The World of Stuff .com

2008: The Year in Review

Another year has slipped behind us. It seems like only yesterday that we rang in 2008, and here it’s about to be 2009. At the end of every year I’d always like to say it’s been a good year, but it never really has. There’s always the world situation to consider, and that’s never very rosy. Despite that good triumphed over evil, I can’t help but be reminded about how bad 2008 has been if you have money or a house. But as someone who doesn’t have much money or a house, it was pretty okay. Here, in bulleted list form, is what went down in ’08.

• January 1 – After watching the Florida Gators lose their bowl game to Michigan, I have dinner at my friend Mark’s house.
• January 4 – A new article at TWoS: Free Your Computer with Linux.
• January 6 – My suitemates and I go on a Geocaching mini-adventure.
• January 7 – The first day of my second semester of college.
• January 15 – I go to a lecture by Jack Kevorkian.
• January 17 – Cameron, Adam, and I visit our other suitemate in the hospital.
• January 17 – I make a new friend and get the idea to start an Esperanto club with her.
• January 29 – I vote for the first time ever in my life.
• February 8 – I hand over control of flipacoin.net, the oldest part of TWoS, to a new owner.
• February 12 – I go to Free Pancake Day at IHOP with my sister and our friend.
• February 16-17 – Our new suitemate Evan treats us to some revelry in his native Tampa, and we spend the night at his house.
• February 20 – I watch a lunar eclipse with my friends.
• February 29 – I document the leap day by taking photos throughout the day.
• February 29 – Evan puts a kiddie pool in the bathroom, fills it with hot water from the shower, and invites his friends. We have a pool party in our dorm.
• March 4 – My not-yet-formed Esperanto club is mentioned in my local paper.
• March 13 – While on spring break, my friends and I visit the old high school.
• March 20 – I go to a pretty awesome orchestra concert.
• March 21 – I go on a non-date. We go to dinner with one of her friends and then see Kimya Dawson with some more of her friends.
• April 3 – I volunteer at Lifeapalooza, Get Carded’s end-of-year event.
• April 5 – I go tubing on the Ichetucknee with friends and friends’ friends.
• April 6 – TWoS turns 5 years old.
• April 11 – I’m Get Carded’s Volunteer of the Year.
• April 12 – I go to the spring football game.
• April 12 – I get inducted into Phi Eta Sigma honor society.
• April 18 – Ask… date… ugh.
• April 30 – Agh… again…
• May 2 – I come home from my first year of college.
• May 9-11 – Family vacation at the family vacation spot.
• May 18 – I discover that I closed my window on a snake several days before. Awesome!
• May 26 – I go canoeing with my friends on Memorial Day.
• May 31 – My grandmother finds an old Hanoverian coin and gives it to me.
• June 3 – I visit my old high school again and find out that this site is censored there.
• June 4 – I go to the Rapids Water Park with some friends.
• June 14 – I create a family genealogy page.
• June 21-22 – I read a whole book (George Orwell’s Animal Farm) in Esperanto.
• July 4 – I hang out at my friend Nick’s house for a barbecue and other fun.
• July 9 – Nick and I get together at my house to jam.
• July 12 – I invite my friends to a barbecue restaurant for my birthday.
• July 13 – My 19th birthday.
• July 19 – I see The Dark Knight at midnight with my friends. It’s a big deal to everyone.
• July 28 – It’s official: I’m farsighted.
• August 16 – I go to South Beach with Nick and TJ.
• August 21 – I move back to Hume Hall for a second year.
• August 24 – I go to the Student Honors Organization’s beginning-of-the-year barbecue (I sure have been doing a lot of barbecue-related things) with friends new and old.
• August 25 – On my way to my first class of my second year of college, a Christian guy encounters me, and I handle the situation well.
• September 5 – I visit the Alligator‘s office to talk about the possibility of being an editorial columnist.
• September 9 – My friend Mark and I teach people Esperanto phrases outside the student union, and I get interviewed by a journalism student.
• September 17 – I interview for the webmaster job at the Dean of Students Office… and I get the job.
• September 19 – I find out that the faculty at my high school read my blog for at least a year and cited it in meetings.
• September 26 – I write a letter to a Marine in Iraq.
• October 6 – My first day on the job.
• October 9 – The journalism student’s article about me and my Esperanto club is published in the Alligator.
• October 16 – For the Esperanto club’s first event, I give a presentation introducing the language to people who are interested.
• October 24 – I participate in an unsuccessful attempt to break the world record for the largest water balloon fight.
• October 28 – 1,000th post.
• November 4 – I voted!
• November 11 – I go to Lake Wauburg with my friends. I have a wonderful time.
• November 21 – I go to a volleyball game with some of the same friends.
• November 26-28 – I spend Thanksgiving at my grandparents’ house.
• December 3 – I participate in an unsuccessful attempt to break the world record for the largest human green ribbon.
• December 4 – I go to another orchestra concert with my friends Mark and Andy.
• December 5 – The Esperanto club’s end-of-semester event, Esperanto-Vespermanĝo (Esperanto Dinner).
• December 9 – I wake up sick and late for class for the first time ever.
• December 19 – I return home to my newly semi-redecorated room.
• December 25 – I spend Christmas at home with family and friends.

I plan to ring in the new year at my friend Nick’s. As you can see, I tend to go to his house on holidays. It’s like the Holiday Inn or something. But I know I’ll have a good time there.

A year ago, I asked (or, rather, you asked),

Where do I see myself at the end of 2008? I’m glad you asked. I don’t really know, actually…. I’ll still be in college, hopefully, and I’ll probably be working on that computer science major. I hope to be in a relationship, or at least to have been in a relationship. Actually, just to be dating would be nice. We’ll just have to see, I guess.

This wasn’t the year. All I can say is maybe next year.

Anyway, have a great New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. May you keep your new year’s resolutions all year, and may 2009 be a world of good stuff.

Oh, and one more thing: a site called Change.org is collecting ideas to submit to the Obama administration. Anyone can register at the site and vote ideas up in various categories. The first round of voting ends tonight. Please vote in favor of citizens’ funding of the nation’s elections, net neutrality, and teaching Esperanto in schools. I’m very pleased to see how well that last one is doing.