I had never intended to "meme"... ever!

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Brain surgery.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Don't *do* NY resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not yet (Jan, 2008, I am told)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What states/countries did you visit?
Amsterdam, Paris, several places in England, Scotland and Portugal.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Courage, guts, gumption.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 2007 because I met Patrick.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting published!

9. What was your biggest failure?
Remaining this version of *me*

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Brain drill. Minor blood clot. Epilepsy. Depression. Social Avoidant Disorder. Panic attacks. Flu. Colds.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Ingmar Bergman collection on DVD

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Public figure? Friend? I don't know. Pretty much same answer: nobody's.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Several people online, a couple of real life friends. Naming no names is my motto, yeah.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Books.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
RLC. For about 2 weeks.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
Rehab - Amy Winehouse

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
- happier or sadder? same. not too sad, really.
- thinner or fatter? thinner
- richer or poorer? poorer

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

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

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Asleep. Alone.

21. How will you be spending New Years?
Asleep, as I always do.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Possibly.

23. How many one-night stands?
Virtual? Quite a few. Real ones? Same as last year. Zilch.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
No time for tv, so maybe old DVDs of French & Saunders or The Secret Life of Us (and Space: 1999, of course)

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Afraid so. But not hate exactly, because there are tons of Guilt (felt by me, yes) involved.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Victoria Spivey, Joan As Police Woman, Kendall, Sacha Sacket, Jake Generalli, Blind Lemon Jefferson, ...

27. What did you want and get??
Some books, CDs, films. Some connection to the world outside my small town.

28. What did you want and not get?
To be more open to the possibilities of... to cut people some more slack.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
None.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Nothing. 30.

31. What one thing would have made your year?
Love? Falling in, stumbling upon, recognising it

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Pretty much the same as always - somewhere between casual, geek chique and can't be bothered.

33. (lost in transit)

34. What kept you sane?
Small doses of family, and my online friends. And possibly some minor benzodiazepines.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None I can think of.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Same-sex marriage, Capital Punishment (pro the former, emphatically against the other)

37. Who did you miss?
My mother. Still....

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Patrick, Max, Uill

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007?
Not to spend more time social networking online than you do in real life. Not sure I entirely learned it, though. And yet - No Regrets

40. A quote or song lyric that sums up your year
Strange Rivers (Joan Baez); Do I Disappoint You? (Rufus)

Last.fm-Mainstream-O-Meter

Last.fm-Mainstream-O-Meter

Borrowed Beauty #3

Sans Souci - Rufus W

Borrowed Beauty #2

Sonnet 94



They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmovèd, cold, and to temptation slow
They rightly do inherit Heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense.
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity.
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds.
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.


by William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)

Borrowed Beauty #1

Sandy Denny Lyrics

Late November Lyrics

The wine it was drunk, the ship it was sunk,
The shot it was dead, all the sorrows were drowned.
The birds they were clouds, the brides and the shrouds
And as we drew south the mist it came down.

The wooded ravine to the wandering stream,
The serpent he moved, but no-one would say.
The depths of the waters, the bridge which distraught us
And brought to me thoughts of the ill-fated day.

The temples were filled with the strangest of creatures
One played it by ear on the banks of the sea.
That one was found but the others they went under.
Oh the tears which are shed, they won't come from me.

The methods of madness, the pathos and the sadness,
God help you all, the insane and wise.
The black and the white, the darkness of the night,
I see only smoke from the chimneys arise.

The pilot he flew all across the sky and woke me.
He flew solo on the mercury sea.
The dream it came back, all about the tall brown people,
The sacred young herd on the phosphorous sand.

The Virtues of Vice

Not a long essay on those - and trust me, it would have to be something of majestic proportions.

More of an introduction to the fine art of buggering a first posting. I think I've aced it.