I think the reason it has taken me so long to write this post is because I've been having a really hard time thinking of anything good to say about 2006. That's not to say that 2006 was a bad year, because it wasn't. It just means that it wasn't a particularly fabulous year. I didn't really do anything very cool/exciting/interesting. I was mostly just busy with working or going to school all year. To sum-up 2006, I was busy with school into May, then I was busy at Chinese Summer Camp in Minnesota until July, then I was busy with my linguistics transcription job at Infoture for the rest of the summer, then my last semester of college started and I was busy with that AND the Infoture job for awhile until I quit the job and was still just busy with school, and then I graduated and moved to Vail to drive a bus. In May (I think, or was it June?) I went to Phoenix (Tempe) to visit a friend of mine from study abroad in Nanjing. It was a lot of fun. Then in the fall I went to Baltimore for my uncle's wedding. So I didn't even go very many places in 2006.
As for last years resolutions, I think I did a pretty good job:
- Learn some Arabic - Well, I didn't learn any Arabic, but I did learn some Russian and Portuguese, so I think I succeeded.
- Graduate with at least a 3.5 GPA - I'm pretty frustrated with this one. It appears that I have missed this goal by the slimmest possible margin. Had only one single grade over the course of my entire college career been one single notch higher, I would have made it, but as it is I am graduating with a 3.495. Oooooh man, sooo frustrating.
- Bike more - Being in Minnesota for the summer put a damper on this goal, but I did do a good job of riding my bike to school almost every day this past fall semester. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have ridden as much if I hadn't got that awesome fixed-gear bike.
- Waste less time on the internet - This is the only goal on this list that I completely failed to reach. In fact, I'm wasting time on the internet this very minute! Except for my stint in Minnesota with limited internet access, I spent just as much time on the internet as ever (perhaps even MORE?).
- Work harder to be more financially independent - I definitely worked harder, and I haven't had to ask Dad for extra money in awhile... so I guess I achieved this one too. I still feel as poor as ever though.
- Save Money - I'm working full-time and making relatively decent money (compared to 'almost nothing'). Also, because I'm living at home my expenses are pretty low, so I should be able to save up a good chunk of change... and then spend it on booze, (haha, just kidding).
- Keep Up with the Languages - I'm worried that being out of school it will be too easy to lapse into a lazy rut and not only stop learning new languages, but also let the ones I already know go soft and rusty. So my goal for 2007 is to not allow this to happen, and make sure that my net language ability continues to increase rather than plateau.
- Be Healthier - At first I was just going to put "Eat Healthier," but really eating healthy is just one aspect of overall health. So I want to BE healthy, including eating healthier (more fresh fruits and veggies, more fish, less sugars and highly processed foods), exercising more(skiing, biking, swimming, hiking, and lifting mostly), getting enough sleep (this has never really been a problem for me though).
- Go somewhere outside of the USA - I haven't been abroad for awhile now and I'm starting to feel the itch again. I don't have any plans in place yet, but there are lots of places I would probably like to go.
- Take the GRE - I don't think that this is a very lofty goal, but I do think it's important that I take the GRE sooner rather than later when I have forgotten everything. Also, I think having taken the GRE will help to keep me motivated about going to grad school... eventually...
- Get a Girlfriend - I still don't really know how people generally go about getting themselves girlfriends, so this one will really be a challenge for me. Even if I only have one for a few months, that will be sufficient I think.
- Do Something Interesting/Don't Get Stuck in any Ruts - This one is pretty self-explanatory. Basically I just don't want to sit down to my computer a year from now and think, "Well, 2007 was a dud!"
Okay, that's all I can write for now. Updates on bus-driving soon to follow, hopefully. Happy New Years Y'all!
In honor of 2007, for the next couple of blog posts I am going to put up Youtube videos of songs that I remember from 10 years ago, 1997. That was the year when Mom finally got fed up with my supposed failing grades in 7th grade and decided to take me out of school and homeschool me (I still don't ever remember getting anything worse than a D, but she says I was failing...). Of course it's hard for me to remember with much clarity 1997 versus, say, 1996, so some of these songs might not actually technically be from 1997, but to me they will always be 1997.
Today's song is one that I remember being popular while I was in middle school. At the time it seemed like a cool song, but listening to it now it just sounds stupid. It is "Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America. This song reminds me particularly of one day at Turner Middle school in the locker room after gym class and one of my classmates, Joey Schuetz, was singing this song in a stupid voice. At the time I didn't realize that it was a song and I was pretty confused why he was singing a song about peaches. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I heard the song and it all made sense to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment