I always kind of want to do memes, and now I will! Copied from jen_aside.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?

Went to a developing country(China)

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't know if I made any but I didn't accomplish the goals I had at the beginning of the year. I don't think I'll make any this year; most of the things I want to change in 2009 aren't things I need to change in my daily life but more long term changes.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
China(PRC)

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
The first bit of 2009 had BoxConfig which is what I want most, but I had that in 2009. So...?

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 6th; it was the day the one year anniversary of BoxConfig, and also when I gave up and went back to looking for work (taking 2+ weeks to do nothing in the interim).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got a new job.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I failed at BoxConfig.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Why yes, I had a bout of appendicitis. My body rebelled at the thought of going back to the office, apparently. I sprained my wrist in June in what has become a persistent problem

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I can't really say =X.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
see 13
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
I feel like the answer to both of these are probably the same. And... I don't know, it's probably me. I realize other people have done far worse and far better things, but do I care? Not really. Oh nos tiger woods so many mistresses *rolls eyes*. Terrorists and saints and all that are well and good, but what do I celebrate? What makes me depressed? Well it's all about Chau and I.

14. Where did most of your money go?

You could say - BoxConfig, for the time I spent working on it and not making money, you could say - health, since that was the biggest surprise (appendicitis, appendicitis lol). I spent far and away the most money on Rent, though. (How bland).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Nothing; the lack of excitement was a defining trait of the year - at least once BoxConfig flamed out

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
I. happier or sadder?
marginally happier, maybe. Last year I was rather despondent over the state of BoxConfig, and I'm not that happy now, either. I don't feel the sense of impending financial doom at least.
II. thinner or fatter?
Marginally fatter maybe maybe? I seem to hover around 160 most of the time.
III. richer or poorer?
poorer, no doubt. But now with income.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Working on BoxConfig

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
The plethora of activities that had no real effect on anything, mostly, wasting time on the internet.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my parents; then driving to 7 Springs to be with Chau

21. How will you be spending New Year's?
With Chau, but how, where? Quite probably just with her/.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No.

23. Do you like anyone now that you didn't like this time last year?
In most senses, no. I suppose I like my new coworkers okay.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope.

25. What was your favourite TV program?
I watch a lot of 30 Rock these days. Though I think my actual favorite might have to be redacted. And not in a TSA sense.

26. What was the best book you read?
Outliers, not like I read much. Was that the only book I read...?

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
2009 was a good year for music; I like the electronic rock sound that has been rolling out recently. There's lady gaga, but while I like most of them, I don't love any of her songs (Chau, however, does).

28. What did you want and get?
As for the job, I got what I thought I wanted, and realized I was wrong.

29. What did you want and not get?
Even though this and 28 are presumably about Christmas, it hasn't come yet (and 20 assumes it in the future). Anyway what I wanted most was a fun and challenging job, but I didn't get that.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
District 9.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I let Chau take me to Wildfire and other unmentionable things. I was 2x.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Actually the copied answer reminds me - that a dog is probably #1. Otherwise work Boxconfig blah blah blah

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
The same as 2008, but with more polo shirts, and some Martin & OSA

34. What kept you sane?
Chau

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don't know. The hot one who didn't say something stupid. Wait, is that none of them?
An aside: Today I realized that when I hear the phrase "Hot Jupiter", I think of either the scientific meaning (a jupiter-sized planet orbiting very close to its star) or a hot Jupiter Cosplayer - and the fact thatboth meanings jump into my head immediately can only mean I am still a geek.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Health Care.

37. Who did you miss?
The person I copied this from said everyone, and sure, I'll take that. I don't know, off the top of my head, Mina, Qi, and Amy were all absent for some if not all of the year, but even when Qi was around I didn't hang out with her that much. I'm a bad friend XD.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I don't know. There's no standouts. I met a bunch of coworkers, they were generally pretty cool.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Didn't I just write an entry on that?

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I will find this, and I will fill in this space (usual LJ-forecast disclaimer applies)

By the reason I like to do memes is the chance to reveal or hint at something scandalous. Of course, these days, I try to keep scandal at a minimum out of a respect for my lady, so hinting at is something I try to avoid.

...today i forgot my water bottle, my celfone and my lunch at home. all because i woke up late and was hurrying out the door. that and i need more sleep @_@;

but that doesn't matter much because of the lovely snowy pretty cookies that people gave me, THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!! i have NEVER seen snow. EVER. so it's a great substitute :D VERY GRATEFUL, YOU GUYS! THANK YOU!

I've noticed recently that I usually wake up with a purpose.

It's usually a fallout from a dream. But in the first 30 mintues to an hour of the day, there is usually something I want to do.

As mentioned in my last entry, sometimes its a post I want to write. Other times, it is to play a game, or eat a food - often one I haven't had in a while. Like I might wake up wanting to play EVE Online, or eat donuts.

Today I woke up wanting to accomplish something, in the general sense. Like, time to get out of bed, get to work, and churn something out. Too bad it didn't last.

I miss having a sense of purpose, a sense of wanting to do something. I love those first minutes, in a way - when the dream seems real, and things seem to have an air of urgency or importance. Then the fog fades, and I'm just back to usual life, wherein a boring day awaits me. This is better than the past, when the fog fades and that sense of "oh man, my project is such a mess" closes in.

I recently purchased Little King's Story, I'm not sure why, exactly. But it's pretty fun, stupid pathfinding and other little bugs and interface issues aside.

Speaking of dreams, Boxconfig is still unresolved. It came up again today. Over the past few weeks, I've gone from thinking it impossible to thinking, as usual, I need a lot more time and more people than I had. Or at least more than just me When one encounters One More Issue, it's really easy to think, the number of issues is infinite and this will never get finished. But after a few days you can take a look at it and realize that the issue is tractable, and their number is finite, so no need to give up yet.

I do not see any short term change in the BoxConfig plan. Life is just not amenable to "work nights and weekends". It needs months of work, and I'm not spending all my free time for years on it. But there are murky ideas of a future in the mists. Will theh materialize? I don't know. I feel lazier by the day. Maybe I'm turning into a Hutt. But I can get out of this mess - I did it in the first part of this year. I worked hard from October 2008 until February 2009. All on my own. So I know it's in me. My current feeling of aimlessness just leads to less than idea productivit.y

If someone wants to work with me on it, of course, that changes a lot. So if you know someone... let me know. Better yet, if you are someone.

Not much to post about, although every morning I wake up with the urge to post. This might be because I've been remembering a lot of dreams, or fragments thereof, recently.
( Mandatory dream-cut )

I still wanted to post, even after I realized that dream was a dream.

Usually, I want to post about China, which I think is overhyped (economically) and the US, with it severe health care problems (none of the proposals address medical inflation...). You know, from a world economics/politics standpoint. But I feel saying so in this short form is as good as a "real" post.

Life has been right about average. So it is on most major fronts. There isn't much to report. Except one thing - I don't think all the (faux?) "angst" of the recent times has been to no benefit. No, I think much has been learned. It's only the outline of a theory, I suppose you could say - of no immediate practical benefit. But introspection will have its utility.

PS - buy VNM.