1/5/08

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
I deployed to a third world country warzone.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I actually met my resolutions and I plan on meeting my resolutions for this year too.

2007 resolutions – Become a better person.
2008 resolutions – Gain 10 lbs (and keep it) and become a better person.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, not really.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yea, a few.

5. What countries did you visit?
Iraq. Kuwait.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Someone to hold.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Early June. We had our first deaths in the battalion and my life was crumbling apart back in the states and there was nothing I could do about it. And my friends were creating stupid useless drama in my life. And my girl told me she never wanted to hear from me ever again and that she didn’t know how she could ever have liked someone as horrid as me. — Ouch. So I abandoned all of them for months, and I never felt more lonely in my entire life.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I survived Iraq.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I made a lot of moral compromises to make my life easier.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
In every way possible, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A Nintendo Wii. =)

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
One of my coworkers finally snapped out of a brooding depression he had over his wife leaving him. We partied like a rockstar. =)

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
My ‘friends’ who abandoned me out in Iraq — to die.

14. Where did most of your money go?
To my car, which is now paid off. 2006 Toyota Carolla

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Being home for Christmas for the first time in 5 years. And rightly so. It was the best vacation of my life. Everrrrr.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2007?
“On That Day, 5 Years Ago” and “Anxious Heart” — Final Fantasy 7. What, you had to know it’d be a game song.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Far happier. The deployment is over.
ii. thinner or fatter? Thinner. Which sucks. But I’d like to see YOU not lose weight in 140+ degree heat.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
I wish I had stayed in touch with my true friends.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Escaping into my books and games.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent my Christmas with my family, for the first time in 5 years, and with my girl (that I like), and it was wonderful.

21. What was the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in 2007?
I don’t really know. I’ve done a lot in 2007. I’d have to say getting my newest uniform soaked in Diesel while refueling the generators sucked ass.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
I did not.

23. How many one-night stands / random hookups?
I was in Iraq. Zero and zero.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
*sigh* I was in Iraq. I didn’t see TV!! But I did bring my Batman: The Animated Series out there with me. So I guess that.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Yes. I try not to hate, but I hate.

26. What was the best book you read?
PHP for Dummies. =) I know PHP now. =)

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Demons and Wizards. Great band.

28. What did you want and get?
To survive, and I did. =)

29. What did you want and not get?
To not deploy, to get a g/f, and for everyone to survive the deployment.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Well I’m still catching up on the year, but so far I’d have to say
Die Hard 4 is the shit. Especially since the villain is a computer nerd like me! He even uses an Alienware laptop… like me!

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I worked an 18 hour shift. And I told no one it was my birthday. I just distinctly remember wishing I was dead. I turned 23.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Never deploying. Although now had I never deployed I wouldn’t know who my true friends are.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Heh. I’m stuck in 2006. ‘Cause I missed out on a year here. I wore mostly army uniforms out in Iraq.

34. What kept you sane?
My games. They are my escape. Final Fantasy 6, 7, and 8. I recently beat 8 for the first time ever. Best love story I have ever read. Had me bawling like a baby.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Olivia Munn. Hot gamer girls rock my world.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The war in Iraq. I’m tired of it.

37. Who did you miss?
Nicki, my family, my friends.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I’ve gotten to know a coworker of mine while out in Iraq, and I must say, he’s not a bad person at all. His name is Paul. He may actually be my “friend” one day.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
Laugh, Live, and Love. Say what you feel and mean what you say, never have regrets. You never know when you’re time is up.

40. Quote a song that sums up your year.
“On that day, 5 years ago” — Final fantasy 7