2008 Year End Meme

Almost the same meme as last year at Toast’s place:

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Changed a diaper, and everything else that goes with newborns.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yes, though its been hard.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Uh, yeah.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What places did you visit?
Too many cities to count. Japan, China, India, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, France, England (well, Heathrow.)

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Sleep.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
June 3rd, 2008. That’s when the twins were born. I guess June 2nd works as well since that’s when Hirono went into labor. Then there’s the 4th when I pulled my second all-nighter in a row trying to get Alisa to sleep. Then there’s the 5th when I pulled my third all-nighter a row because the girls wouldn’t eat and Alisa was jaundiced. Also, like Toast said, the 4th of November was also very important. Mainly there was this huge sense of relief that the US had hope to actually get out of its insane funk of wingerness.

8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Shipping CS4 on schedule with the quality goals actually achieved, leading the forty-odd people on my virtual team.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Drunken stupidity in Beijing. Way. Too. Drunk. There was also the trip to the hospital from exhaustion at work. I learned my lesson on the second one. I’m still not sure I learned my lesson on the first one.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yeah, a trip to the hospital from exhaustion at work.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Bouncers for the twins.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Hirono for her devotion to the girls and her bottomless energy reserves.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Like Toast, I’ll have to say John McCain and for the same reasons. The man sold his soul for the US presidency and lost. Second place would have to be those who enabled the useless $700B give-away to Wall Street cronies. We’ll be paying that one off for a long time to come.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Disappeared into the stock market crash black hole. I lost more than I’ll make in five years from my job. Since I’ve not sold, I guess I really didn’t lose it yet. Other than that, taxes.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The first smiles of each of the twins.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
The smell of diapers and spoiled milk.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder?
Happier.
b) thinner or fatter?
Definitely fatter.
c) richer or poorer?
Way, way poorer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Cooking.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Work.

20. How did you spend Christmas this year?
French Onion Soup at home with the girls, packing for the journey to Japan.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Oh yeah. Head over heals. With two beautiful little girls.

22. How was work?
Exhilarating. Stressful. Angering. Chaotic. Empowering. Lucrative.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Off.

24. What did you do for your birthday in 2008?
I was in New Dehli working. The team there gave me a birthday cake. They’re a great group of people - one of the best teams with whom I’ve ever had the privilege to work.

25. What was the best book you read?
Winning With Software, An Executive Strategy by Watts Humphrey.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Stevie Wonder.

27. What did you want and get?
Healthy twin girls.

28. What did you want and not get?
$10M so I could retire.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Baby Einstein, Baby Mozart. It has been a life saver (and dinner saver) for many days.

30. Did you make some new friends this year?
Yes. In various places across the world.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not having to lay people off.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Whatever gets you through the day.

33. What kept you sane?
There’s an underlying assumption here that I’m not sure is true. If I had to say one thing, it would be kief.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don’t know her name. Curvaceous brunette.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
The Wall Street Bailout.

35a. What political issue stirred you the least?
Hillary’s primary campaign. This wasn’t the opposite of Toast on purpose.

36. Who did you miss?
My wife. We don’t get much time together these days.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
How do you define best? That’s a hard one.

38. Burn any bridges?
Not of which I’m aware, though I’m sure I made a few enemies.

39. Best new restaurant you went to?
Tagelleria, even though I collapsed there from exhaustion one night.

40. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Don’t overwork. Really. And it takes written records for me to figure out if I’m overworking or not.


Tag, you’re it.