How was 2004 for you?

[smithy]

This thread is all about your year.

We're reaching the end of of 2004.  A new year is usually the time that people stop and reflect upon their lives, review the past year, decide what went well and what didn't, and make plans about the shape of their lives over the next year.

So I'd thought it be a nice idea if we all shared our year!

[x56h34]

Fine, thank you. How was yours?

[smithy]

I've had a very turbulent year.  I moved house in early January back into my parents' place in anticipation of getting a new job I'd applied for in London with Symbian.  Didn't get the job after a bad interview, unfortunately, and I'm still living with my folks.  Decided to focus on my existing job and put any leftover creative talents in the web browser Paihia, and went backpacking in New Zealand by myself... after which the year started to go downhill from there.  Met my current girlfriend, went to Copenhagen, later diagnosed with high blood pressure (190/100 at one point) and depression and prescribed Prozac, went to Prague, went to Berlin.

Prozac on its own is barely effective any more so I regularly top it up with plenty of alcohol.  Today, now with the added stress of commitment-phobia, feeling smothered, paranoia, the depression gets me down a lot, and at the moment I don't have the self-confidence to go backpacking down under again.

The high-point is probably accepting that I suffer from depression, the low point is suffering from depression.

So, my plans for the coming year are:

1.  Get off the Prozac.

2.  At the same time as (1), join a gym, and use that as the source of my happy-brain-chemicals, so I don't lose the benefits I do get from Prozac.  Hopefully this might increase my sex drive and prevent my blood pressure from re-going through the ceiling too.

3.  Keep working on Paihia.

4.  Get my own place again.

[Wilse]

@Smithy:

I've had a very turbulent year.

Sounds like it mate.

I moved house in early January back into my parents' place

Not easy. I could never go back to my parents' now.

Didn't get the job after a bad interview, unfortunately, and I'm still living with my folks.

I know how that feels too but this year I had an even weirder experience.
I had an interview in July for a different position at work. I really prepared for it and it went really well.
Then I got a letter telling me that, although I had passed the interview, due to funding cuts they couldn't take me on.
"If this changes within the next six months you will be offered the post immediately. If funding arrives after six months, you will be required to go through the selection process again."
Apparently they'll be getting funding in April. :-/

went backpacking in New Zealand by myself...

That sounds fantastic.

after which the year started to go downhill from there. Met my current girlfriend,

Hope she ain't reading this. ;-)

Anyway, good luck with getting a new pad and off the drugs.

I've had a mixed year, I suppose.
Financially, it's been a disaster. Until this year I had two people sharing my house.
Both moved out, taking their rent with them.
On the flip side, I have the place to myself now and have moved my studio into a bigger room.

Still with the same girl, DJing in the same club and writing songs with the same guy.
Still as terrible at the guitar as I was last year (I think I've plateaued at 'pish' :-D)

Don't really have many plans for next year other than reducing my debt and hopefully getting a demo together.

All the best,

I don't know about how nice it would be, so let me practice the mother's golden rule.

Suffice to say that 2004 has been the worst year of my life, actually starting December 2003, but lasting throughout the year.

I sincerely hope each of your years were better than mine, and they continue to get better with each passing day.

Happy Holidays.

Wayne

[bloodline]

2004... The Most boring year of my life so far... I expect worse to come.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

How was 2004 for you?

Acceptable

[cecilia]

Last dec I was nauseous EVERY single day. And I mean Every day. I'm not going into the details but it was bad and the best thing about this dec is that I'm not sick to my stomach.

I know this sounds all cryptic, but people's privacy is more important.

It's been a hard year, but at least I was able to get a little work - and more importantly - respect.

At least I can say I've had a good life and while I doubt anything good will ever happen again, I have no regrets.

[whabang]

My year has been wierd to put it mildly. I changed from working double to a normal 9-5 job. Quite a change, both financially, and considering the vast ammount of spare time I now have.

Short version: It was fine, thanks, how was yours?

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Ah well, there were good parts of this year, considering summer and so, with all kinds of activities, like:

New age spirituality

sabotage

[bjjones37]

Very productive.  Finally finished my Bachelor's degree, a long term goal. Working full time and being the sole support for a family does not leave a lot of time for pursuing an education.  But somehow I finished it up with 214 credit hours. (I have many interests.) I found out that my company is giving me the opportunity to seek employment elsewhere after 15 years. I expect this to be positive.  The job did a lot of good for me, but it is time to move on to better things. I have started reading my 20 year old college Chemistry texts for fun. ( For which I blame Karlos, KennyR, and Cymric. :-D ) And I got my guitar restrung so I can afflict my wife and kids with very amateur renditions of old John Denver songs. Oh yeah, I also got acquainted with a great group of people at Amiga.org - a very rewarding experience.

2004? I wouldn't have missed it! Looking forward to next year. :-)

[Glaucus]

Yeah, 2004 was an odd year. Over all, I think it was better then 2003. Well, in 2003 the only highlight was that I had a wicked time in Vancouver. This year I went on no trips but instead I:

1) Watched Greece with the Euro cup.  :-D  :pint:
2) Watched Greece host the Olympics.  :-D :pint:
3) Watched Canada win the World Cup Of Hockey.  :-D :pint:
4) I got a real computer programmer job.  :-D  :pint: :pint:
5) After being laid off for two years I'm finally able to actually buy stuff!  :-D :pint: :pint: :pint:
6) Got to watch family members and friends go through a divorce.  :-(
7) Now that I have a job & money, I'm getting ready to move out and not live with my parents any longer! :-D :-D :pint: :pint: :pint: :pint: :pint: :pint:

Plans for 2005....  Getting myself laid!  :-P

  - Mike

[Star69]

Apart from backpacking in New Zealand, pish.  Broke up with my (very) long term g/f about six weeks ago... just in time for Christmas.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Glaucus wrote:
Plans for 2005....  Getting myself laid!  :-P

  - Mike

Well, I wish you succes  getting a nice gf and so :pint:

I'm planning to get my P (well, I'm busy with my 2nd kinda study Technical Informatics)

And I'm trying to become a good singer (classical)

2004? Not more a rollercoaster year has been experienced in the life of the troll known a Jono Pike:

Started slowly, as was out of work, and unsuccessfully trying to get a girl interested in me. Had a paper folding job (local gov) for a week, but that was it.

By late Feb, had got a really good job with an architects department in local gov, doing photocopying and whatnot, on a good wage, and really liked it there.

That was going well, until in early April, made a stupid move towards the girl that was rejected. The week after, my boss told me they would have to get rid of me because there wasn't enough stuff for me to do. Worst few days I may have ever had.

Late Spring and early Summer was quite tough. Had no money coming in and was only really kept going by having fun with friends.

By late July, got a job at a solicitors. Not bad at first, but really grew to hate it after about 5 weeks. They were sick of me, and I was sick fo them, so I was sacked.

Since I was sacked from Stones, my lifes been on the up. Got a job with local gov (AGAIN) doing data input. That lasted 6 weeks, but they had to get rid of me for reasons I am not aware of. 3 days after my latest job departure, I was called up by ANOTHER local gov department:

I was only supposed to be working there for a week, but, lo and behold, a month of work later, and I am on a 6 month contract. Whilst at this job, finally got over my girl-curse, and got a girlfriend through a double date.

I'm so lucky I got who I got. I can realistically say I could not have wished for a better girlfriend  :-) . I just hope she doesn't get sick of me.

So, 2004? Full of the unexpected. What I thought would happen did not, and what I didn't think of happening, happened.  :-o