I still write "weekly" as a tag for these posts, but we all know the accuracy of that. I should retroactively change it to read "lies". But, that's enough self-deprecation for now.

Health - Been hit and miss on the exercise. Last week, I didn't set foot on the bike at all, excepting on Sunday when I made another trek to Sausalito via the Golden Gate Bridge. The week before, I was down sick for a couple days and didn't much bike then either. It's a mechanical horse that I need to get back on and stay on. In terms of food, not much has changed. I frequent Taco Bell every once and again, and when I don't eat for supper I'm generally having some nice, fatty comfort food. The call of free sugar treats at work is one I have much trouble ignoring and, more often then not, cave to. Let's not even mention the alcohol consumption curve since moving here...

So, my goal for this week is to not eat any sweets and place myself on the Matt Hackmann Turkey Sandwich Diet until I can get my poundage back down. The work provided lunches provide me with plenty of calories to ensure that I don't die on a given day. On top of that, biking to work at least four out of the five work days.

Finances - Superfluous spending has subsided some, but the bigger news would be that I have now accomplished two of the three goals I set for myself; paying off my credit card and my LASIK loan. According to the list I presented, that leaves just the car loan. With only four months left in the year, I'm still yet uncertain of the likelihood that I will tackle that one as well. Though, with the money saved from those two bills down, that can certainly hasten the process.

Japanese - Some evenings when I come home from work, I consider that I should crack out my books and do some studying. But, then I catch myself in the same downward spiral that I do with art; where do I begin and how do I proceed. Interestingly enough, a couple weeks back I received a little brochure about some adult learning programs that the Fremont High School system has in the fall and, lo and behold, Japanese is amoung the courses available. Not only that, but they use the same books that I have already purchased. I feel it would be wise to get in on those, if only to provide initial direction.

Some time ago, I did that stupid art instruction school test, just acting like a jack ass because I can't help but feel that there's something skeezy going on there. Well, nearly one month later, I get this back:

85 out of 100, they gave me. There's apparently a whole bunch of shit that goes into making this "composite score", namely accuracy, stroke quality, shading and tones, and "design concepts". I feel I should have gotten a 0 because I broke the one and only rule... draw one subject.

Also, I'm not 100% certain that this wasn't just rubber stamped on. The sheet I got back was a scan of my original paper, and closely examining the lettering suggests that it was (at some point) handwritten because all the Os are different, but still.

Maybe I'll consider this my control and send in another form under a different nym, but draw something completely off topic, very badly rendered, or perhaps both.

I'm mildly inebriated right now, having partaken in a particularly vicious Squid Girl drinking game. Two gin and tonics is enough to get me a little loopy, apparently. But, that's not why we're here.

Last week, as I was biking home from work, I had a bit of a realization; for the last ten year, approximately every two years, my life hits some sort of major stepping stone. Stay with me a moment as we saunter down this alley.

2003

Probably one of the smaller items on this list, I became an admin of the YPN in late '02/early '03. This saw a very large uptick in my time spent doing web development. From YPNgine to Tetra, it occupied quite a lot of time and is certainly integral to where I am today.

2005

In November of '05, I got my very first job as a layaway runner at Walmart. I almost consider this as the beginning of my modern life and certainly influential in the being I've become; learning the way of the world and coming out of the introverted shell I had adopted through most of my teenage years.

2007

October of 2007 saw me leaving the comforts of the Midwest for the first time and beginning my college life in the far reaches of Orlando Florida. A lot of my rougher edges in terms of design and development were sanded down while there for sure, though I've since made strides to drop the moniker of designer. Certainly I grew socially while there, but still didn't live the typical college student life. Also, it was during this time that I developed my interest in anime, for good or ill.

2009

Having graduated from college, I began my life in the professional world (late '09, but '09 it was). These times were absolutely influential to myself as a front end web developer, owing quite a lot to my fellow coworkers (the Frenchie in particular). It was certainly a trial by fire as I learned how the corporate world operates and how to most effectively make one's way within it, though I'm certainly still learning on that part.

2011

This year was big for two reasons: I finally learned my true worth as a developer and I finally began life outside of the domain of my parents' household. Certainly, the latter is a major milestone for any individual, but I guess little else happened that year outside of beginning to realize how I could push the boundaries of being one's own keeper... like late night Taco Bell runs :)

2013

This all leads into this year where I find myself permanently moved to a foreign part of the nation and working at a major company in the internet sector. It feels normal and yet surreal at the same time. Through all the previous years, I always had this nagging feeling that I was waiting for something, the kind of feeling of anticipation that you have around Christmas but less so. I could never put my finger on what it was I was waiting for, but that feeling has nearly vanished since I've been here. Where I had cognitively resigned to working at a news station for the rest of my life, my gut had other plans and is now satisfied with the position I find myself in. Of course, there's still

The Future

Given the above as a foundation, considering major life events happen every two years, let's consider extrapolating this out into how I'd like things to pan out.

2015 Despite never having worked at any establishment for two years straight, I'll still be at LinkedIn and now an "old-timer". More importantly than that, I'll be "going steady" with a very nice girl. Now, I would prefer that this actually happen before the two year marker much like the later items on this list.

2017 By this time, with any luck I will be married or engaged to the aforementioned "nice girl". Now, four years is a fairly small time span to find "the one" or a person coming close to, but I've witnessed this happen first hand and it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Of course, if I continue to sit on my hands waiting for Mrs. Hackmann to waltz into my life, it becomes slightly more muddled...

2019 In a word, fatherhood. The last two or three years I've been feeling the pangs of wanting to have kids. A daughter to dote on and/or a son with whom I can show the wonders of nerddom (actually, all of that can apply to both). Either way, children with whom I can share the wonder and magic of the world that we live in.

The next six years should be interesting for sure and, if the past has shown me anything, will bring with it absolutely nothing that I imagined it would.

I missed a few days of my month of blogging every day. So sue me. It's not like I went to a foreign country or anything. But, to close this all out, here is a picture of the now famous "cat box". Some day we shall meet again, Japan.

There are many ways one can attempt to sober up. Drink water, eat food, drink coffee, smack to the face, and so forth. I figured this evening, after a little bit of happy hour at work, I would work off the rest of my buzz by taking a quick bike around the trail behind the campus. So, I lifted a Google bike and did just that. As I felt my buzz decreasing, I decided it was about time to turn around and take myself home. So, when I saw a fork coming up in the road, I figured I would gracefully arc back around.

What you don't see is that there is a bit of a grade at this fork and road bikes don't have great traction. So, I wound up bleeding out the alcohol instead. (Don't click the break if you're not cool with the site of blood 'n shit.

This arm arguably got banged up the worst, but all of my limbs wound up with some level of scraped up. I haven't seen this much blood since my much younger years.

Due to probably the adrenaline rush, I was now completely sober. I biked myself back to work, did a quick patch job at the first aid station in the cafeteria, then made a trip to the store to pick up all of the first aid supplies I needed to finish the job (hint, I didn't even have so much as a band-aid at home). Luckily, those aforementioned younger years has given me quite a... CRASH COURSE in patching up wounds.