What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before?
- Travelled to Oahu (we’ve been to Moloka’i, Maui twice, and the island of Hawai’i twice)
- Saw a honu as close as you’re allowed to at Laniakea Beach Park
- Attended a lūʻau
Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t really do resolutions; more like intentions. I hoped that I wouldn’t hurt myself and aside from hurting a muscle in my hand I was successful. I wanted to be follow through on my development plan and be promoted to show the leadership that taking a chance on a less-experienced manager vs. a director was the right one and I was recognized before the year was up.
I didn’t finish my Prince Stolas tattoo or One Year to a Writing Life: Twelve Lessons to Deepen Every Writer’s Art and Craft, and I want to so they’ll carry over.
My intentions for 2020 are pretty simple:
- Work on tackling difficult conversations directly
- Figure out what we’re going to do with our motorcycles; I’m leaning towards changing my enduro for a standard/naked streetbike
- Complete NaNoWriMo 2020
- Work towards publication
- Work towards honing my flash-fiction skills
- Complete One Year to a Writing Life: Twelve Lessons to Deepen Every Writer’s Art and Craft
- Finish off my Prince Stolas tattoo (one more 6-hour session to go!)
Did anyone close to you give birth?
A coworker had her second child.
Did anyone close to you die?
No.
What countries did you visit? Just the USA: we were on Oahu December 1-22.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just a (slightly) torn ligament in my wrist and minor colds & sinus infections.
What did you get really, really, really excited about? Going to Oahu
What song will always remind you of 2019?
The songs from Spotify 2019 wrapped. Can’t argue with the algorithm. I got into retrowave/synthwave/retro elctro at the end of 2018 and didn’t listen to much else in 2019 as I was still discovering artists and new releases.
Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder? Happier
Thinner or fatter? The same
Richer or poorer? Richer
What do you wish you’d done more of?
- Tackled issues head-on
- Said no (getting better though)
- Write
- Ride
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Procrastinated about writing.
What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Paul and I went for dinner; I turned 40 and went out for dinner with Paul after working at the Vancouver Motorcycle Show.
What was the best book you read?
Here’s what I read this year. The standouts were (in no particular order):
- Circe, Madeline Miller
- This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar
- The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander
- Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, Svetlana Alexievich
- Borne, Jeff Vandermeer
- The Strange Bird, Jeff Vandermeer
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019?
- Business-comfortable
- “I work at a software company”
- “My office is always cold”
What political issue stirred you the most?
The Canadian federal election. I was disappointed to see fear-based strategic voting pressure for ABC, but I don’t think anything tops my disappointment in Justin Trudeau or the Liberal Party (I didn’t vote Liberal in the 2015 election but I still had high hopes). Here’s how I was disappointed:
- Pushing ahead with the TransMountain Pipeline
- Justin Trudeau’s repeated use of blackface
- Hipocracy with how the government dealt with First Nations issues
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019
Don’t be nice; be kind. Here’s a good breakdown of the difference; as well as the quote below from this article:
The nice person is focused on himself – he does nice things in order to be perceived (by others and by himself) as a “nice person.”
The kind person is focused on others – all he wants is to relieve the suffering of the living, conscious creature in front of him.
When we dig deeper into these two “personalities,” we will find that they are often diametrically opposed.
The kind person is strong. The nice person is weak.
The kind person is selfless. The nice person is selfish.
The kind person feels empathy. The nice person is narcissistic.
The kind person is happy. The nice person does not know happiness.
Ultimately: The core of a “kind person” is love. The core of a “nice person” is fear.
I think my difficulty with direct communication is that I’ve been afraid of being not nice. Assertiveness hasn’t come naturally to me (I can overdo it when I’m seeking balance), and as a young woman it stung when my attempts to be heard, to advocate for myself or others, or to do what I knew was right resulted in being called a bitch; sometimes by people I cared for or respected. Strong women=bitches; bitches aren’t nice.