40 Questions to Ask Yourself Every Year — 2023 Edition
What did you do this year that you’d never done before? Saw my sister get married on the shores of Lake Chatuge.
Did you keep your new year’s resolutions? Yes, because again, I did not make any.
Did anyone close to you give birth? Negative
Did anyone close to you die? Jerry Zimmerman and Chris Bourbon. While I was no longer close to Chris, or really Jerry really they were both tough in their own ways. Chris' because the people there really did not want to see me/have me there, and Jerry's was tough because of how close the bond to his daughters' was. That coupled with the fact that it was a military funeral with all the pageantry associated with that.
What cities/states/countries did you visit? We had the wedding this year in North Carolina, and it will undoubtedly be a time none of us will soon forget.
What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year? Better answers for these questions.
What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why? The Reynolds' wedding and perhaps the day I walked out.
What was your biggest achievement of the year? Leaving Meijer was simultaneously the best and dumbest thing I did this year.
What was your biggest failure? CANNOT BE PUBLIC
What other hardships did you face? Acting irrationally and walking out of Meijer, and despite having a very small safety net - I did not handle it professionally.
Did you suffer illness or injury? Strangely enough I had fallen ill just after taking the job at Sentry. Took the rest of that first weekend off and started on that Monday. What a first impression.
What was the best thing you bought? Easy. My cameras and their respective lenses.
Whose behavior merited celebration? Anyone involved with the successful wedding. Tammy and Chris I suppose are honorable mentions. Michael and his heavily kitchen work. Travis as well despite the circumstances we learned about later on.
Whose behavior made you appalled? Everyone at Meijer whom all said nothing to me when I left. To be fair, Andy did reach out but here it is in December and he no longer reaches out.
Where did most of your money go? This is one is actually quite easy; cameras and camera related gear.
What did you get really, really, really excited about? Photography, and almost as equally, editing RAW files.
What song will always remind you of this year? How about the song about "When you said you loved me, you must have had your fingers crossed."
Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer? Happiness: An illusion.
Thickness: If anything, skinnier.
Financial Security: Poorer in a big way, with the monstrous purchases during the rally for the wedding, two months of not working and the insane amounts of money spent on cameras and camera equipment.
What do you wish you’d done more of? Taken more pictures and not spent so much time deciding which lenses to take with me.
What do you wish you’d done less of? Thinking of and more doing of.
How are you spending Christmas? Same as always, but that's a good thing! But we do have some good news for Dwayne because my new employer sells Hillshire Hams and so we have one for Christmas.
Did you fall in love this year? Yeah, sure, with AI.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don't hate anyone more than myself. Hate shouldn't be confused with just simply wanting to bash someone's head in, but age and life experience teaches you that the consequences aren't worth the satisfaction.
What was your favorite show? Downton Abbey re-watch with Grandma
What was the best book you read? 48 Laws of Power
What was your greatest musical discovery of the year? I don't know if I had one honestly. I hope I can come back before this years over and point out the obvious, but it's been a tough year musically.
What was your favorite film? Actually went to see quite a few this year, almost all of them with Jackson. Equalizer 3, Oppenheimer. My favorite without a doubt tho was Sound of Freedom.
What was your favorite meal? It should have been the meal at the wedding, but I didn't get a chance to eat.
What did you want and get? Again, my camera.
What did you want and not get? For a while there I was hoping to get a new car. And not necessarily to replace the Toyota, because I would have made that my winter vehicle. Due to leaving Meijer, probably a good idea we didn't. But then again, perhaps we wouldn't have left, but who knows, it was a hostile ending no doubt.
What did you do on your birthday? Sulked like a bitch. Total embarrassment. Suicide would have been a better option on this day.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I lived up to half of the advice I gave to people.
How would you describe your personal fashion this year? I spent too much time trying to come up with a signature style for while I was out shooting photos, but that got me feeling a certain type of way. Am I just dressing up to do it, or what!? I also started spiking my hair back up this year.
What kept you sane? 👀
Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most? Probably Mark Laita due to his work with Soft White Underbelly.
What political issue stirred you the most? It's so much easier not giving a fuck. We're doomed the way I see it. Parts of the Animatrix, 1984, and Brave New World are all coming true so we might as well enjoy these couple moments of delusion before the whole thing gets really ugly.
Who did you miss? Lorelei
Who was the best new person you met? Corey, Terell's cousin!? 🤔 Hideous the way you do not know these things.
What valuable life lesson did you learn this year? Family is important with each passing day. They are your go-to people when you start getting up there in age. They are the ones you can depend on. All I have done in my life is destroy any possibility of making or starting my own. My lesson is I have to learn have to navigate thru the rest of my days, knowing that, and somehow keeping a smile. I am confident that taking pictures of other people's favorite moments are enough of a supplement for not necessarily having any of my own.
What is a quote that sums up your year? It'll be what it is.