Blogyear Three
Yes, it's now been three years of blogging. Three years since I began my first real post. Three years of sharing my soul within unknown numbers of random people all over the planet.
As has become tradition, I now review the significant events of the past year. And it has certainly been a more eventful year than that of the previous blogyear. Naturally, what I pick as significant reveals far more about me, than it does about the events themselves.
There were themes this year. Politics played a large role in my life, as I followed my favorite sporting event in the world, the U.S. Presidential elections. I went to Obama's largest rally at the time. (Ah, the halcyon days when we thought a 20,000 person Obama rally was large!) I attended my first caucus, and got to celebrate the the first time the guy I voted for actually won; the first time someone from my culture (TCK) is President; the first time I can relate to the President. (I basically just voted for the guy I wanted to have a drink with. This is just the first time there's been anyone running I wanted to have a drink with.)
Health issues figured prominently this year as well. At the very beginning of 08, I had the opportunity to help someone with a seizure. I had my first operation, and my dad became gravely ill, having to go to the ER and stay at the hospital for a couple weeks. Sadly, he suffered great loss this year too, as a few months before he got sick he lost lost his wife of ten years.
For this reason, I moved down to LA, and then to Wisconsin, leading to travel being another theme. I felt lead to Wisconsin in the HMS reunion this summer, and it seemed a good place for my dad to recuperate. (Actually, we'd heard about this "snow birds" thing, and thought it meant that you travel up to where there's snow...) That trip was rather hellacious, with repeated car problems that continue to the present. But I did get to see the oldest town in America along the way, and we arrived safely in our new country estate. Now I spend most of my time preparing for a Winter that is even now upon us in full fury, and wondering day to day if we'll have running water.
Oh, and my most significant travel- I finally got to see what I'd wanted to get to for the past two years: the remains of the greatest flood on Earth for which we have evidence. Geology expressed itself again later in a minor 5.4 earthquake. (I've lived through Northridge and Whittier, so this was just a little bit of fun. Northridge and Whittier were a lot of fun.)
Economics has played a major role in the world this year, and has also in my life. I had a part-time permament job in LA, getting finally to teach again, and moved to Wisconsin hoping full-time jobs would be easier to come by. Alas. But God expressed his presence earlier in getting an issue of potentially having to return unemployment funds worked out, as well as, finally, after two years of working on it, the IRS admitting that, as an overseas worker, in truth I did not owe them $1454 in back-taxes on money I made outside the U.S. when I was receiving no services from the U.S. government.
And some minor housekeeping posts- I realized my long-lived Geocities HMS page had become a bit old school, with blogs supplanting the old Geocities, so I moved by HMS page to my blog. And then I realized that there was just far too much bling on my blog that no one knew of, so I gave a helpful navigation post to blog bling.
Truly, I have the Chinese blessing: I live in interesting times.
As has become tradition, I now review the significant events of the past year. And it has certainly been a more eventful year than that of the previous blogyear. Naturally, what I pick as significant reveals far more about me, than it does about the events themselves.
There were themes this year. Politics played a large role in my life, as I followed my favorite sporting event in the world, the U.S. Presidential elections. I went to Obama's largest rally at the time. (Ah, the halcyon days when we thought a 20,000 person Obama rally was large!) I attended my first caucus, and got to celebrate the the first time the guy I voted for actually won; the first time someone from my culture (TCK) is President; the first time I can relate to the President. (I basically just voted for the guy I wanted to have a drink with. This is just the first time there's been anyone running I wanted to have a drink with.)
Health issues figured prominently this year as well. At the very beginning of 08, I had the opportunity to help someone with a seizure. I had my first operation, and my dad became gravely ill, having to go to the ER and stay at the hospital for a couple weeks. Sadly, he suffered great loss this year too, as a few months before he got sick he lost lost his wife of ten years.
For this reason, I moved down to LA, and then to Wisconsin, leading to travel being another theme. I felt lead to Wisconsin in the HMS reunion this summer, and it seemed a good place for my dad to recuperate. (Actually, we'd heard about this "snow birds" thing, and thought it meant that you travel up to where there's snow...) That trip was rather hellacious, with repeated car problems that continue to the present. But I did get to see the oldest town in America along the way, and we arrived safely in our new country estate. Now I spend most of my time preparing for a Winter that is even now upon us in full fury, and wondering day to day if we'll have running water.
Oh, and my most significant travel- I finally got to see what I'd wanted to get to for the past two years: the remains of the greatest flood on Earth for which we have evidence. Geology expressed itself again later in a minor 5.4 earthquake. (I've lived through Northridge and Whittier, so this was just a little bit of fun. Northridge and Whittier were a lot of fun.)
Economics has played a major role in the world this year, and has also in my life. I had a part-time permament job in LA, getting finally to teach again, and moved to Wisconsin hoping full-time jobs would be easier to come by. Alas. But God expressed his presence earlier in getting an issue of potentially having to return unemployment funds worked out, as well as, finally, after two years of working on it, the IRS admitting that, as an overseas worker, in truth I did not owe them $1454 in back-taxes on money I made outside the U.S. when I was receiving no services from the U.S. government.
And some minor housekeeping posts- I realized my long-lived Geocities HMS page had become a bit old school, with blogs supplanting the old Geocities, so I moved by HMS page to my blog. And then I realized that there was just far too much bling on my blog that no one knew of, so I gave a helpful navigation post to blog bling.
Truly, I have the Chinese blessing: I live in interesting times.
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