40 things
1. What did you do in 2004 that you’d never done before?
- Suck up to clients and not say what I believed in - ’cause I needed the money.
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
N/A - I don’t do resolutions - but I tried to lose weight and failed.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
- Yes my wife. Her name is Lucy - she was born the day before my birthday on Jan. 12th.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
- Yes my father - Davis S. Canter - union leader, politician (the good kind), my inspiration.
5. What countries did you visit?
- Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, England, Ireland, Canada - and I live in a very strange, foriegn place - but at least we’re in a blue state (though CA voted 46% for evil.)
6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
- Digital Lifestyle Aggregation -the PeopleAggregator, a finished WebOutliner and lots of happy employees.
7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory?
- Jan. 12th - Lucy’s birth, Aug. 30th my father’s death, July 31st my eldest son’s and wife’s birthday and Nov. 3rd my twin son’s Bar Mitzvah.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finally figuring out what business Broadband Mechanics is in. We’re buulding ‘digital lifestyle aggregators’.
9. What was your biggest failure?
1UP.com - it could have been great - but we fucked up.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
- Baruch Ha’Shem - no. But my friend BigDave had his kidney transplant!
11. What was the best thing you bought?
- BigDave’s mom’s used car. Great deal, great friend.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
- Twin son’s Bar Mitzvah
- Mimi’s learning how to sing and dance - on her own
- Lots of happy clients, growing business
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
- Lack of imagination when it comes to new kinds of micro-content and micro-content publishing in general. Sad and pathetic. And podcasting. Even sadder.
14. Where did most of your money go?
- Babylon
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- Open Source Infrastructure - and how ever effort I put into it - not only helps me and our company, but also the world. Talk about killing trhee birds with one stone!
16. What song/album will always remind you of 2004?
- “Ambush in the night” - Bob Marley (all guns pointed at me now….)
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? happier
thinner or fatter? always going up
richer or poorer? richer in money. richer in happiness
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
- Hung with my sons more…..
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
- Blog
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
- eating Chinese food and watching a movie. What all good Jews do on X-Mas day.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
- my wife - Lisa.
22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
- yes - over and over again with Lisa.
23. How many one night stands in this last year?
- yah, right
24. What was your favourite TV program?
- Alias
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
- more than anyone else - I hate the entire concept of fascist, imperialist, Amerika - and all it stands for. Fuck you - red states.
26. What was the best book(s) you read?
- N/A - my 250+ feeds keep me busy.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
- Blind Guys from Alabama
28. What did you want and get?
- progress in DLAs, healthy children, bank account.
29. What did you want and not get?
- PeopleAggregator, WebOutliner
30. What were your favourite films of this year?
- um, gee, what films came out this year. I can’t remember any.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 47 and I went to the hospital with my eldest daughter to see her new baby sister who was born the day before. You don’t have birthdays like that very often! BTW my eldest son was at Lucy’s birth.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
- Having money to build what I wanna build.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
N/A
34. What kept you sane?
- family, blogosphere and knowing that I’m consistently about 10 years ahead.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- Heather Graham
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
- Legalized Marijuana
37. Who did you miss?
- my friend Dave Winer
38. Who was the best new person you met?
- oh god, too many to mention. Simon Grice, Lucas Gonze, Carl Wescott, Monette, Rich Seidner, the Marqui folk, Leonard Brody, Dick Hardt, the Bryght dudes (Boris and Roland), the Tucows dudes (who I haven’t even met yet!), Alf Eaton, Kjetil Larsen, JD Lasica, the Laszlo folks, Dave Toole, Seb Paquet, the list goes on and on - it’s been a hell of a year!
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.
- slow down, it’ll all come to you, just stockpile those ideas, they’ll be useful - later.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
“Rasta Man virbration - yah, positive!”
“Got to have a good vibe”