return void;

Since it’s New Year’s Eve, I figured I’d reflect on what I accomplished for 2008 and what I expect out of 2009. If you’re not into these “year-end wrapup” type of posts, just scroll over to Slashdot now.

In 2008, my main goals were to re-evaluate my graduate school plans, finish a half-marathon in 2 hours, run a 5K in 25 minutes, and buy a house. I am pleased to report that I succeeded in most of my goals.

I took the Database Systems qualification exam in the Spring and passed. That was a major hurdle in my willingness to continue taking them and pursuing something beyond a Masters. I also took the Data/Text Mining for Computational Biology this Fall and await the grade (on pins and needles). If I pass that exam, I am 2/3rds of the way to completing that requirement.

I have not run a half-marathon this year. I wanted to do the DRC Half again, but decided against it due to my educational requirements. I have a half marathon on January 25 that I’ve always wanted to do, the 3M Half Marathon. Let’s hope for the best (likely target is 2:05).

During the RunOn! McKinney holiday social run, I finished the 5K course in 25:22. There were about 40 people, nearly twice as many, and I came in with the lead pack. In fact, I was the fourth one to finish. That’s a rather impressive time for me considering I struggled to maintain a 9:00 pace last year. It’s not an official time, but I’m still going to count it until I do another 5K and can beat that time.

In October, we bought a house; well, technically it was in September. We had been wanting to buy a house for nearly 3 years. We aggressively saved, struggled through having to buy a car, unemployement, paying for graduate school, and huge tax payments. We are now the proud owners of a nice home (3/2/1, 2000 square feet). It requires more work and more money, but it beats living in an apartment any day of the week. I will eventually get some pictures up (one thing at a time).

So what do I expect out of 2009? Well, I hope to accomplish just as much. My better half will should be a CPA this time next year and I will be nearly complete of the Masters program. I also hope to be moving towards the PhD program, possibly look into other universities.

I think next year we will get a dog for the empty dog house out back. We might also consider having rugrats of our own, but we don’t want to be neglegent parents (with school’s demand). We’ll have to see how that pans out, her biological clock is ticking loudly.

I want to do a half matarthon in 2:00 and finish a 5K in 23 minutes. I would like to travel to do a race as to keep things fresh. There are still no marathon plans yet because I haven’t grown bored of the half; plus the training for the half allows me ample time for my many pursuits.

Lastly, I intend on committing more effort to my faith. Since I have no problem waking up at 6am to run, I have no excuse to not make early service on Sunday. I won’t make a lofty goal like I did with the Daily Bible. Keep it simple and you’ll surely succeed.

Anyways, I have to finish celebrating the New Year and so should you. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

A few days ago, I started a 13 day vacation for the hoidays. I haven’t had a real vacation since February 2007 when we went to Seattle (pictures will surely follow). Tons of things have happened in the last few months, so I’ll run through them since I have been very negligent of most things. I’ll make a separate post about Christmas and what I expect out of 2009 soon.

We bought a house in October. We moved in and tried unpacking. Until the day before family was slated to visit, we were only half-way unpacked. We now only have the master bedroom to finish.

I finished my Data/Text Mining For Computational Biology course. The workload was lopsided with October and November having the bulk of the work. I also took the qualifier for this class. There were only 2 people taking this exam, myself included with only 1 person having attempted it before. It lasted 3.5 hours and was most definitely written by committee. I don’t know what my final grade is because the website is closed right now (seriously, who “closes” a website?).

I’ve started the Great Music Archive Project. I intend to have every music CD we own ripped to FLAC by the end of the vacation. So far, I am at least half-way done and have a whole box I have not unpacked and checked their status. Afterwards, I’ll start the Great Music Tagging Project.

Speaking of archiving, I’ve started the Great Photography Archive Project as well. This is nearly complete and will begin the Great Photography Publishing Project shortly thereafter.

I signed up for the 3M Half Marathon finally, since I have been training for it for the last 6 months (2 months off can really do damage). The event is on 25 January 2009. I usually loathe reading other peoples’ race reports, so I will gleefully force mine on the few readers that remain.

I also have a plan to start daily perl6 development without altering my schedule. I will post details once I actually start. It involves a laptop and a morning commute. Sounds dangerous, doesn’t it?

Anyways, I must continue my archival projects now since I plan on accomplishing no real work while on vacation.

It has been a long time since I have posted anything, but I found a couple of stories that I simply could not go on without sharing with the masses. I have always been weary of the holiday “potluck” luncheon, and these articles exemplify my opinion of these situations. Attending one of these things is like being a politician on the campaign path, visiting a small town where they stick some foul smelling food in front of your face, and you feel forced to try it; grimace, and say how good it tastes all in the name of (office) politics.

Happy Holidays!!!

Holiday Potlucks Where Bacteria…

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