It's that time of the year again...

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Visited Rome and Barcelona!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Err um. Should have written the promise down, as I've completely forgotten what it was. So I'm guessing what it was, and pretty sure I didn't keep it...

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, a few friends; second wave of baby boom again.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, am so happy about that.

5. What countries did you visit?
Spain and Italy, very lovely indeed.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Positivity. Better & regular communication.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Ah well I don't remember the exact numbers of the date, but the day itself; receiving bad news in a public place does that to you.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Hmm. Switched jobs, and I'm really glad I did, because looking at the statistics, I might have been among the people getting the boot a few weeks ago at the old work place...

9. What was your biggest failure?
I let people bring me down. I will cover myself with an emotional teflon surface this year, where nothing negative sticks...

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Sinus infections but I've decided to stop noticing them. Maybe they'll go away by themselves?

11. What was the best thing you bought?
This was a bad shopping karma year, didn't buy that much. The trip to Rome most likely :)

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My family's. They do make this all worth a while.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Some nasty surprises here, a few people I thought I knew...

14. Where did most of your money go?
Hmm. air plane tickets?

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing Rufus Wainwright, Leonard Cohen & Foo Fighters live!

16. What songs will always remind you of 2008?
Rufus Wainwright - Going to a Town, Scott Simons - Umbrella, Scott Matthew - Abandoned

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? sadder

ii. thinner or fatter? fatter. ffs.

iii. richer or poorer? richer

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

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
worrying, reacting to other people's (often bad) behaviour

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at home :)

21. How will you be spending New Years?
Spent it with friends and my lil goddaughter. Have not laughed so much for ages, it was a wonderful way to start the new year :)

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Continued to be in love.

23. How many one night stands?
none

24. What were your favourite TV programmes?
Lost, Gossip Girl, Top Gear, Grey's Anatomy, Lipstick Jungle

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes.

26. What was the best book you read?
Ooh err I don't really remember their names? Entertaining paperbacks mostly :)

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Greg Laswell, Bon Iver

28. What did you want and get?
To visit Rome, it was wonderful :)

29. What did you want and not get?
To go to Barcelona on a non-work trip; will have to do that this year.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Ooh well. this is a tough one. The 2/3 of latest Batman movie that I'd call "The Joker movie" instead.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
The big 30... had a lovely dinner at a restaurant with friends.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less negativity.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
This year was going a bit downhill from last year... but lots of lovely jewelry saved it from complete failure.

34. What kept you sane?
Family & music.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Sawyer

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Obama

37. Who did you miss?
The usual, people living far away from me

38. Who was the best new person you met?
A few new colleagues have made my work days much more fun

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
It's tough to keep on thinking positively if you yourself and others around you keep arguing against it.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
The storm is coming but I don't mind
People are dying, I close my blinds

All that I know is I'm breathing now

I want to change the world
Instead I sleep
I want to believe in more than you and me

But all that I know is I'm breathing
All I can do is keep breathing
All we can do is keep breathing now

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Got a nice meme from Marianne: 

"The best songs of this autumn that can be either brand new or older. Post a list of the top 5 favorite songs of the moment, and then ask 5 other bloggers to do the same"

Hmm it's going to be tough to pick the songs. You see, I rely on my iTunes library really heavily. I add new songs daily/weekly, and listen to them in the order of what is newest. And due to some computer updates, I had to reinstall everything, and lost my "music history"... a lot of favourites have gone missing in action, lost among all the thousands of songs I have. So I'm slowly re-discovering my music, thanks to the Genius feature added to the latest iTunes version... But anyways, I'll pick top 5 of my favourites that I've found so far from my library.

Damien Rice - Slow

Last year in his concert Damien sang this little, touching song that I've been trying to find ever since then, with only the line "our dance is almost over" ringing in my head (and isn't that just the perfect line?). I finally succeeded and found it on YouTube (Where would I be without YouTube... my love for music videos is possibly even stronger than for just audio) My heart breaks every time I listen to it.

Bon Iver - Skinny Love

Heart breaking, heart touching song. And the live version in Jools Holland... when his voice breaks it makes my heart ache for him.

Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance

Another music blog or Grey's Anatomy discovery. Possibly both. Not sure what caught me first: the voice, the lyrics or the instruments in the background.

George Laswell - Sing, Theresa Says

This was a discovery from a music blog. I just love the "da di dum di dum di dum dum"...

Citizen Cope - Fame

I don't really remember how I came across this song for the first time. Probably in one of the many music blogs I frequently read... If you know my music taste, you wouldn't expect me to like this song based on the first few notes. But the song and the voice somehow caught my attention and made me fall in love with the song.

There are so many more than top 5 songs I wold have liked to post here. But I'll stop at these, because they are worth getting the spotlight to themselves. I tried adding songs with female singers to the list, honestly, I did. But it just wasn't meant to be...

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If my life was a movie, I'm not really sure what kind of a movie it would be.... A little bit of everything, I guess? But ignoring that, it's fun to think about what the soundtrack of "my life - the movie" would be. I'm sure I've done this before somewhere, sometime, but I don't care... :). After a lot of thought, it would be something like this (at least vol 1). The theme titles are from the old soundtrack meme that's been circling around, that's one of the reasons why they're in somewhat confusing order:

19/08/2007

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This was cool... My last.fm sociomap can be found here: http://qed-portal.com/sociomap/last_fm/eternal-life333 (you can stop the map from circling around from the stop button)

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Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes

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I don't know what happened this autumn, I stopped writing down everything possible. And I don't like that, because I really don't remember stuff without writing it down... So, I guess it's time to start writing again. And what better way to begin tracking my life again than writing a new version of the end of the year meme... So here goes.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Um. Traveled to USA, I guess?

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yes, I did keep my promise for 2007; I promised not smoke during 2007 and to keep on eating chocolate (I've never smoked and I've always loved chocolate)... And yes, I made one for this year, too. I'll let you know what it was in a year or so.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
None during 2007. But that's going to change during this year again...

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No. It's been a good year in that sense.

5. What countries did you visit?
USA, USA, USA... And Sweden.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Better priorities in life, and will & motivation to make my plans reality.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
20.07.2007, because of the numbers and M&S's wedding :)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I made a few new friends this year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I made a few new enemies this year. And forgot to live in the moment, somehow I always end up worrying about the future if I don't concentrate hard enough on the present...

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Sinus infections non stop. I think they're here to stay

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Well, nothing special. Although I do love my red handbag a lot.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Um. Tough one, I think I might concentrate on the negatives in life too much to notice this. A couple of people have become more important to me than I'd expected them to.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Best left unmentioned...

14. Where did most of your money go?
New furniture, clothes, car.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing Damien Rice, Bell X1, Tori Amos, NIN, Placebo and Antony & The Johnsons play live in concerts :)

16. What songs will always remind you of 2007?
The Montgolfier Brothers - Journey's End, The Cinematic Orchestra - Breathe, Foo Fighters - The Pretender, Gotye - Heart's a Mess

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? sadder

ii. thinner or fatter? the same. hmph

iii. richer or poorer? poorer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
exercise, relaxing, traveling for fun

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
worrying, thinking, traveling for work, worrying about work

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at home :)

21. How will you be spending New Years?
Spent it with friends, again. Good times

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Continued to be in love.

23. How many one night stands?
none

24. What were your favourite TV programmes?
Dexter, Lost, Heroes, Gossip Girl

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes.

26. What was the best book you read?
Have mostly read silly chick lit books, so nothing worth mentioning I'm afraid...

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Feist, Saul Williams, The Cinematic Orchestra, Glen Hansard

28. What did you want and get?
I kind of forgot to want to do anything.

29. What did you want and not get?
Travel abroad during my summer holiday.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
"Once"

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
See now this is what I mean, if I don't write it down, I will forget. I turned 29, but can't really remember what I did. Nothing?

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less work.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Err um, this is always so hard. Mix of things, really. Black ruled still.

34. What kept you sane?
Family & music.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Damien Rice, I guess?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Well now... surely there was something but just cannot remember it now.

37. Who did you miss?
Many friends I get to see face to face far too rarely...

38. Who was the best new person you met?
This year hasn't been the best in this sense...

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
I'll have to learn to prioritize more. And understand the fact that some people will never understand me, no matter how I spell things out for them. And that's fine as long as everyone understands the situation...

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
It's universal, I know, I know
It's not less special, to know, to know
Everybody can feel it too
And what's unique
Is me and you

Watching the way things can turn round and round
You need the grace of a tightrope walker
Anyway now, that you can, just do something that's good
Something that's good

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Nette as Meez

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The lake

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I was tagged by mnoo to write 8 things about myself you'd never dream of knowing. Hmm. I've written these before, and always struggle with the task because if you know me, you probably know all of these things. I am far less mysterious than I'd like to be...

But oh well, let's give it a try:

1) I have easily over 100 blogs & websites bookmarked (more like 300 if I count the bookmarks at work to the list). On a normal day, I go through the list at least once (the topics vary from work-related to music etc). And tens of sites by memory and using the history list. This takes less time than you'd think.
2) I've slowly started to realize I should have studied sociology.
3) I push everything that takes time, effort and concentration to the last minute. And every time I do that, I swear next time I'll start sooner. I never do.
4) Every time I walk into a music store (the kind where there's real customer service, not the faceless, robot-like stores), I feel like I've come home, and begin to dream of a music&art store of my own.
5) Before, I used to look everyone in the eye, especially when I spoke to them. To my own annoyance, I've stopped doing that with most people nowadays, but I acknowledge and understand the reasons behind it.
6) I'm hopeless with remembering numbers: phone numbers, birthdays, important dates & years. If I've forgotten your birthday, believe me: you're not the only one I've done that to. I'm sorry.
7) I think I'll never get over my crush on Mr Darcy
8) I seem to always end up being surrounded by chaos. I've started to wonder if I create it. (well, to be honest, I know I do but am still in denial)

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