Review Your Year - Looking back on 2016

[coolohoh]

Crossposting the following from storm_freaks.


Just what... two more weeks or so till the year ends (and I can start using my Are You Happy? planner.)

The end of the year is a pretty great time to do a little reflection excersise.... And since I'm going on holiday from Sunday, and I've yet to pack anything... Thought I'd try to get my online posts all done today so yeah. Pardon my two posts in a row thing.

So... I'll pose a question in bold, then answer it for myself... Then you can answer the questions in bold in your comments as well. How does that sound? Questions will include both personal and Arashi related questions. I'm taking my questions and modifying them from this post, in case you're interested. (If you're a iOS/mac user, Day One is a superb journelling app, love it tons. Do give it a look!)

Are we ready?

Let's go!

What was your happiest day/event this year?
Lol. This is like, super hard for me to answer because this year has generally been very shitty for me. Like on the 6th of Jan my ex-supervisor told me she had resigned. And basically work was a crazy rush to finish stuff off before she leaves... And after she left, work has been crappy ever since. Tried to find a new job but I was feeling so terrible mentally I think I screwed up my interviews... Well maybe not all... One was really really promising, but in the end the prof found someone more suitable. *shrugs* And here I am, it's Dec and I'm still in this shitty job that's as crappy as ever.

But since I asked the question, I'll have to pick right? I guess it'll be in... June? I think... When I visited Penang. An Arashi fan brought me around for a couple of days, and ex-sup brought me around too. Yeah, that was really fun.


What was your greatest personal achievement?
Again, another hard one because I spend much of this year being so mentally f**ked up and depressed, I feel like I barely did anything substantial.

I would like to cite 'figuring out a little better what to do with my life' and 'starting to learn web dev' as my greatest achievement... But I'm such a newbie still at web dev - not even 3 weeks in - that I can't say much about the results...


What was the hardest lesson you learned over the past year?
This is another question that's pretty impossible for me to answer. Because as shitty as my year had been, there hasn't been any like... WHAM hard lesson thing. It's a crap year but it's crap that I already knew would happen. Things that I'd seen coming. Things that I've already experienced before... Because I've been through quite a lot of hard situations before. Things that are happening now aren't any harder than things that happened then. My first job was still way crappier than things now. Secondary school was still the hardest, toughest time I've been through... When you've been in a top school, where teachers teach you university level stuff at in what would be the equivalent of grade 11 or grade 12... When all your classmates are wayyy smarter than you... When you have so many projects and assignments you go to bed between 1am to 3am and wake up at 6am everyday... Or even pull all nighters... This is basically nothing in comparision. Maybe apart from the fact that I'm now a working adult. *shrugs* But no matter what happened I was always sure I'd end up fine. So I guess you can say my lesson would be 'stuff it, move on, you'll be fine'.


Did you develop any hobbies or passions in 2016? Anything you want to develop/try in 2017?
I think I started eraser carving last year so that doesn't count... I'm playing with more and more things. Like my 3D pen... That's my latest craze. I ordered like 20 kg of plastic filaments and basically bankrupted my bank account. My dad was like "what is all that for! Your pen will spoil before you can even use half of them!" Sigh. I guess my next goal would be saving up for a nice 3D printer then...

Of course, I also just started with my web dev learning. Gonna finally make my new website when I've learnt enough... And that would require me to draw some stick figures too... So learning and practicising drawing stick figures is next up on my To Do list after web dev. Ordered a bunch of tech stuff online too, I was supposed to learn how to program and use them this year, but then ex-sup distrupted my plans and I started looking for jobs etc instead...


Biggest mistake of 2016?
I guess I wasted too much time. I didn't quite know what career direction to take... Initially in 2015, I'd planned 2016 to be the year of learning programming. I ended up spending all my after work time looking and applying for jobs unsucessfully. If only I stuck to my initial plans... It also leads to the best thing I learnt in 2016...


Biggest/best thing you learned in 2016?
That I should probably change career paths from science to technology. I've liked technology all along... So it's high time I give it a try.


Goals for 2017?
Get that website that I've been thinking for years about started. Learn at least enough web dev to make the site I want. Continue learning web dev, and learning other programming languages. Would love to make enough $$ off the web so that basically I can quit my job and do these stuff full time. But that's unlikely to happen next year. I don't think I can achieve enough programming proficiency before 2017 ends unless I have no lab work every day or something. Which is unlikely to happen given the situation at work now.


On the Arashi side... What was your favourite Arashi news this year?
This is quite hard to answer.... Since I'm not up to date on Arashi news and stuff most of the time. Maybe I'll go with the annoucement for Ohno's movie. Ohno as a ninja! I've always loved Ninja Arashi fanfics!!!

Of course you can make the case for things like the concert DVD releases... But those pretty much will always get released anyway... Plus the actually footage of the dvd - i.e. the concerts - took place in 2015. So it's like kinda a 2015/2016 news and not really new news? (Plus you have things like concert reports and stuff from 2015 already!) I did absolutely love the Japonism concert though! <3


Of all the Arashi songs that has been released in 2016, which is your favourite?
I think I'll have to go with Nino's solo. Wonder love would be second. 3rd? Power of the Paradise maybe... Or Ohno's solo... Or miles away. I didn't really like the single songs this year. None of them stuck for me.


What was your favourite Arashi moment of 2016?
Honestly, I can't answer this one, because I've pretty much not watched anything from this year. I'll still watching backlogs of Arashi show from last year for goodness sake. I'll probably never catch up again with my work and web dev learning schedule. Oh wells. Such is life.

Hmm well actually, I did watch the AYH PV and making. And that was just GOLD. You can say I loved every moment of the making.

Any favourite TV show episodes?
Just asking, cos ya know, I've not watched anything. Like literally.


Which was your favourite Arashi live performance?
Again I can't answer... Because the only live performance I watched was that short POTP version they performed erm... Where? The very first time the song was announced and performed on TV. Yeah that. Whenever that was.... :X


Anything Arashi did that impressed or surprised you?
Ok, this isn't something that's done already... But Aiba as Kouhaku MC definitely surprised me. Like Aiba of all people? Why him? And why JUST him? And not all of them? Did they take so many years to realise that maybe having 5 white vs 1 red mc was kinda unbalanced or something? It's just strange to me. Like I discussed in my earlier post when the news broke... Aiba just doesn't come off as the serious MC guy to me. Not that he can't do a good job, it's just that Aiba has always had been the more happy, cheerly, relaxed guy... That's more suited for variety shows than serious stuff. He really enjoys himself doing those varieties and in turn I enjoy myself watching him enjoy himself. If you know what I mean. Some fans points out that maybe they want a change of image for Kouhaku... But I kinda doubt that. I believe he'll be able to pull it off though, and I'm definitely rooting for him to do well! You go Aibaby!


What's your greatest Arashi fandom achievement in 2016? (E.g. Did you write your first fic, did some fanart, finally watch that Arashi drama etc)
For me it would be SF. That this community is still up and running, in spite for mods becoming busy... In spite of my crappy real life... I've 'met' a lot of online friends through SF, chatted (and still chatting) with a ton of you people on LINE.... We now have more members contributing news and reviews and other posts to the community. Thank you! You people are my biggest achievement! :)


What's your greatest Arashi (CD/DVD/mag/goods/photos etc) purchase in 2016, if any? (You can talk about any Arashi related purchase too - like some Arashi colored item.)
Gosh. I've bought too much stuff. I started buying magazine and it's all piling up and taking a ton of space. I'm definitely cutting back on mag purchases now. At least I've not bought any new mags in like... A month? And I've bought a bunch of Arsahi goods... And their two concert DVDs. I'm kinda torn between the Japonism DVD and my AYH goods. I'm hoping that I'll use the planner regularly and stuff. To plan my side project and stuff... But since the planner is for next year and I've not actually started using it yet... I guess I'll go with the Japonism DVD. Just loved that concert too much.


Since we're on that note... Any NON-Arashi purchase that you're immensely satisfied with in 2016?
For me, that would be my 3D pen, hands down. (Maybe a 3D printer next? Donations anyone? XD)


What do you hope to see from Arashi in 2017?
Their AYH album surprised me. I thought it'll be cheeky sounding and stuff... Fill with songs I won't like. But nope, I was genuinely impressed with their songs. That's three great, strong albums that they've put out in a row (to me at least.) Digitalian, Japonism, Are You Happy. Definitely want to see them continue to improve themselves in 2017.