I always like to do this, take a moment, look back, reflect on the year, and see what all has changed. Each year is full of amusements and surprises. This year actually started off pretty slow. I had just started long commutes up to the San Jose area in the name of uploading code. During those drives, especially during the day, I must have become AT&T's worst customer. I usually burned a good 3500 minutes a week on the phone in driving time - most of it mobile to mobile or free nights and weekends. The work was good and challenging, and I finally got into the groove of things. Valentines came and went without anything memorable, and come May, I got my rental house in San Jose. I think the house in San Jose was really symbolic of a change in my life. Monterey represented college, those starting years, the first out of college job, and a lot of loose ends. Leaving Monterey never cut those ties with people, but it did signify it was time to start on the career path. A few months later, I would embark on my Master's program via distance learning. I struck out a good balance of work and school which left my weekends free for travel, and made good use of summer time to visit friends who I hadn't seen in a while. Summer was also when I got the 103.4 fever that killed any chance of July 4th plans. I did get all my work done though! As things moved towards the next school year, lots of things fell into the hopper at once. I never really gave it much thought at the time, but a lot of things were well on course for coming to a head. I think I'll just call October and November "the head" and leave it at that. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had a really good November- hah, there's a resolution for next year. December rounded off the year with an insane Jakob-destroying deadline. New site layout, new header with several key technologies, and exactly 2 weeks or so to do it. My Master's project also decided it would have a stage due Dec 15th as well. So, sleep went away and I drove myself down and through both deadlines beautifully. All that was left was UI improvements for the main layout. In triumphant fashion, a friend from SoCal flew up to spend time with me since we hadn't seen each other at conventions much this year. Much craziness was had. Finally, I came home to Roseville for the holidays. Got to see some people I haven't seen for the past 4+ years, and that was rather nice. Amusingly enough, that's also the most I've ever really drank. I'm usually mixing, rarely consuming. Add to this all some family time and a New Year's Party (somewhere), and you've got one full year. Ups: San Jose House Otakon A few pivotal people *poundheart* The most rewarding work of my life Downs: Fever of doom Classes of doom November of doom Looking to: New Years of yay/doom Another good year of work Traveling to SoCal South by SouthWest (SXSWi YES!)