.: bistan.net :.

Here are some of my accomplishments and favorite memories for 2009:

I completed my first half-marathon and marathon, as well as sliced 4 minutes off of my best 5K time.

We visited Walt Disney World SEVEN times in 2009, compared to once in 2008.  (You won’t see this on next year’s list!)  We celebrated both my 30th birthday and Tristan’s 6th birthday in the most magical place on earth.

I visited for the first time: Colorado, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

I began working on another masters degree.

I fell in love . . . with my new iPhone. Ha!

I cut two years worth of hair off.

Tristan learned to ride his bicycle without training wheels, and then later got a new bike.

My kids got to see their first Georgia snowfall, and then later  got to play in six feet of real snow for the first time.  I had never even seen that much snow before!

I went on field trips with both Tristan and Mackenzie.  So much fun!

I volunteered at Tristan’s school — my alma mater — Heard Elementary school.

We went roller skating.  It was Tristan and Mackenzie’s first time ever and my first time in 20 years!

I saw the space shuttle launch at night from the beach — although it was from 200 miles away and not quite as I originally planned.

I’m finally learning how to make money online. My blog made $2019.94 (compared to $78.41 in 2008).  Guess I’m getting a 1099 this year.  If I could sustain those percentage gains, I wouldn’t have to work anymore!  (Of course, if I were a professional blogger I would actually have to blog more.)

I ran 497 miles in 2009 (compared to 343 in 2008).  That’s pathetic, but I’ve been dealing with pain injury pretty much all year.  I’m even wearing a brace on my left foot as I type this — trying to recover enough to run next week’s 5K, half-marathon, and marathon.

Of course, there are many things that I’ve left out.  You can read my blog to find some of them, but there have also been (many) times where I’ve been too busy or lazy to blog about it: such as our Six Flags Trip or Discover Macon, etc.

2009 was overall one of the best years and it was much much better than 2008.  Let’s hope that 2010 is even better. Happy New Year!

So I looked at the calendar yesterday . . . and it’s August? 2009?  Where does the time go?

Instead of apologizing for not posting in the last week or so, I’ll just tell you what I’m up to now:

Tuesday we are headed to Six Flags.  We only go when we have free tickets because it sort of sucks.  We scored two free tickets off of mycokerewards.com and bought a $15 ticket for Tristan off of a twitter special.  Mackenzie has been taught that being two at Six Flags and WDW saves Daddy lots of money and I think she’s OK with that.

Thursday my boy starts kindergarten.  25 years ago, that was ME starting kindergarten, but the blur between then and now called life happened so here we are.  He’s going to the same elementary school that I went to and believe it or not, there are a lot of teachers still there . . . including my 1st and 3rd grade teacher and the principal!

Work is hell. School starting back is enough, but over then summer there has been over $1,000,000 worth of construction in our building and the technology that comes with that isn’t just going to happen by itself.  On top of that we are suppose to have a new website (first time in 5 years) by September and our web developer conveniently quit in June.  That leaves me working literally 7 days a week, sometimes around the clock.  This weekend was spent getting familiar with Drupal, our chosen (but not my me) CMS.

My half-marathon training plan is on.  That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I’ve been sick pretty much all week, but I don’t have a choice except to keep going.  I went 120 hours without drinking coke, which was a major feat for me!

Also, classes start back for me in a few weeks for that stupid graduate program I put myself into.  This semester I dropped everything but one class so that I can deal with all of the above.  I’ll be taking a class that deals with artificial intelligence in game programming (fuzzy logic, probability, and a few other things I could spell out here to make myself sound smarter).

So obviously, I’m still working on “getting all of my ducks in a row”.  (That’s Rachel’s phrase.)  And when I do . . . this blog will be BACK!

This has been a beautiful weekend!

Saturday, we were up bright and early so that I could run the 5K at the Dogwood Festival in Perry.  Last year, this was one of my favorite 5Ks, so I had to do it again.  And, at $10 per person, I put Kimberlie and Tristan in it too.  I nailed a personal record, shaving 30 seconds off of a race I did 2 weeks ago.

Afterwards, the kids went to a birthday party for one of Tristan’s classmates and then Kimberlie and the kids planted flowers while I got things done around the house (that’s code talk for checked facebook 9000 times and read email and blogs).

This weekend’s pictures are courteous of the law school’s new Canon 50D.  Back in November, I wrote about the law school’s new Canon 40D.  I waited over 2 years for the law school to budget for a nice camera for our building, and as soon as I got the 40D, WMG (worthless marketing guy) stole it from us.  After my complaints reached the right people, we were given permission to order a second camera.  Of course I chose a nicer one.  I love the 50D!

Today is my and Kimberlie’s 6 year anniversary.  After church, we had a nice meal and then came home and took a long nap.  It’s rare for the entire house to take a nap at the same time.

Just now, I was looking back through my old blog (LiveJournal), which is intentionally not linked here and has been abandoned.  It’s always good to read your old blog entries.  I actually blog more for myself than others.  I always have.  Anyway, were my goals for 2005, as typed almost exactly 4 years ago:

• Lose 15lbs (I’ve gained 25 since I got married. LOL)
  Comment: didn’t reach that goal.  I’ve actually gained 14 more!
• Exercise more
  Comment: didn’t reach that one intially, but I have now.
• Watch less TV
  Comment: same as the exercise one.  There seems to be a parrallel between watching less TV and exercising more.  Who knew?
• Keep the house cleaner
  Comment: Ha Ha.  Having another kid was not the way to do it.
• Spend more time reading
  Comment: Do blogs count?
• Cut down on Coca-cola (I’m down to about 4 a day now)
  Comment: I only have 2 a day now!
• Make more money than in 2004
  Comment: I don’t think I did that in 2005, but I certainly do now.
• Be nicer to people
  Comment: Ha Ha yet again.  Now, I just avoid people who don’t deserve my nice side, and even some that do.
• Get more education/industry certifications
  Comment: Yep, got CCNAed in 2005, but it has since expired.
• Keep up with my LJ more (this has been one before)
  Comment: Actually I took a little break from blogging, until this year.
• Get life insurance (I keep putting it off)
  Comment: I have a job that has life insurance now.
• Not get a haircut, until it starts to affect my income
  Comment: Another one I didn’t accomplish in 2005, but have now.

Now I should come up with some goals/resolutions for 2009 . . .

One year ago today (actually, it was November 17 — but it was a Saturday) Oprah Winfrey taped her show in Macon and I was there.  

I had learned a few weeks before that she was filming a show here and that only her biggest fans were going to be selected.  I could care less about her and her propaganda, but Kimberlie watches her every chance she gets.  Of course I wrote in to try to convince them to let me surprise her with tickets.  Some how, we got picked.  

Long story short, it ended up being her Oprah’s Favorite Things episode.  She chose her Macon viewers to shower with gifts because more TV sets are tuned to her show in Macon than in any other place.  Sad statistic for Macon — good for us.  We each left with about $10,000 worth of stuff each.

One year later, I have sold most of the duplicate items on eBay, Amazon, etc. and used the cash to buy and pay down the CR-V.  Yes, the same CR-V that got “boomed up” (but I have it back now).  The Target gift cards and overpriced (but really good) cupcakes are long gone.  The KitchenAid Mixers are in my closet, because we don’t have enough counter space in our kitchen.  We love our refrigerator and High Definition Camcorder.  We have watched some of the DVDs and occasionally Kimberlie will wear the fancy boots.

A lot of people say that something big like that will change your life.  It gave us some things that we wouldn’t normally have bought, but other than that and maybe a little bit of attention, it really didn’t impact us that much.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am extremely thankful.  I don’t even bash Oprah anymore, but maybe I’ll win the lottery one day.

I am jonesin for some LOST.  I have never been through withdrawal from a television show like I’ve been lately for LOST.  Watching the old episodes Monday nights on Sci-Fi just isn’t cutting it.  Anyway, in a tribute to LOST, I’m going to start posting Flashbacks on my blog.  Some day, I’ll give Charlie Pace a shout by posting my Greatest Hits on my blog.  Maybe even one day I’ll do a flash-forward.

Here is my first flashback:

FIVE YEARS AGO: FALL 2003

Five years ago, Kimberlie and I were wrapping up our first year of marriage.  She also had a few more days before Tristan was due to arrive.  Looking back, I have no idea how we ever made it.  I was the only one working and I was only making half of what I make now.  I was the webmaster at Macon State and I liked the job, but the pay absolutely sucked.  We also still had the normal newlywed challenges: adapting to living with someone other than your parents (and how much control to allow your parents to have in your marriage), owning and taking care of a new home, and paying bills that you never had before.

TEN YEARS AGO: FALL 1998

Ten years ago I was working at Publix making $8.25 an hour, which at that time was GOOD money for a 19 year old.  That fall, I started taking classes at Macon State.  I decided to transfer to Macon State because I had no idea what I wanted to become in life.  The previous year, I was at GC&SU in Milledgeville, but it didn’t make sense because as an undecided major, I could take the exact same courses in Macon.

Who knew that five years later I would be married with a kid.  I don’t think I even had any serious dating prospects back then.

For those of you who didn’t know me back then: See, I told you I’ve gained 40 pounds since I got married.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: FALL 1993

Fifteen years ago I was a freshman at Central High School.  High school was much better than middle school, but thats not exactly saying much.  It was tough, because we moved to the north side of Macon that year and I didn’t know anyone when I started at Central.  I do remember getting braces that Fall.  Before that, I had the most embarrassing teeth.

TWENTY YEARS AGO: FALL 1988

Twenty years ago I was a fourth grade student at Heard Elementary School.  Things were tough back then because I was one of two kids living in a single parent household.  At the time, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t have the Nike Airs and other name brand stuff.  I certainly understand now.  I do remember going on my first overnight field trip that fall to Rock Eagle.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO: FALL 1983

In Fall 1983, I was four years old.  That’s the same age my son is today.  It’s hard to remember way back then.  My parents were actually still married (but not for much longer) and all of my grandparents were still living.  I do remember that I was Raggedy-Andy for Halloween (my sister was Raggedy-Ann).

FLASH-FORWARD?

I wonder where I’ll be 5, 10, 15, 20, or even 25 years from now.  Perhaps a better question should be IF I will be.  I could be long gone by then.  What sort of technology will we have by then?  Will 2008 be as defining of a year as the media thinks it is?  Will this year’s election and economic turmoil really have a profound impact?

OK, back to my LOST reruns on Sci-Fi!