I got into Mint, the online budgeting tool, and was really diligent about getting everything - spending and income and every account that the website could connect to - on it. In the last two months I started keeping track of my cash transactions as I got annoyed at the paucity of data I had about my cash transactions.
I went to Bonnaroo. I have been to few concerts I think, relative to most folks in my age cohort, and I think zero music festival type events up until then. It was punishingly hot from 8 am until 9 pm, and all the best acts were after 7 pm until about 3 am, so I got very little sleep for those four/five days in mid June. I would love to go again.
Thanks to the efforts of Nick and his posse out of Georgia Tech, I went as part of an awesome group of people to the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, something I had wanted to attend very badly for years when I was younger. I was a little too old and out of the video game scene for it to be the true extravaganza my youthful self envisioned, and the logistics of a big group of people with rather diverse agendas for the trip made things a little trying at times, but the overall experience was fun and seeing all the goofy stuff I had only seen in old photos from E3s of bygone days in person was a treat.
My middle school self may have this over me, but I spent a lot more time at the public libraries this year than I think I ever have before.
As a result of above, I have read a lot more non-fiction books this year without their having been assigned reading for a class than I ever have before. It turns out that there is actually stuff that's interesting to read in them if you look at the right ones.
Others (this is getting long):
-learned how to do some basic coding in a few software languages
-used my ability to program code to solve problems
-bought a membership in Capital BikeShare
-biked more miles than ever before
-bought a smartphone and paid for my own cell phone plan
-took a college class not at my alma mater
-paid more for a gym membership in one year than I probably thought I would spend in three
2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't really make New Year's resolutions, on the grounds that they are practically by definition the kinds of things we all say we should do and then promptly stop doing. I like to use the end of the year and the start of the new as a time to reflect and to adjust, hence grabbing these questions and using them to fuel this post. I really hate to resolve to do things when I am pretty sure I won't do actually do them (why wouldn't you just do them then??). I can say that I have made incremental changes in my lifestyle over the course of this year, that I plan to continue incrementing these changes, and that I believe this approach is the best way to affect change in my behavior.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? .
I don't think so.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
My mother's sister died this year, in August. Julie was younger than my mother and died due to breast cancer. I feel bad about it, but this is kind of a stretch because I hadn't been very close with her in recent years. Of all my mother's side of the family, I knew her best and I still use the socks she made for me to keep my feet warm at night during winter.
5. What countries did you visit?
U-S-A! U-S-A! Honestly, I kind of want to count the Chattanooga area of Tennessee.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Job security, more restraint in my at times prodigal spending habits, more expertise in programming, a voice in America's government (Alan Grayson for Congress!), something at least resembling a healthy romantic relationship, less adipose body tissue, fewer useless material possessions
7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Dates don't tend to stick well with me, but seeing Buffalo Springfield perform at Bonnaroo was amazing. I didn't know who they were coming in to the show, but I dimly remember knowing they were the artists behind "there's something happening here / and what it is ain't exactly clear" in years prior. They rocked! The final number, "Keep on Rocking in the Free World" is definitely etched in my memory and cemented them as my favorite act at the festival.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Eliminating a significant portion of my credit card debt. The peace of mind I gained from knowing that I don't have a bunch of maxed out cards to pay off now is almost worth more to me than the money I am saving not paying usurious interest rates.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Oh, so many choices! Not restraining my spend-happy self more this year meant the difference between 'significant portion' and 'all' of my credit card debt. Not working harder at learning to code while at work. Consequently not getting any FTE offers and remaining a contractor. Numerous disappointments inflicted on those who care about me.
10. Did you suffer from illness or injury?
I
11. What was the best thing you bought?
I am very slightly inclined to say my membership with BikeShare has been the highest net gain, but that would be a lie. I was advised by a very intelligent coworker that the utility for the best thing I bought was very high, and he was right. Having a smartphone is amazingly useful, especially when you don't have a functional computer at home.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Nick, for his patience and for his dogged determination to be a good friend and a better person. My sister, who has had to work hard to rebuild her life in the last three years. My mother, who had a miserable last three years but hopefully will never endure such a cluster of nasty shocks ever again. I would say me ditto, but I feel like I lucked into what I needed to rebuild more than I worked for it. Not that I didn't have some tight calls along the way, but those were a few years ago. It's been a tough few years for the three of us though and it makes me happy that we seem to be making it.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Other than mine? One person managed, but the details aren't something I'm going into here.
14. Where did most of your money go?
According to Mint: "Food & Dining". That's right folks. I spent more on food in a year than I did on rent, and it's embarrassingly not even close. Granted, 'food' includes my budget for booze, so it wasn't all food...
15. What did you get really, really, really, really excited about?
PAX - it combined my love of video games, flying on Virgin America, being in the Pacific Northwest, and being in the company of excellent people.
16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Despite the etching of the aforementioned "Keep on Rocking in the Free World", the honor goes to "The Suburbs" by the Arcade Fire (also heard live at Bonnaroo).
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
1. happier or sadder? Happier
2. thinner or fatter? Thinner (I think)
3. richer or poorer? Richer
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Saving, learning, reading, working out, building things for others
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Pretending that I could keep letting things go on the way they were, being selfish
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I'm guessing that these questions assume I am answering prior to Christmas of 2011... whoops. I spent Christmas at a coworker's place. It was odd being around such a multigenerational group and not having any of them be related to me. The closest approximation is a wedding, but weddings are -thankfully- a lot sexier than this was. The food was good and it was a healthier way to spend Christmas than I did in 2010 (alone and at a terrible bar - not terrible in a good way like a dive bar, just a normal bar so shitty that you wish you had gone to a dive bar; never go to Town Tavern in Adams Morgan).
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Probably my mother? I don't spend much time on the phone with folks.
22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
I met a dreamboat of a girl in the fall one awesome night that I have never found again, despite repeated attempts (note to self: next time you meet a girl like that, it doesn't matter if she has a boyfriend, get her number).
23. How many one-night stands?
One and a very frustrating half
24. What was your favorite TV program?
The Wire! Oh wow. I started watching it during the Thanksgiving weekend and have been watching DVDs from the library when I can find the disc with the next episodes; the DCPL system has many virtues, but their hold system for DVDs does not work for TV shows - they need to give the different numbered discs different call numbers.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No one I know personally. I tend to reserve hate for very awful things or people. Chris Dodd, maybe.
26. What was the best book you read?
Tough call this year. Because I'm still reading it and I can't decide between all the other candidates, I will say Stiffed by Susan Faludi. I didn't expect to get grabbed so strongly by it, but she lead with labor unions being shuttered in favor of defense contractors and I was hooked.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Willful misinterpretation: there's a song called "No Return" by a rapper who goes by Canibus. FOR YEARS, this song eluded me. It was on a mix CD that a former roommate found in a gym, so neither of us knew what was on it, but it was a great collection of hip-hop and I particularly liked the chorus for this one. My poor ability to decipher lyrics made it hard for me to find out what the song was, and my former roommate's and my own forgetfulness meant that I kept forgetting that I really wanted to know what the hell this song was. Anyway, this year I had my handy smartphone with me when the song came on, so I looked up a block of text via Google hoping to match with a lyrics site. Little did I know that this was only the beginning (but we are about halfway). Now, the thing I really liked about the song was the beat and the chorus, but I couldn't figure out what the chorus was. I attributed it to bad hearing all this time, so I was happy to find the song name so I could find out what the chorus was. But the lyrics site just said
28. What did you want and get?
A smartphone, bikeshare membership, a few video games that I don't have time to play
29. What did you want and not get?
A non-contractor version of being employed at the place I work now, respect, honesty
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Honestly I didn't watch many movies this year. I did catch the new Star Trek movie I guess. It was good - which probably makes it the best Star Trek movie ever made - but I am kind of unwilling to say that was my favorite on the grounds that I must have seen _something_ better than that this year.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
On my literal birthday, a Thursday, I bought and lugged an enormous charcoal grill from Logan Circle in Washington DC almost all the way to a friend's house in Crystal City Virginia with nothing but my hands and the Metro. Once I got there I used my bikeshare membership to get a bike and use it as a makeshift cart because I despaired of my exhausted muscles being able to haul the thing the rest of the way to my friend's house. As I struggled to keep the enormous box perched precariously on the bicycle, a gorgeous woman 1) laughed at me 2) and then offered to help. She helped me cart it to her nearby home and drove it and me the rest of the way. Then she doggedly got past my initial polite 'no further help necessary' and drove me to the nearby grocery store where I wanted to gather supplies for my planned party that Saturday. Naturally, I asked for her number and invited her to attend. Sadly, she did not attend and did not reply to subsequent texts. I turned 27. The party itself was the following Saturday. It was not quite the soiree that 26 was, but I will count myself a very lucky man if I ever manage to throw a party that I feel goes at least that well ever again. It was similar to the last one in the sense that I had a lot of help from last minute conscriptions of good friends that made it possible. I owe it to my friends to put more planning into this year's party (actually, consider that a resolution for the year).
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Getting hired by my current indirect employer
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Stretching the limits of how long one can continue to wear the same 'business' clothes (I really need to start replacing that part of my wardrobe).
34. What kept you sane?
Having good friends, and having oodles of money compared to prior years
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don't spend a lot of time lusting after celebrity and public "figures", but I suppose this year I noticed Kim Kardashian for the first time. It probably was because of all the TVs on the cardio machines at my gym. Invariably one of them was tuned to the E! channel, which really should be renamed The Kardashian Channel.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The illegal assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki by Presidential fiat without judicial review or any public evidence of any crime. The debt ceiling nonsense and repeated government shutdown brinksmanship would have won most other years, but that's the very definition of tyranny and it sickens me that it barely moved the needle of public opinion.
37. Who did you miss?
Old loves, new ones, no one that I swung at (no one)
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Quite possibly Matilda
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
Poisoned wells might not kill you immediately, but they will if you don't cleanse the source or stop drinking from them.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Sometimes I can't believe it / I'm moving past the feeling
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