2006

For 2007, I will corrupt my site with a bunch of non-tech related posts and lots of ads. Well, okay… it is not as bad as all that… There’s no massive swing taking place. This is still cold storage for thoughts, ideas and code you or I might need sometime in the future. But I’m going to add a couple more things.

As you can see on the right, I have added an AdSense widget. Back in January of 2006, I added AdSense to my wife’s blog. It worked well and more than paid for the resources she used. However, it did not pay for 100% of my hosting cost. My goal for this year is to add a few more donated sites, to what I host, and to make my hosting of sites 100% self supporting. They are almost there already. It won’t take much to push it over the top. So, some non-intrusive ads will be shown on The Code Cave. A single day that is a New week, New month, and New year is just tooooo convenient stats-wise to miss. (I get a lot of traffic on the posts for my phones. Maybe if I get inspired, I’ll modify the widget to only show on those posts. Those folks are (I think) are more likely to click the ads anyway… We’ll see…)

But what of 2006?

And why were you tagged?
I heard a good quote yesterday “Who you are *today* is a direct result of the decisions you’ve made in the last six months.”

So, I’ve picking up the tagging chain from Michael’s Technozid (I still try to type Technozoid but there’s no second o) and will review the last year… And I’ve spread the joy by tagging 5 blogs I think you all might like. (see the list at the end). I’ve only done this kind of a post once before, but hey… looking at your choices over the last year makes more sense, I think, than making a bunch of resolutions. If you want to make progress, you’ve got to know where you’ve been…

Here you go, who I am today is because of this:
Gained or lost weight?
I’m almost exactly the same as I was this time last year. Last year I was in the middle of a big swing in my weight. I’d already lost 30 pounds to get to where I am at right now (205) and would continue to drop 30 more. I’d stopped the strict dieting and much of the exercise and have been balanced at 205 for the last six months regardless of what I eat or do. So, that’s pretty good but I’ve been ramping up the exercise again since November. I’m putting myself into training for mountain biking more in the summer. I REALLY enjoyed the parks I went to this fall. I plan to do much more of this and might even participate in a race or two… not sure about that… I’ve got someone pushing me towards it though and I’d love spending more time with him. He’s a good honorable man, and everyone should have more good examples in their life.

Longer or shorter hair?
Hmmm…. longer for just another 20 minutes. Then it comes off! I was planning on returning to my longer than shoulder blades length in anticipation for getting back on two wheels (with a motor this time in the spring. I should have enough $$ set aside to get a junker bike that will last me for a year). But I also think that the longer hair is going to interfere with my exercise plans. So, now that the Christmas skits are over at church, I’m going back to short short.

Nearsighted or farsighted?
Near sighted. I only really need to have my glasses on when it is dim as an astigmatism causes everything to have blur lines, but I was worried that I’d be forced to wear them for my drivers license test. I had to go up one line on the reading chart, but I actually passed. That was such a relief.

More money or less?
Making more and saving more.
Thanks to a loan from Denise’s Parents two years earlier, we’ve been working on correcting a financial hole we’d dug ourselves into when living in PA. We were making significantly less that we were obligated to repay. It has taken this long (eight years) for us to recover from that. But we are now in significantly better shape than we’ve ever been in . In February we should be fully repaid on the loan from her parents and hat means the only debt we have is the car loan and the mortgage.

The payment for the minivan annoys me. We could be driving around in a Lexus we own for less money per month than we pay for our minivan. We had a van die a horrible death two years ago with over half of its principle still outstanding. The end result was getting a new van and basically paying for two.

Spent more or spent less?
Less, other than in December :). We never spend much anyway. We do occasionally make big purchases, but had none in 2006. We do an awful lot of repairing with duct tape, solder, and chewing gum (hmm actually in that order too), so we have stuff last.

Moved more or less?
Hmmm More I’d say. During the second half of 2005 I was riding my bike to work and back every day, but I went out and did more in 2006. In 2004 I’d ripped some of my stomach muscles and that took a year and a half to repair itself. So for the bulk of 2006 I did nothing as I couldn’t, but I really got into exercise in the fall.

The most stupid plan?
This is a very minor thing but I’d say it was when I finally after three weeks of carrying the bicycle around on the back of the truck and having stuff come up so that I couldn’t make it to the park, forcing myself to go. I got there only to find that the front brake pads had vibrated off the bike and that I’d forgotten to bring anything other than my dress shoes anyway…

The most dangerous endeavor?
Riding at the top of a precipice in the near dark with leaves covering the path.

The best sex?
Yes.

The most expensive purchase?
My new computer, fully tax deductible though…

• COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC
• Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard – Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8KRS
• AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2.4GHz Socket 939 Processor – Model ADA4000BNBOX
• 110mm EVR Sleeve CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink – GIGABYTE GH-PDU22-SC (the spiffiest fan I’ve ever seen)
• 2gb Corsair 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel RAM
• Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card – MSI NX7900GT-VT2D256E-HD
• S3 Savage4 32mb Video card
• Three 19″ CRT KDS monitors.
• High end Logitech microphone head set (Thanks Iggy!)
• Hewlett Packard Color Laser printer – HP 1600 (Thanks Pat!)
• Logitech 5 button mouse (VERY SWEEET)
• 7 format Flash Card drive
• DVD burner RW+-

Some legacy equip rounds out my current configuration

• 4.1 speakers
• 200gb HD (plus one or two smaller ones)
• 3.5″ + 5 1/4″ drives
• And a signature pad for some current contract work

I’m content for now 🙂 (RAID is probably next)

The most delicious meal?
Hmm a trip to Ken Stewart’s Grille that was just over half paid for by a $100 gift certificate I won from the office summer picnic the year before.

The most impressing book?
That’s easy… Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubnar. Everyone should read it…

The most impressing movie?
Appocalypto – EXTREMELY realistic violence, but a truly impressive show…

The best CD?
Supernatural by the Newsboys but only because I haven’t purchased any other ones this year… pitiful

The most impressive concert?
Didn’t go to a one…

Spent the most time with…
The office, but that’s to be expected…. 8 hours a day is hard to compete with for quantity…

Spent the most quality time with…
My family and got some time in for me too.

Predominant feeling 2006?
Anticipation

Done for the first time in 2006?
Rode a bike along a 10 logs strung end to end…

Done again after a long pause in 2006?
Rode a bike across a curved bridge over a 6 ft drop… (not pretty the first time – visions of a death I’d seen on video stopped me part way across last time… baaaad place to stop…)

Three things I could have well done without?
Being distracted by non-work stuff at work.
Idiots who for some reason like to be involved with the The WildWest stuff.
Watching that video of the guy plummeting to his death in the grand canyon and the expressions of his friends as they watched him fall…

The nicest present I gave someone?
A nice ring for my wife (the kids talked me into it…)

2006 summarized in one word:
Transition…

Soooo… Now who should do this next? Well I’ll tag five people that haven’t posted recently and that I want to know more about…

Let’s see…
How about…
Well… Cindy’s Digital Ramble needs a new post! No posts since October… Cindy, Cindy, Cindy tsk tsk….
And the Rainbow Unbroken hasn’t posted for two weeks and got me started on this tagging idea. So she gets tagged twice in a row…
And out of the blue, I had a several hour conversation with Sean over at Have Laptop Will Travel the other day. It was totally out of the blue, but I like his site and this is a good chance to link to it…
I’ll also tag Rob who wrote the Now Reading plug in…
And since Count Zero at 4null4.de hasn’t posted in English for a month and I like to make him work, I’ll tag him too…

Oh and I HAVE to bonus tag my wife’s site, KnitChat, just cause I’m ALWAYS interested in what she has to say and she likes these things…

Here are those questions again:

Gained or lost weight?
Longer or shorter hair?
Nearsighted or farsighted?
More money or less?
Spent more or spent less?
Moved more or less?
The most stupid plan?
The most dangerous endeavour?
The best sex?
The most expensive purchase?
The most delicious meal?
The most impressing book?
The most impressing movie?
The best CD?
The most impressive concert?
Spent the most time with…
Spent the most quality time with…
Predominant feeling 2006?
Done for the first time in 2006?
Done again after a long pause in 2006?
Three things I could have well done without?
The most important thing I wanted to persuade someone of?
The nicest present I gave someone?
2006 summarized in one word: