Minimally Exceptional

2006 seems like it came and went pretty quick. You probably aren’t asking and don’t care what I did all year; since that’s the case, I’ll ask for you and pretend that you do indeed care.

“So, what DID you do all year, if you didn’t spend it sitting in front of a computer, posting messages on the internet?”

Well that’s a good question, I’m glad you asked.

I started 2006 in a really horribly way – with a wicked hangover. New years eve was spent at Betsy’s bachelorette pad, and involved wayyy to much alcohol. I don’t even really remember what, other than 151 and some corn whiskey bottled as ‘moonshine.’

Here’s a little bit of a laundry list, I might elaborate on some of these later on:

-In late December 2005 I did finally get my promotion; that coupled with a nice year-end raise has made things a bit more financially comfortable

-I worked my ass off in January though April. It’s audit season in our office, and we were a person down, so I worked some late late nights and weekends. Seriously, I think that might be the only significant thing I did the first quarter of the year. I worked, and I slept.

-In April, I decided to start saving money to move out. Since I was still paying off credit cards from college, I set a very modest goal of having $3,000 saved up by year end. (Actual year end savings: $3,400)

-Switched banks for my savings money. Twice.

-Made my first ‘real’ live concert audio recording (Matt Nathanson at Streetside Records, 4/29/06 – get it here: http://www.archive.org/details/mn2006-04-29.instore

-Saw DMB twice in May: Saint Louis (which was both the tour opener, fantastic, and the return of JTR that I’d been waiting 5 years for), and Kansas City.

-Was in Charlie’s & Katie’s wedding in June. DVD of the wedding = not done.

-Was in Christine’s & Matt’s wedding in July. DVD of the wedding = not done.

-Saw DMB twice in August: Both in Ohio. Night one was meh, night two was really great (other than the walk to and from the parking lot) Government mule = great.

-Found out in August that things with Laura’s mom were much more serious than we had thought

-Bought Laura a camera she wanted/needed (the Canon EOS-30D) for her birthday / our anniversary.

-Saw Tim Reynolds in September (and recorded tape #2)

-Went to Maria’s wedding in September, where Laura did some wedding photography

-Saw Matt Nathanson and Carbon Leaf in October (and recorded audience tapes #3 and 4)

November and December seemed really busy, but in retrospect, all it seems like I did was work, goof around, and help take care of Laura while she was taking non-stop care of her family.

So, all in all, a shitty start and a shitty end to an otherwise alright year. In all fairness, February is just about here already, and 2007 hasn’t exactly started off ideally either, but at least there’s still time to make the eleven and a half months to come better.

So let’s be honest here. I’ve ignored and neglected pretty much everything that has to do with this site. Why? Don’t know. Been pretty busy – the second half of 2006 was both pretty busy and pretty shitty, so it never really occurred to me to post on a website.

Why else? I have a problem. When I have something worth posting about, I never have time to do it. When I have time to post, I never have anything worthwhile to say. As a result, it’s been almost a year since I’ve done anything on this site, which is costing me about $9 a month to maintain. Sure, I’ve hosted some neat files for various online communities, but I could do that with yousendit.

Since this is January, it’s not too late to add it to my resolutions, of which I had a few (and now have more.) In no particular order:

1) Buy a house. Seriously folks, it’s time. If not a house, I at least need to get an apartment or something, but it’s time to go. I’ve worked hard to bring my $13,000 of credit card debt from college down to a reasonable $3,000, and come tax return time that will be gone too. So, pending Laura getting a ‘real job’ and being able to help with the bills, it’s time to move. Moving is also the first step to marriage, which also needs to happen one of these days.

2) Eat better, Lose weight. Let’s not sugarcoat it, I’m a bigger guy. A ‘Man of Substance,’ as they say. That doesn’t mean that I’m a fat ass, or obese, or anything like that, but I can stand to lose a little and eat better, given the health problems in my family. Don’t go crazy – I’m not planning on becoming a fitness guru or picking up some hardcore workout routine, and I still have no plans to start eating salads and drinking protein shakes, but some basic diet adjustments will help me greatly – drop the fried bullshit, cut back on the junk food (let’s be honest here – I’ll never stop eating ice cream entirely), and scale back some portions. Stop the bleeding, as they say. I would like to lose a little weight, but I definately don’t need to gain any more, or I’ll be on my way to being one of those blow-up round bottomed punching bag toys.

3) Drop the OCD. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I have some serious OCD/paranoia issues. First, I have a fire paranoia. When I leave the house, or leave work for the day, or whatever, I have to make sure that everything is turned off, unplugged, locked, or otherwise properly dealt with. Computers need to be off, the iron unplugged, the space heater unplugged, the ferret cage locked (even though the ferrets can’t open the doors,) the Wii unplugged, the modem turned off, et cetera. It’s not so bad that I check all of these things. The bad part is that I feel like I need to check them over and over again. Almost as if that I don’t trust that I’ve already taken care of it the three times I already checked. Ask Laura. Or my coworkers. It’s bad. It’s like I proofread, and then proofread two or three more times before I finally decide that it’s probably OK and click send. In short – I need to cut that shit out.

4) De-Stress. It seems like more and more lately I worry about everything: What if I pissed off Laura’s dad? What if I get diabetes? What if they don’t let me into the venue with my gear? What if they’re going to fire me? What am I going to say? What if Laura doesn’t get the money she needs for school? What if I move out and suddenly can’t afford it? What if (insert name) thinks I do a shitty job at work? I need to relax, forget about the bullshit drama and what-ifs (especially the things I can’t do anything about), and stick to the clarity of reality.

5) Take this website seriously. It’s obvious to me now that there are lots of things broken about my site. I need to make it better. I need to fix broken links. I need to get rid of old outdated crap that doesn’t make any sense anymore. I need to post with some regularity. I need to change the crappy color schemes. I might even need to overhaul things completely. Long story short, I need to make it work. Not only does it make sense for it to work, but that will also help me keep my geek-knowledge from deteriorating, because if it’s use it or lose it, I’m certainly not using it these days.

So that’s what I’ve got. I know, I know – no one cares. I haven’t looked at the logs lately, but I’m willing to wager that people stopped paying any attention at all around July of last year, and that’s fine. Even if I’m talking just to hear myself speak, I feel like I should at least say it how I want.