I’ve never given any significance to the start of a new calendar year. To me, it’s just another day, another month. My birthday, which is fast approaching, holds more significance, especially as I approach the Big 50. It is then, more than any other time, that I tend to look at where I’ve been and what I’ve done and measure those *ahem* accomplishments against my ideas of where I should be at this stage in my life. I’ve done a lot of things in my time, traveled quite a bit, lived in Germany for a while, changed job fields several times, and known lots and lots of people, both good and not so good. I’m generally pretty happy with my life now, but there’s always a feeling in the back of my mind that I should be doing better. What exactly “better” is, I don’t know.<\/p>\n
Twenty years ago computers meant nothing to me, now they’re a major part of my life and my career. Twenty years ago I bought a really nice pair of fur-lined leather gloves at the military clothing sales store in F\u00fcrth, Germany. I still wear those gloves every winter. Some things change, some don’t. Twenty years ago I owned a problematic BMW<\/a> (read:lemon) that I enjoyed driving too much to get rid of. Today I own a problematic BMW<\/a> that I enjoy driving too much to get rid of. Some lessons are never learned. Twenty years ago I left Germany for the States to start working on my bachelor’s degree at U Mass. This month I start working on my Master’s degree at Eastern Illinois. Some lessons never end. Twenty years ago I had a lot less, um…girth. Today I have a lot less hair on my head.\u00a0Ain’t\u00a0life grand?:roll: Twenty years ago my wife, Sarah, was focusing on her high school studies. Today she’s the focus of my life. Ain’t life grand? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n But in the spirit of the day, I’ll go ahead and list, in no particular order,\u00a0my hopes for the New Year.<\/p>\n 1. I hope we manage to find a path to peace in the Middle East.<\/p>\n 2. I hope a cure for cancer is found. I despise that disease.<\/p>\n 3. I hope the Red Sox find their $103 million pitching investment was worth it.<\/p>\n 4. I hope the Democrats in Congress do better than their predecessors.<\/p>\n 5. I hope CNN returns to its roots and loses the Celebrity News Network theme.<\/p>\n 6. I hope I still find reasons (and time)\u00a0to post in this blog.<\/p>\n 7. I hope Mel Gibson retires to the Outback.<\/p>\n 8. I hope the Colts lose in the first round.<\/p>\n 9. I hope to still be driving my car, as opposed to it driving me into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n 10. I hope this blog post didn’t bore you to tears. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve never given any significance to the start of a new calendar year. To me, it’s just another day, another month. My birthday, which is fast approaching, holds more significance, especially as I approach the Big 50. It is then, more than any other time, that I tend to look at where I’ve been and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}