Swiped, this year, from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
freewaydiva.
1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before? Started a business. This will be a theme throughout these answers, because it really was the most significant thing of the year.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't really make them. I have some incremental organisational changes in mind for 2022, and that's about it.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? I think my middle brother and sister-in-law had a second daughter this year. It could have been last year. I honestly can't be sure without going and looking it up, which seems a bit like cheating.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Nobody very close. A moderate number of people at a short remove, unfortunately.
5. What countries/places did you visit? Miraculously, I was in the Netherlands for one weekend.
6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021? The ability to make plans in reasonable confidence that they'll work out.
7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I'm reasonably sure 2021 had individual dates, but telling one from the next was tough enough at the time, and absolutely impossible in retrospect.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Starting a business.
9. What was your biggest failure? I don't feel I had any real failures this year, to be honest. There was a soup that definitely did not work, and that seems to have been the worst of it.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I did not.
11. What was the best thing you bought? The Tome of Adventure Design
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? One of my client contacts (not naming names here, but if I say he's from Glasgow, that'll identify him enough) who sent plenty of work my way and was relentlessly cheerful through some pretty tough working conditions.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Politicians worldwide, but most especially the Tory party on the next island over.
14. Where did most of your money go? The mortgage, or at least my contribution to the joint account from which the mortgage going out is the biggest expense.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? One of the things I am recognising about my probabla-autism is that I don't feel momentary emotions particularly strongly. And getting excited about anything in advance in 2021 was not a great idea. I looked forward greatly to the glamping week that my SCA household and some friends did in October and it actually happened, which was good.
16. What song will always remind you of 2021? Baha Men's Dancing in the Moonlight, maybe? But see General Temporal Confusion.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? Probably very slightly thinner, but I haven't measured.
c) richer or poorer? Richer, by dint of having work at all.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? I could have done some more fiction and public writing. But I also did quite a lot of the latter, and at least some of the former, so... I think I did ok.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Waking up at random times of the night, which has become a thing. I haven't had significant insomnia since I was 19 otherwise.
20. How will you be spending Christmas/New Years? Christmas Day was at Anna's place, New Year's Eve was at home with in-laws.
21. Which DW people did you meet this year? Nobody new.
22. Did you fall in love in 2021? More every day.
23. How many one-night stands? As per usual, zero.
24. What was your favorite TV program? I think it has to be Sex Education.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I am not sure I knew Priti Patel's name this time last year, but she's done some firm work in the meantime in getting on the hex list.
26. What was the best book you read? I think that's between Krystal Sutherland's House of Hollow and T. Kingfisher's The Hollow Places. I hadn't copped the titles until I wrote that just now...
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Corr Mhóna, an Irish metal band.
28. What did you want and get? Vaccines and boosters.
29. What did you want and not get? An end to this damned pandemic.
30. What was your favorite film of this year? I think Dune took it, but there have been a few I meant to see and didn't yet.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I recognised it as little as possible, which is how I like it, and seem to have got to a stage where most people I know also know that I don't like to acknowledge it. I was 44.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? See Q29.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021? Jeans and t-shirt.
34. What kept you sane? Running D&D games over Zoom.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I'm... not entirely sure I did, to be honest. There's certainly nobody springing to mind.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? The way in which the whole world seemed not to recognise that keeping schools open was a massive contributor to the spread of COVID-19. Also, the whole fiasco that was COP 26.
37. Who did you miss? A whole bunch of people that I haven't seen in more than two years now.
38. Who was the best new person you met? I am fairly sure that I didn't meet anyone new outside of a business context this year.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021: Take the jump, do the thing. Either it succeeds, or you actually gave it a try.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: As in most years: "I am the one and only; there's nobody I'd rather be."
freewaydiva.1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before? Started a business. This will be a theme throughout these answers, because it really was the most significant thing of the year.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't really make them. I have some incremental organisational changes in mind for 2022, and that's about it.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? I think my middle brother and sister-in-law had a second daughter this year. It could have been last year. I honestly can't be sure without going and looking it up, which seems a bit like cheating.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Nobody very close. A moderate number of people at a short remove, unfortunately.
5. What countries/places did you visit? Miraculously, I was in the Netherlands for one weekend.
6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021? The ability to make plans in reasonable confidence that they'll work out.
7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I'm reasonably sure 2021 had individual dates, but telling one from the next was tough enough at the time, and absolutely impossible in retrospect.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Starting a business.
9. What was your biggest failure? I don't feel I had any real failures this year, to be honest. There was a soup that definitely did not work, and that seems to have been the worst of it.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I did not.
11. What was the best thing you bought? The Tome of Adventure Design
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? One of my client contacts (not naming names here, but if I say he's from Glasgow, that'll identify him enough) who sent plenty of work my way and was relentlessly cheerful through some pretty tough working conditions.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Politicians worldwide, but most especially the Tory party on the next island over.
14. Where did most of your money go? The mortgage, or at least my contribution to the joint account from which the mortgage going out is the biggest expense.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? One of the things I am recognising about my probabla-autism is that I don't feel momentary emotions particularly strongly. And getting excited about anything in advance in 2021 was not a great idea. I looked forward greatly to the glamping week that my SCA household and some friends did in October and it actually happened, which was good.
16. What song will always remind you of 2021? Baha Men's Dancing in the Moonlight, maybe? But see General Temporal Confusion.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? Probably very slightly thinner, but I haven't measured.
c) richer or poorer? Richer, by dint of having work at all.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? I could have done some more fiction and public writing. But I also did quite a lot of the latter, and at least some of the former, so... I think I did ok.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Waking up at random times of the night, which has become a thing. I haven't had significant insomnia since I was 19 otherwise.
20. How will you be spending Christmas/New Years? Christmas Day was at Anna's place, New Year's Eve was at home with in-laws.
21. Which DW people did you meet this year? Nobody new.
22. Did you fall in love in 2021? More every day.
23. How many one-night stands? As per usual, zero.
24. What was your favorite TV program? I think it has to be Sex Education.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I am not sure I knew Priti Patel's name this time last year, but she's done some firm work in the meantime in getting on the hex list.
26. What was the best book you read? I think that's between Krystal Sutherland's House of Hollow and T. Kingfisher's The Hollow Places. I hadn't copped the titles until I wrote that just now...
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Corr Mhóna, an Irish metal band.
28. What did you want and get? Vaccines and boosters.
29. What did you want and not get? An end to this damned pandemic.
30. What was your favorite film of this year? I think Dune took it, but there have been a few I meant to see and didn't yet.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I recognised it as little as possible, which is how I like it, and seem to have got to a stage where most people I know also know that I don't like to acknowledge it. I was 44.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? See Q29.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021? Jeans and t-shirt.
34. What kept you sane? Running D&D games over Zoom.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I'm... not entirely sure I did, to be honest. There's certainly nobody springing to mind.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? The way in which the whole world seemed not to recognise that keeping schools open was a massive contributor to the spread of COVID-19. Also, the whole fiasco that was COP 26.
37. Who did you miss? A whole bunch of people that I haven't seen in more than two years now.
38. Who was the best new person you met? I am fairly sure that I didn't meet anyone new outside of a business context this year.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021: Take the jump, do the thing. Either it succeeds, or you actually gave it a try.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: As in most years: "I am the one and only; there's nobody I'd rather be."