lissajous

1. What did you do in 2022 that you'd never done before?

Bought a house! Was best man (actually joint best man) at a wedding.

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't really do new year's resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth, get married or engaged?

My best friend got married.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No.

5. What countries did you visit?

England, Scotland and Ireland.

6. What would you like to have in 2023 that you lacked in 2022?

More social interaction. This will be a theme.

7. What dates from 2022 will remain etched upon your memory?

The only one that really comes to mind is the 5th July which was the date of my best friend's wedding. I was joint best man and doing the speech was the only really stressful thing I had to do this year.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

From roughly the middle of this year I've been really attacking the problem of how to improve my guitar technique. As a result I've made probably the biggest breakthroughs in my playing since I started learning the instrument.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I let a few bad experiences colour my thinking too much.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing remotely serious. I've been lucky to have a very good standard of health which is something I try not to take for granted.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

This is pretty pathetic but several sets of small plastic drawers for organising my electronic components. It saves so much time when building circuits.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

I'd like to give a shout out to my father papa lissajous who has always been and continues to be a paragon of virtue.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

In terms of people I actually know no-one really. On a broader scale Putin is a cunt obviously.

14. Where did most of your money go?

House, food and booze in that order.

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

Breakthroughs with my guitar playing.

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2022?

I'm not really sure that there is one. I listened to Suits and Ladders by NOFX a lot but there's no particular significance to that.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? Probably much the same although this is the sort of question I find really hard to answer.

ii. thinner or fatter? Again probably much the same. My weight has gone up and down a lot this year as it did last year.

iii. richer or poorer? Well tobli and I bought a house so that put a big hole in our collective pocket.

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

Socializing.

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

Avoiding social interaction.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

At tobli's mum's house.

21. Is there a particularly memorable meal you had?

tobli and I went out for dinner with my parents for my dad's birthday and I was really impressed with the tasting menu we err... tasted. In terms of my own cooking there's a crab and fennel spaghetti dish I made which has stuck with me.

22. Did you fall in love in 2022?

I've been in love with tobli since 2017.

23. How many one night stands in this last year?

I have never and almost certainly will never have a one night stand.

24. What was your favorite TV program?

The only TV show I've watched this year has been House of the Dragon and I've only seen one episode so far but I loved it. I tend not to watch a lot of TV shows because they eat up a lot of time and even if I don't like them I feel compelled to watch the whole thing.

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

I don't think I really "hate" anyone.

26. What was the best book you read?

Very boring answer but The Lord of the Rings.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Probably the Devin Townsend Project.

28. What did you want and get?

A house.

29. What did you want and not get?

A job I really enjoy. I started a new job around September last year and it only really got going at the start of this year. I don't hate it but I could probably find something more interesting.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

I think the only film we saw this year was Sonic 2 haha.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old are you now?

I don't think we did anything although we did have sushi a few days later. 29.

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

Probably just pushing myself more to do things outside my comfort zone.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2022?

I'm blue.

34. What kept you sane?

Cooking/baking something new can instantly improve my mood. Particularly if I've had a stressful/boring day at work.

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

I don't really follow celebrities/public figures. tobli and I virtually attended a talk by Tim Berners-Lee and he seemed like a good dude.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

I feel like climate change is the only political issue I really have strong feelings about which has been the case forever. I'm not really interested in politics which I think is sort of irresponsible but I struggle to give a fuck about it.

37. Whom did you miss?

No-one really.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

It's got to be the retired statistics professor we met at tobli's friend's wedding.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022.

To grow as a person you need to do things that seem scary or difficult.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?

This is tricky one so I'll borrow tobli's answer which also seems fairly appropriate for me.