Stop the Clocks

So I guess it is time for my traditional "holidaze" /year-in-review blog entry. This will be a long entry by the way as a disclaimer. So first off, the holidays were a pleasant time for me. Holiday shopping wasn't as bad as it was previous years. Except at Target where I got stuck behind some guy who was buying 50 gift cards. And seeing that the clerk had to scan each one individually and enter the amount, it was a long wait. When the clerk asked him if he was buying it for his employees, he said "No." I have no idea why he needs 50 Target gift cards. But Valley Fair was not as bad as I thought it would be. Plus I got to shop with DJ because I got the Friday before Xmas off. It wasn't all easy breezy at work since i had to run a study the week before Xmas. But there were holiday festivities such as having lunc with Cari and playing CWP$ and DJ's Nintendo Wii. That was really fun and I would like to point out that i kicked everyone's asses at the Monkey Island Frisbee Golf game. It is my vast experience of playing real Frisbee golf twice before (once in Michigan and once in Berkeley) that probably did it. As for the holly jolly day itself, I drove up to Jinah's place on Christmas eve. A pretty relaxing time quite honestly. Just sat around, ate, and watched TV. We did decorate the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. That is always fun (and we learned from Mythbusters that you can put 2500 christmas lights on a tree and it will still not burst into flame). I got a variety of cool gifts including an iTunes GC, iPod AC charger, and other things I needed. What I have been doing lately? Work this past week was dead and unproductive since most people were on vacation or working from home. CWP$, DJ, and Doris had lunch with me on Friday. I went and saw Cal spank Texas (eat that red state!) on Thursday night with CWP$, Doris, Jen, Paul, Chris, and Percy.

Lately, I have been filling up my iPod with music, which has been great. For past few years, I didn't listen to the radio because radio in Ann Arbor sucked. So I really have kept up with current music. Plus I don't like bay area radio because it sucks (Exhibit A - a new station, 99.7 which calls itself "The Movement" and it makes me want to have one when I hear it). So my musical tastes are pretty much still in the 90's. One band I have recently started to get into is Pavement. I heard a few of their songs on Launchcast so on a larf I downloaded a track from iTunes. I then downloaded an album and really enjoyed it. Chaulk that purchase up to the Long-Tail. I have also re-discovered the library, which is sorta embarassing since I do have a graduate degree accredited by the American Library Association. I have been going to check out CDs, import them into iTunes, and then onto my iPod. Ironically, I used to do this way back when (about 10 years ago) but at that time, I was copying them onto cassettes. Oh how the times have changed.

Speaking of changes, I suppose it is time to reflect back on the past year. 2006 is a year I will never forget. So much happened to me this year. Many changes and transitions that occurred professionally and personally. I finished graduate school, moved back to CA, started a new job, achieved some great things, and suffered losses. With so much happening in 2006, I am quasi-hoping that 2007 will be a bit more routine for a change of pace. People say that every year flys by. Well 2006 did go by quickly but at the same time it seemed long to me. Simply for the reason that so much happened to me in 06 that if I compared to where I was in 05, it seems like such a disparity. So if time were a highway, 2006 was definitely a rough patch of road but took me to many memorable places. Yeah, a crappy analogy I know. For me to sum up to 2006 in words would probably not do it justice since I am not a snazzy writer. So since lists are in fashion during this time of year, here is a list of 2006 lists:

1. Job Interviews: 5 - Google, Amazon, eBay, IBM, Oracle
2. Run-ins with Minor celebrities: 2 - Frank Quattrone, Dave Holmes
3. Good movies I saw this year: 3 - Casino Royale, Borat, The Departed
4. Books I read that I should have read earlier 3 - The Beach by Alex Garland, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
5. Interesting Speakers I Heard: Jeffrey Sachs, George Soros, Chris Anderson, Stewart Brand, Cass Sunstein, Tom Brokaw, Steve Wozniak, Mark Brecke, and many others.
6. Most Irritating Online Trend of Year: Everybody and their momma starting a blog since apparently it is a cool thing to do. When the Health Minister of Japan has a blog, then you know it has gotten way overexposed.
7. Places I was at this year:San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Seattle, and all the states along the way on I-80 between CA and Michigan.
8. Most baffling clothing trend that has occured for the second time: Pre-wrinkled shirts and pre-frayed and pre-holed jeans. For crying out loud, I can do that myself.
9. Firsts this year: Buying furniture, living in an apartment by myself, my iPod, serving as a MC, BayCHI meeting and many more that I cannot remember.
10. TV shows that I liked this year: Heroes, Friday Night Lists, The Colbert Report.

But enough with the past, what's in store for me for 2007. Unlike previous years, I am actually making New Year's Resolutions. So here they are (or the ones that I can think of right now) in no particular order:

1. Exercise: My weight has never been an issue with me since I have pretty much been underweight since I was a teenager. For example, when I graduated undergrad in 2002, I weighed 145 lbs (remember I am 6'0 tall). I now weigh 175 lbs so I gained 30 lbs in a little less than 5 years. The only probably is that if I continue on that current weight gain rate, then I will be technically overweight by next year. So my resolution is to exercise more to keep my weight around what I am know (not necessarily lose any weight). To this end, I signed up yet again for the boot camp fitness class at work and I also plan on doing weights or running an additional time per week.

2. Eat right/cook more: Seeing that I have gone grocery shopping maybe 5 times since I started work, shows that I don't cook often. Especially since two of those trips were to buy stuff for the two parties that I hosted. So I plan on being a smarter eater and to cook more often.

3. Volunteer: Prior to going to grad school, I volunteer as a college coach in East Palo Alto for a year and a half. I eventually burned out because of the committment. So I want to get back to volunteering (so I can legitmately gripe) but maybe at something that doesn't require so much committment. There are some volunteer activites that just require to show up once a month to do something so I might try out one of those.

4. Read more: In grad school, my recreational reading dropped considerably seeing that i had to read dense academic papers nearly all the time. But now that i have some leisure time, I have a backlog of books that I should be reading. I already got three lined up and will definitely tack onto to that list as the year progresses.

5. Take a Vacation Somewhere: I haven't gone off somewhere very far off for a vacation for quite a long time. Grad school and being a contractor with no vacation days before that sorta dissuaded me from doing it these past couple years. But since i do have some vacation time, I want to take a vacation somewhere i have never been before. There has been some talk about going to Vancover or Thailand but I will try and figure something out.

6. Dating: More than one person (okay a couple of people) have asked me when/if I am going to start dating again. Due to family issues, graduation, moving, and starting a new job, dating sorta got lost in the equation. So yeah, I am going to give it the old college try next year and see what happens. I am not promising anything but I suppose putting it down as a resolution is a good start.

So that is what I want to acomplish in 2007. So its time to wrap up this entry. So goodbye 2006 for the last time, a year that I will always remember. I hope your 2006s were good ones. And here is to a hopefully good 2007. Until then, happy new year and peace on earth.