Believe it or not, I like memes (pronounced like dream). While this may seem like the domain of teenagers’ Xanga blogs and indiscriminate email forwarders, I feel it’s more than a good way for people to learn more about you. I think you can learn a little about yourself by publishing a meme.

Here’s my New Year Meme (Sorry if it’s a little long. You have my permission to “scan”):

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before?
Hiked in the Tetons. Got altitude sick. (What a coincidence!)

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I hit most of my 2005 goals. I will have a list for 2006, but I haven’t written it yet.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Only to methane.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Only as a result of methane babies. (Okay! Okay! I’ll be serious… shyeah right.)

5. What countries did you visit?
Does Wyoming count?

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
Rock hard abs or world peace. I can’t decide.

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Too much happened this year for any one thing to stand out.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Losing ~30 pounds (and gaining back about 10). Failing to summit Grand Teton. (Honest! I consider it an achievement!)

9. What was your biggest failure?
See number 8.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
See number 8. Thank God that was the worst of it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
An Xterra for Tammy.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Any of the Sander’s girls. They blow me away with their devotion to God.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Some other youth, who I’ll not name. Working with youth is a real emotional rollercoaster.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Camping/hiking supplies and debt reduction.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
An apartment with a garage and an office with a door!

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
Any song from the OC Supertones. I’ll sure miss those guys.

17. Compare this last year to this year:
’04 was good, this year was way gooder.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Reading. At the rate I’m going I’ll finish the books in my personal library about 100 years after I die.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Watching TV. Blech… (But I’m still looking for a TiVo this year.)

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Discover card mostly. No! Seriously, Tammy and I spent Christmas and New Years at home, relaxing and enjoying time alone together. Priceless.

— Clip the questions about my love life. —

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Monk and Mythbusters

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I’m trying to erase that word from my vocabulary. The only thing anyone should hate is their own sin.

26. What was the best book you read?
Every Man’s Battle and The Green Letters. (Both strongly recommended.)

27. What was your greatest musical (re)discovery?
The Supertones. You never really appreciate something until it’s gone.

28. What did you want and get?
To lose a lot of weight.

29. What did you want and not get?
A shower in the new office building.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Jeez. That’s hard. Just check the entertainment topic.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I’m 32, but refuse to act any older than 21 (maybe 12). We had a nice dinner. It was during Christmas musical rehearsals, so there wasn’t time for much more than that.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not much. Maybe reaching the summit of Grand Teton instead of puking out (literally) at 10,000 feet.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Witty t-shirts and jeans. (Of course that has been my personal fashion since roughly 1989.)

34. What kept you sane?
Sane? Sane?! What are you saying?! Are you accusing me of being SANE?!!

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Katie Couric. Of course, by fancy I mean I’d fancy if she spent the next 12 months defusing IEDs in Baghdad (assuming she survived that long).

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Starving pigmies in Africa. (Better just check the politics topic.)

37. Who did you miss?
No one. My aim is superb and I always pick up the spent shell casings.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Michael Winters.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
Always pack toilet paper. Oh, and pay more attention to your “thought life”. The bad things that you allow to live in your head will eventually escape into the real world.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“When I was one hundred and three, it was a very good year.” (They Might Be Giants.)