I saw the ball drop in NYC. I was sitting in India Garden, at the end of my meal, delaying just long enough to see the events on TV. It wasn't bad -- IG celebrated the year by having a special night buffet and some free wine for everyone. Not too many people came, but this is to be expected. I'll do that year's review thing here..
2005..
- For almost all of January, I was in Europe, broadening my horizons while things went badly in other ways
- I went back to Texas to visit family
- In April (?), my third relationship fell apart with a betrayal
- I got a pretty solid indication that I could transfer to CMU Qatar, but decided not to because of some of the strings attached. My life would be very different right now if I had taken the transfer.
- I rewrote my usenet moderation software to make it handle multiple newsgroups
- I met someone I hope I will date in the future
- In September, my third year of being in Pittsburgh and working for CMU started. I became vested, meaning that if I decide to leave, I keep my 403b retirement plan.
- I got a confusing kiss from one person
- I got a confusing apology from another
- I got a confusing hug from yet another
- My last Iguana left my family for a new owner
- My dad left my life
- I started roleplaying with a group of friends again
- My old laptop stopped working reliably, so I replaced it
- I got glasses
- I bought all the parts for a new server room at work
- I bought a Playstation 2 to play Grand Theft Auto, eventually decided that I didn't feel comfortable playing the game often, and sold the PS2, giving the game to friends
- My BLOG started to get spam, which is a strange kind of flattery. I fixed the spam problem with a simple code change
- I continued to learn things about myself, and to think about the world
- I put my car up for sale. There have been a few nibbles.
Amusingly, when I got home, around 0:45, the lights were out because of a power outage, and Squirrel Hill was pitch black. This was very strange.
According to some traveler magazine, the worst airpoirts in the world are:
- Sheremetyevo Airport in Moskva (Moscow), Russia
- Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi, India
- Athens, Greece Airport
- Milan, Italy Airport
- Mexico City
- Detroit
More todo for 2006:
- Throw the Ceilidh, which is indeed on 28 January
- Find a good time to go visit Dave and Debb in New York. It would be fantastic to spend a weekend out there, especially if it can coincide with a concert by They Might Be Giants, DeVotchKa, or Firewater. Visiting museums would be good too, and there are a few stores I'd like to visit there that sell things that are hard to get here. This trip will probably be via Greyhound or Amtrak.
- Snowboarding or Skiing, hopefully with friends. None of my friends in Pgh have ever done it (!!)
- Get a musical instrument (likely a Balalaika, maybe a Shofar too), try to convince friends to start a very casual band
- Go to the ocean to do water-related things
- Hopefully get a new girlfriend. It's been about 8 months since I've been in a relationship.
- Possibly go to Nova Scotia. If I can do this by bus/rail, and thus both see the terrain and spend less money, that would be ideal. Similarly, possibly go to Alaska. Roundtrip flights to Alaska are quite cheap, so I might fly if I do this.
- Step up my efforts to be healthy
