Ruminations

I’ve been thinking about, and writing my response to, this Year-in-Review meme this morning.

It’s taking me a lot longer than I thought it would (it’s really got me thinking!), so I’ll post my response when I finish. I know it’s not really standard practice¹ to put up a meme that you haven’t finished, but it’s a long and thought-provoking one, so, if you feel like doing it, please do:

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before?

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

4. Did anyone close to you die?

5. What countries did you visit?

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?

7. What dates from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

9. What was your biggest failure?

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

11. What was the best thing you bought?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

14. Where did most of your money go?

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

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
(a)Happier or Sadder?

(b)Thinner or Fatter?

(c)Richer or Poorer?

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

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

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

21. Did you fall in love in 2005?

22. How many one-night stands?

23. What was your favorite TV program?

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

25. What was the best book you read?

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

27. What did you want and get?

28. What did you want and not get?

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

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

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?

33. What kept you sane?

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

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

36. Who did you miss?

37. Who was the best new person you met?

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

¹Is there a standard meme practice for blogs? Or maybe I just made that up.

Categories: meme

This year has turned out well, but not the way I was expecting it to. Actually, when I think about it, I don’t know if I had any particular plans or expectations for 2005, really. Are you supposed to admit that you started out with no goals in mind?

Our wedding in March was The Big Event, and I think beyond that I hadn’t really thought too much about it. Oh, don’t get me wrong, at the beginning of the year I was still quite committed to my job, it’s just that the wedding, and all the organising associated with weddings, was far more prominent in my radar. (And to think we didn’t have a traditional white wedding - we concentrated on having a big party for family and friends instead. I shudder to think how much more complicated it would have been if we had wanted all the frills.)

Workwise, I’m very glad 2005 has turned out the way it has. I’m glad I worked on the projects I did (RSS and blogs), and it’s now really, really gratifying to see the results - very tangible ones: RSS feeds for additions to the library collection, and a library news blog. And lest I give the impression it was a solo effort, it definitely wasn’t - I couldn’t have done it without the support of my colleagues, SGS (who always has all the brilliant ideas and enthusiasm), CM (who does all the technical stuff and puts up with me whinging, complaining and insisting that the blogging software we are using, B2Evolution, must have feature X, otherwise it sucks!), M (who actually did all the investigation of all the software and helped CM in nutting out the technical details), and of course, The Boss, whose constant ability to see the Big Blue Sky meant that he was always pushing us (me) to do more. And that’s not even taking into account my other colleagues, GH, DB, JW, KB and ML who have had to put up with me and my fervour (akin to that of a recent convert to a cult: “RSS is The Answer, and we get to it by The Blog. Wikiwikiwiki.”).

2006 is looking interesting too. I’ll be going on a workfunded trip to Malaysia in March, I have papers to write (yes, I’ve still got that task to do, but hopefully I now have some practical experience to draw on), and we’re working on the P word for the library.

Categories: work, projects, RSS, blogs, 2005