Merlin. The actor? Not so much. A noble prince with a big sword and a beautiful, beautiful face? I’ll be in my bunk.
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
I cannot remember being as angry about anything as I have been about the way that that people have responded to the Assange trial. My feelings on the Wikileaks thing is largely a sort of neutral glee at hearing diplomats at their bitchiness. My feelings on the identities of the victims being released, the sheer number of rape-apologists coming out of the woodwork, the proliferation of the myth that it’s all to do with a broken condom, the people who think it’s all a matter of hurt feelings and...dear god. It’s horrible.
What’s worst, is that the scenarios that the women described are the scenarios that I’ve heard from enough people in real life, to know that even if Assange is entirely innocent, which I strongly suspect he’s not, it doesn’t justify the media telling all these women that the experiences that traumatised and upset them are their fault and they deserved it for consenting to anything ever.
And! AND! It then leads to men I thought were decent chaps, who are fathers, husbands, boyfriends and friends, telling me that they think “Well, it’s all shades of grey.” and “It’s not rape.”. Because that scares me. Because if you don’t see something repellent in having sex with someone who doesn’t want you to, then that’s a giant motherfucking flaw in your character. And if you can’t see what’s so inherently horrible about penetrating someone who has previously insisted on a condom, without one, when they are asleep and cannot decide, then...well...that scares me too.
So yes, whether he did it or not, if you can’t see that the charges are serious, you are horrible. Yes, I realise that his arrest was hugely political. I recognise that there is some fuckery going on with the charges being reinstated by a judge from outside the original jurisdiction so the warrant may not be valid. I recognise that the international arrest warrant for the charges as they stand is gigantic over reaction. That? Completely beside the point. You can support free speech and think that there’s something fishy going on, without saying “Also, unless it’s a primly dressed virgin on her way to church and you are ugly, smelly and have a knife, it’s not rape.”. Like they asked: stirred.
36. Who did you miss?
I miss my old work collegues. I miss Leeds. I miss my parents. It’s quite hard being so far south.
37. Who was the best new person you met?
I am immensely happy I joined TheLadiesLoos. It is a great space for discussion and help. If you’re are having a hard time in your life, I would really recommend them to you. They can help with pretty much anything. I’ve also met some wonderful people in Sussex. Even the one I disliked on sight has proved to have some redeeming features.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
Ever seen ’Meet the Robinsons’? It’s actually my favourite film. It is stupidly silly. And A lot this year, I have been wishing for a robot that goes “KEEP MOVING FORWARD!” with a song, and a dance and fireworks. It’s rapidly becoming my motto.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Hmm. I think the one I’ve quoted to people most is from ’Shooting Star’ by Elliott Smith.
One of the big things I think I’ve moved with this year, is acceptance. And one of the things I’ve accepted is what I will get hurt if I tolerate in people, and the couplet to express this?
“But no one gets on with you very long ’Cos you don’t feel bad when you lie”
Also, something happier?
“I’m as corny as Kansas in August, High as a flag on the Fourth of July! If you’ll excuse an expression I use, I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love with a wonderful guy!” (Wonderful Guy, from South Pacific)
Now. Stop feeling slightly queasy and go about your business.
