Meme for 2007

OK. I finally got around to this meme.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? Managed other managers.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Didn’t have one. I’m trying it the first time this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yep. My sister-in-law gave birth to a boy, Yusuke Kobayashi.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No.

5. What places did you visit? Michigan, Reno, New Dehli (India), Beijing, Tokyo, Spain, Holland.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? Babies. Two of them. Both girls. See blog posts below.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? A couple of them. The day the blastocysts were placed inside Hirono. The day we found out Hirono was pregnant with twins. The day a totally hot woman gave me the twice over with her eyes in a very hungry way and we decided to make it come to nothing sexually.

8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year? Turning around the morale on the installer team.

9. What was your biggest failure? One of my best engineers isn’t transitioning well to management.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing significant, though the arthritis in my fingers still really sucks (particularly here in Tokyo where my pain medication is illegal.)

11. What was the best thing you bought? IVF.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My mother’s. She’s started engaging with the world in more ways again.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The whole damn world, or at least those still trying to kill each other. Grow up, people.

14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? See #7.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? “Let’s Spend the Night Together” by the Rolling Stones.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? The same.
c) richer or poorer? Richer, except my house value is decreasing now so that might change soon.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Play the bass.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Play stupid video games on the computer.

20. How did you spend Christmas last year? The same way as the year before: at my parents home in Reno.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007? No. I fell in lust in a hard way; but, we’ve been able to avert catastrophe there.

22. How many one-night stands? None. See #21.

23. What was your favorite TV program? Sorry, no TV yet. I’ve not had one since college, if you even count the TV in the fraternity’s basement during college. We’ll likely get a TV for the little ones so they can watch some cool programs from DVD or online; but, I still intend to never hook it up to cable.

24. What did you do for your birthday in 2007? A nice evening with my wife.

25. What was the best book you read? I’ll assume this means in 2007. “The Father’s Almanac”.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? That Rage Against the Machine totally kicks ass live even though they still suck recorded.

27. What did you want and get? Twins in my wife’s belly.

28. What did you want and not get? Less hours at work. I’m getting there. As the team is built up and put in place the hours are starting to decrease. Its taken a heck of a lot of time going from a non-existent team to the 18 now in place (more like 50 counting dotted line reports over seas.)

29. What was your favorite film of this year? None, really. I’m not a big video person.

30. Did you make some new friends this year? Absolutely. Jen stands out the most. Graeme is awesome, too. Both of them are people who I can be open and honest with about any topic. Many people on my team are outstanding individuals personally as well.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not having to go through IVF in order for Hirono to get pregnant. That was really hard on her.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? Cool shoes and lots of leather.

33. What kept you sane? Finding out that I have a friend I can talk to about anything.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Sorry, I’m not enamored of any public figure right now. I’m a misanthrope at heart.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Can’t we finally stop war? There’s too much killing going on. It sucks that my taxes are paying for a good deal of it. A close second is patriotism in general. Let’s move past the days of the nation-state, OK?

36. Who did you miss? Lot’s of people. Toast stands out, the cranky bastard.

37. Who was the best new person you met? Jen, see #30 above.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. I really do need to talk to someone about my inner thoughts or I start to hit the drugs and alcohol too hard. Hirono really isn’t the person for that, which is totally fine and doesn’t have to hurt our relationship. I’m not sure how I’ll cope when my kids are born and I won’t have time to spend with my friends.