Two Yearly Memes

[redfiona99]

1) Was 2012 a good year for you?

However much I may not have enjoyed bits of it, it was significantly better than several friends both on and off-line. As my year has not featured emergency hospitalisation, diagnosis of late-onset schizophrenia, multiple broken bones or emergency brain surgery, I'm not going to complain.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?

I have a couple of options, seeing Vezzali fence live, seeing Szilagyi win his Olympic gold live (and seeing his wonderful footwork live. Tig was right, he has wonderful footwork) and all of the US trip with D and L. Ocean Colour Scene live was pretty amazing. When I was a suicidal teen, I promised myself I'd see the Manics and them before I did anything so it was good to see them mostly having come through the other side of that.

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?

Stupid, blasted project covers all of them.

4) Where were you when 2012 began?

St. Helens, I think.

5) Who were you with?

Family

6) Where will you be when 2012 ends? / Where were you when 2012 ended?

Same as last year. I enjoy home comforts.

7) Who will you be with when 2012 ends? / Who were you with when 2012 ended?

Nan and Mum.

8) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2012?

No. Argh! Well maybe the housework one a bit. It's amazing what not living in the lair of the spiders any more does for my willingness to do housework. So this year's are the same as last year.

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2013?

As last year - Better organisation, do more reading (work-related), go to the gym more often and generally get fitter. Oh and do the damn housework and tidy up.

10) Did you fall in love in 2012?

No. One old flame-ish had interesting stuff happen, and then other interesting stuff, and then yet more interesting stuff, and I found out some stuff about him that makes me want to scream (in a not-good way but the screaming isn't directed at him) but I think we have both now realised we would have been terrible. Another ex-flame-ish had terrible stuff happen to him that makes me want to protect him from the rest of the universe but also made me realise my decision about him was probably for the best for both of us.

11) If yes, with who?
12) If yes, do they know?
13) Do you regret it?

14) Did you breakup with anyone in 2012?

No, but the above ought to qualify that a little.

15) Did you make any new friends in 2012?

P and D through work.

16) Who are your favorite new friends?

P and D. Who are both lovely, and who I shall miss when their PhDs finish.

17) What was your favorite month of 2012?

If I move the first week of July into August instead of the last week of August, August definitely. Enjoyable conference, visiting family friends, Olympics (and seeing Vezzali fence), visiting friends and then a music festival where it didn't rain. All of it awesome.

18) Did you travel outside of the US UK in 2012?

Yes. Ireland and the US.

19) How many different states did you travel to in 2012?

For once I can actually answer this for the US :) California, Arizona and Nevada.

20) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2012?

Thankfully no. One of my grandmother's friend's husbands sadly passed away but everyone else is still ticking over.

21) Did you miss anybody in the past year?

Just the usual fencing peeps and ex-fencing peeps.

22) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2012?

I barely saw any films at all in 2012, at the cinema at least. According to my notes, we're down to Dark Knight Rises, which has issues, the Avengers, which I had issues with, and Game of Shadows, which had issues, so I wouldn't feel right choosing any of them. Not new, but new to me, that were good included The Raid, the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and the Proposition.

23) What was your favorite song from 2012?

I made myself a promise when I was much younger that I wouldn't ever be one of those people who ever bewailed that music had died. And I'm a David Guetta fan so I can't complain about the over-auto-tuned sound that has been the sound of 2012.

And I can understand why Gangnam Style and Call Me Maybe went so big. When the world is looking horrible, sometimes, you just want to hear happy things.

All of that being said, my top two are not in the above style.

Next To Me - Emeli Sande (who, for computer reasons, will have to put up with not having an accent on her last name) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nwdjQmc_N8 A confession - I didn't think much of it, when I first heard it and I still prefer the live version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPZBntBuLLE) but it's definitely the song of this summer.

The other option is another obvious one, Gotye's Somebody I Used To Know - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY.

To me, the thing that really makes it awesome is the female part of the song, because otherwise it would just be yet another whiny boy relationship split song but that part shows that the writer (if not the idiot boy) gets that there was a reason for the split. I also find it deeply amusing that the UK year round ups on TV only put on the minimum of this that they can get away with, possibly, I think because it does sound so different to a lot of other songs released this year (as evidence see the lengths this mash-up has to go to to get the voice to fit in - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If5MF4wm1T8)

24) What was your favorite record from 2012?

I, once again, have bought nothing recent enough to count for this, unless you're counting the Chieftans record that I bought for my Mum.

25) How many concerts did you see in 2012?

None, but I did manage one music festival. All hail Summer Sundae.

26) Did you have a favorite concert in 2012?

Summer Sundae does make this easy :)

27) Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2012?

No. I fear I have grown sober (ish) in my old age. I can however recommend Sipsmith's damson vodka.

28) Did you do a lot of drugs in 2012?

No.

29) How many people did you sleep with in 2012?

0

30) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?

Amazingly few, for me.

31) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2012?

People, other than the finance department at my place of work, have been amazingly truthful this year.

32) Did you treat somebody badly in 2012?

Not to their face, but there's probably someone I ought to stop cursing out (in their absence) every single time they do something to annoy me.

33) Did somebody treat you badly in 2012?

Not as far as I noticed.

34) How much money did you spend in 2012?

Too much, but welcome to the sundry expenses of buying a house.

35) What was your proudest moment of 2012?

Poster presentation at the largest European conference for my subject :D

36) If you could go back in time to any moment of 2012 and change something, what would it be?

Mostly work stuff. The usual not understanding a methodology until you've totally messed it up applies. But now I think I've got it sussed.

37) What are your plans for 2013?

Get more data. Really I'm not thinking past the end of February and the departmental presentation I have to give.



~~~~

Review of what I wrote in 2012

Sherlock

Needs (Jeremy Brett version, Sherlock Holmes gen, PG, redfiona99.livejournal.com/787258.html)

In Certain Circumstance (BBC's Sherlock, Lestrade and Donovan gen, R, http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/760629.html

Star Trek

The Victor's History (Lt. Valeris, PG, http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/798260.html)

Wrestling

Ideas and Actions (Randy Orton/Trish Stratus, NC-17, 50 Kinky Ways fic, http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/752209.html)

Bitten By The Love Bug (Randy Orton/Drew McIntyre, past Randy Orton/Edge, present Edge/Kelly Kelly and unrequited Drew McIntyre/Kelly Kelly, R, 50 Kinky Ways fic, http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/778449.html)

You And Your Gucci Belt (Randy Orton/Dave Batista, R, 50 Kinky Ways fic, redfiona99.livejournal.com/763216.html)

The Road To Nowhere (Rene Dupree/Sylvan Grenier, PG, http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/771614.html)

X-Men

Happiness (Or Something Like It) (Mystique, PG, X-men Movieverse Ficathon Fic, redfiona99.livejournal.com/775278.html)

Committed To Paper (Xavier and McCoy gen, PG, http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/765066.html)

Miscellaneous

Things We Do Not Say (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Fai/Kurogane, PG,
Part 7 - http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/776487.html
Part 8 - http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/793016.html)

Let Slip The Dogs Of War (James Bond, M gen, PG, http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/753379.html)

~~~~

12 fics, so I just about pass my own standard test (at least the equivalent of 1 fic a month). I think my new system does reduce the amount of fic I write, but it's much less stressful for me so I'm going to keep it. Plus next year ought to have a couple more because there's two fics that are nearly ready. Then again, everything else is conspiring against me to be long fic. By which I mean long by my standards, not by normal standards (I'm looking at you, long fic which is already at 2000 words about half way through part 1 of 7).



My favourite story this year: I'm not sure, not because of false modesty or any nonsense like that, but because I can see all the things that didn't quite work in all of this year's batch.

My best story this year: Judging by comments (not the number of hits because it became a re-ignited fandom), Let Slip The Dogs Of War. Which makes me gleeful. Female-character-centric gen, about a women above a certain age. And it's my big hit of the year. Boom!

Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I write gen in shippy fandoms, and shippy fic in gen fandoms. I am not going to complain about anything. Plus the kudos button at AOOO is marvellous and means people can tell me they thought something was enjoyable with just a single click.

Most fun story: To read, Ideas and Actions because it's happy, fun sexy times between happy, fun people. To write, In Certain Circumstance. It just forced it's way out with Donovan at her most sarcastic.

Most sexy story: Ideas And Actions

Story with single sexiest moment: Back to the traditional thing of "my sexy might well not be your sexy, and that's okay", this bit in Ideas And Actions - ""We don't have to, if you don't want to do it." She sat back a little, to make it easier for him to sit up if he wanted to, or felt he needed to. Not that he couldn't have sat up anyway, he could bench-press more than she weighed, but he appreciated the gesture." It's the way Trish cares about how Randy feels, and that she would have stopped if Randy had said to.

Hardest story to write: Things We Do Not Say as a whole took me forever to write, but came along easily once I realised what part 7 needed was a scene of Fai taking control. Because the manga itself is all about things not being as they seem, and then you have Kurogane's endless (but utterly explicable and endearing) must take care of everyone always issues and Fai just going along with them felt wrong. And then suddenly an answer revealed itself on the mumbletieth read-through and it all went forward.

"Holy crap, that's *wrong*, even for you" story: I have been good. There has been no gloriously wrong this year. Anything that may have been suggested by the end of In Certain Circumstance was only suggested (Moriarty 'n' Sherlock, supervillains together 4eva) and it's not even that wrong.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Happiness (Or Something Like It) - trying to write Mystique for this helped me with some entirely unrelated Mystique stuff for another fic.

Biggest disappointment: Both Road To Nowhere and Committed To Paper didn't quite come out the way I wanted them.

Biggest surprise: How popular Let Slip The Dogs Of War was. See things that make me gleeful.

Most unintentionally telling story: I'm not sure I can call it unintentional since Committed To Paper was definitely me giving my leftover thesis angst to Charles Xavier and hoping he would fix it for me. I don't think I got across the sheer horror/panic of people expecting you to know stuff all of a sudden just because you'd suddenly got letters in something that didn't apply to this situation. I also wonder if I'd be so fond of Xavier if I hadn't been in more or less (minus super-powers and the possible end of the world) as him when I'd seen First Class the first time.

And I've never made any bones about the belt in You And Your Gucci Belt being based on a real item.