1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Went to Italy, became a manager, negotiated an acting promotion, ate several foods I’d never tried before (including Arctic Char Jerkey!), read a story about my long absent father on the front page of my hometown newspaper.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t think I made any.  Safer that way, really.  I mean, why set myself up for failure?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die? My stepfather, Kenny.

5. What countries did you visit? Italy.  And it was glorious.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? More sleep, a busier social life.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? April 10th — the day after my 30th birthday and the day Kenny passed away.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Going to Italy alone (well, on a tour, but still…) achieving further career success.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not exercising.  My body is starting to feel ick.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing major, as far as I can remember.  Well, there was a cold in September that hung on in my lung FOREVER.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My ipod touch.  Oh the love.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? The American public for electing Obama and giving us hope that they didn’t have their heads completely up their asses.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? No one, really.  Nothing anyone’s done earned that level of emotion.

14. Where did most of your money go? Italy.  Paying off debt.  Travelling to Barrie.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Italy, again.  My nephew Matt visiting in July.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? “Yes we Can” by Will.i.am and “A Change is Gonna Come”.  Both remind me of the American election.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? I’d say I’m equally as happy as last year, a wee bit thinner, and certainly richer.  YAY!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Read, wrote, explored, took more photos.

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

20. How did you spend Christmas? In Barrie with a fair chunk of my family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? No, alas.

22. What was your favorite TV program? House, Battlestar Gallactica

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No.  Again, that takes too much emotion and energy.  New people annoy me this year, but that’s nothing new.

24. What was the best book you read? Probably The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Probably Kanye West.  I like him more than I expected to.

26. What did you want and get? I’m not sure there was something specific I wanted, really, which is actually a nice way to live.

27. What did you want and not get? Okay, maybe there was one thing I would have liked — a relationship.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? WALL-E hands down.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 30.  Chilled out at home alone.  Was woken in the wee hours of the next morning by the news of my stepfather’s passing.  Celebrated with friends later in May.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? As I said – a relationship.  But I think my life is pretty good and satisfying without it, regardless.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Meh — I have no fashion style.

32. What kept you sane? Books, writing and the Internet.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Obama goes without saying.  No Canadian politician inspired me, which is sad.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? The left coalition.  Fun!

35. Who did you miss? It’s less the actual people than the idea of the people.

36. Who was the best new person you met? Probably Iain, though it’s still early.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Knowledge and work pay off.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. I’m never any good at this question.

Previously: 2003

I’ve been watching Long Way Down (I have a sad love of Ewan McGregor) and his travels have got me thinking about my own.  And I’ve discovered the little moments I remember most usually involve me sitting on the ground.

For some reason there’s something about sitting on the ground in a foreign place that  just allows you to soak up the place (it’s best not to think about the logistics of that).  Two moments in Italy in particular stick out for me –

1) Sitting under a tree on a small patch of grass in Verona, a few blocks from “Julliet’s” tomb, downloading an album on my ipod (my friends say this image should be an ipod touch/iphone commercial), soaking up the sun and picking tiny wild flowers.

2) St Mark’s Square Venice.  Completely knackered at the end of a long day of walking around Venice, I just parked myself against a pillar and waited for the rest of the gang to show up.

Just sitting in these places, sitting on the ground, as if I was part of the buildings and the stone and the grass, was brilliant.

I don’t have as strong moments like this from Ireland.  Maybe because I always sat on steps or the like, never truly on the ground. Probably because I wasn’t alone as much as I was in Italy.

But I highly reccommend sitting on the ground when you travel.

So about a week or so ago I downloaded and converted WALL-E to put it on my ipod for some indeterminate date in the future when I might have time to blow watching a movie on the go.

Today was that day.

I was training it to Barrie for Christmas and started up WALL-E.  And, oh man.  I thought PIXAR were geniouses before, but now?  WOW.  I LOVED this movie.  I wanted everyone I know in the world to watch it.

It is so freaking adorable!  I know that’s hardly a ringing endorsement, but the was this movie manages to pull you in and tug at your heart strings with only minimal dialogue is hard to dsecribe.  How they managed to get one animated robot to give such a completely heart rendering “performance” — especially the facial expressions OMG!

Highly reccommended.  One of my new favourites.

This book surprised me. People of the Book is the fictionalized account of the Sarajevo Haggadah. The Haggadah is hundreds of years old, and a very real, very rare and treasured book, which is why I wanted to read about it. But when I first started this novel I was rather unimpressed. The main character seemed to have a prickly attitude from the start, which normally wouldn’t put me off, but the first chapter or so consisted of reading about her examining the bin dings of the book. Interesting work in real life I’m sure, with interesting discoveries, but not so much fun to read about. But I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did.

Brooks gives the story of the Haggadah in an interesting fashion. Interspersed with the protaganist’s point of view in 1996 are the flashback stories of all those who have played a role in the history of the book. But backwards. So we proceed to Hanna in 1996 to Lola in 1940 back to Hanna to Mittl and Herschfeldt in 1894 and back to Hanna, then to Aryeh and Vistorini in 1609 and so on and so forth. So as you’re reading you’re given hints and pieces of the puzzle as each character exposits on how the Haggadah came to them. Often I found myself missing these bits and not connecting them right away. For instance, I didn’t immediately realize that Reyna de Serena’s “elderly man servant” was the infant immersed in the water by Ruti. Once I suspected, I had to flip back to confirm.

This is a brilliant way to tease the readers. In order to truly understand the beginnings of this magnificent Haggadah, you must finish the book. By the time I got to the Venice portion in 1609 I was hooked.

There were a few plot points I didn’t like (and man, does this book have a lot of plot. You don’t even realize it until you finish and then all you can think is ‘Wow Brooks squeezed a lot of stories into this novel’).

For one — what was the point of Hanna stealing Alia’s brain scans? In the end the boy dies and it just makes her seem like a jerk, going against Ozren’s wished.

And of *course* she ended up being half-jewish. I get it, it’s a book about Jews and the Haggadah, but it’s also about the Haggadah and the gentiles who saved it and played a part in its history. Did she really have to be jewish, and not only that, but have that be a surprise and discovery to the character as well? It seemed weak and cheap.

And then there are the questions that I have. You don’t get to hear every part of the story, and I want to know it all. Mostly:

What happened that Benjamin and Zahra ended up peddling her paintings in the maket? What happened to Pedro? Are we supposed to assume that Vistorini reclaimed his jewish faith and was the patriarch of the Kohen (Cohain) jews in Sarajevo?

All in all, a slow start, with a few clunky bits that were unnecessary, but a fascinating bit of historical fiction.

I am nothing if not in love with all things Harry Potter, so my ability to be objective in reading this book is almost nil.

I enjoyed this very much, and it absolutely made me want to read Deathly Hallows again. My favourite was the Fountain of Fair Fortune, but the best part of the book overall was Albus Dumbledore’s notes on the fables — very amusing.

The humour amuses me so much. I provide this quote as example:

“As the eminent wizarding philosopher Bertrand de Pensèes-Profondes (’Heh ‘ — A) writes in his celebrated work A Study into the Possibility of Reversing the Actual and Metaphysical Effects of Natural Death, with Particular Regard to the Reintegration of Essence and Matter: ‘Give it up. It’s never going to happen.’”

A great little book for the Potter fan.

Yes, everyone and their dog has linked to this, but I can’t resist.

Proposition 8: The Musical.  Starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris, Margaret Cho, Alison Janney, etc.