Year End Update

I wish I had accomplished more this year. Here's what I did.

In the last couple days I received this in the mail. I am typing this entry on it.

I have been cubing a lot more and got my best time ever the other night: 30.19 seconds.

I won one whole piece of power, half of another piece and traded for a third.

I quit driving the taxi, which is sort of a sign that I can make it without doing that. I'd been driving the taxi for three and a half years and was beginning to think that I would never do anything more. Now I support myself partly from my work at the show-me institute and mostly from my financial aid. Hopefully my degree will make me sufficiently employable that I will earn enough to pay off my loans and still survive without driving a taxi.

Mary and I have been together for almost four years and I am as happy about that as I could ever imagine, which is a lot.

I decided this year that I want to become an actuary. I hope that I can make large strides in that direction next year and not have to leave this city, which contains most of my favorite people in the world.

I continued playing the guitar. I hope I never give up and continue to progress in this and the rubik's cube.

I have pretty much completely lost contact with Nick. He and I seem to be in very different places in our lives. I loved the time we spent together as friends, and I am happy with the person it made me. I guess I wonder if something will change to cause us to interact more in the future. In the near term, I just don't see it.

I became more comfortable with being an atheist this year.

Veen went away this year, but I think we will stay close. We can't help it.

If I'm not mistaken, S/A has been going out of her way to make sure we still hang out, despite me no longer cabbing. I am very happy about this. Of course there's book club. If anybody wants to see me socially, I recommend coming to there, or stopping by my apt. I'm usually at one or the other in the evenings.

SMI sent me to Asheville, NC for a three-day conference for free-market state think tanks in November. That was incredible, and I think I got a lot out of it. It was also the first time I had been on a plane since Venice in 2003.

It was this year's visioncon where the whole gang and I did our First Annual Whedonstravaganza Singalong. That was excellent. Also, our group won the visioncon masquerade. I was Dr Emmet Brown.

I did more computer programming this year than I have since HS and I enjoyed it immensely.

I went shooting for the first time this year since I went with Vroman like 5 years ago.

I finished another year of college and am now one semester from my degree.

I watched a lot of movies and read a number of books. Mary and I read entire books out loud to one another. Among the books we've done this with this year that I hadn't read before: brave new world, the pillars of the earth, and bridge to terabithia.

This year I decided to start keeping track of things like this by writing about them before the year is over. (in about 6 hours)