Okay, I guess I should do a 2005 recap and analyze what kind of year it's been. After a shaky beginning having to do with me getting over my breakup with the red-haired guy, it's turned out to be a good year.
In June I met M-Square which was so cool! I haven't met a guy I've really, really like in a long time, and I mean really liked. RHG was fun but M-Square so blows him away. And we just had our six-month anniversary which is so phenomenal. It's been years since I've been in a relationship that's lasted this long, and I'm still not bored. This is definitely a very good sign.
What else? I bought a laptop early in the year which has been such a god-send, that I don't know why I didn't buy one earlier.
Finance wise, I managed to save 10% of my income and also contributed to my 401(k) at work. This is good news for me. I paid off my car loan finally.
Writing wise, it's been an up and down year but I am writing. I submitted a story for publication and got turned down, but I'm happy that I was able to even get to the point of submitting a story. I've got to do more of this in 2006. I joined a new screenwriting class and learned that I can hold my own with writers who have agents. This was a good feeling, and has given me confidence about my own abilities.
Health wise I'm fitting back into my size 8 jeans, jeans that I outgrew some time in December. Hopefully, 2006 will be the year I get my weight down to a number I can maintain easily and control.
Friendship wise, I made four new friends this year. I like when I make new friends. S is a writer too and we're planning to go to a Learning Annex class about agents in February. S is cool and is interested in many of the same things I'm interested in. Then there's my ex-cubemate from Stanford, M. M is cool. She's also a writer and we have fun hanging together. We saw Rent, Memoirs of a Geisha, and The Chronicles of Narnia, together. D & C are also new friends whom I met at work. D left the company but we're still keeping in touch. C is also a writer and she told me I inspired her to start writing again. I think she'd make a great editor for me, since she has PhD in English and was hired to be a writer at my company.
My old friend D was just hired by my company working for HR. When we worked together, we used to hang out and go to lunch every week. She and I are planning to resume our lunchtime habits in 2006. It's so great to have a lunch buddy at work.
Creativity wise, other than writing I took two beading classes and am making my own jewelry. I even made M-Square an earring from these extra beads I had and sent it to him. He thinks it might be a little too feminine for him to wear, but I don't think so. I like that we have matching earrings. It's so cute!
So all in all, it's been a good year.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
I'm sure everyone has seen this list but it's very interesting anyway. How many of these gadgets have you owned?
The Complete List of PC World's 50 Greatest Gadgets
PC World's list of the top 50 tech gadgets of the last half century was assembled after we polled our editors for nominations. We then rated the nominated gadgets for usefulness, design, degree of innovation, influence on subsequent gadgets, and the "cool factor." Here are the results. (For more on our 50 Greatest Gadgets project, see the full story.)
1. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979) - my favourite - I was addicted to mine for a long time and owned several versions. The last one I had finally broke last year.
Apple iPod (2001)
(Tie) ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (1999)
PalmPilot 1000 (1996)
Sony CDP-101 (1982)
Motorola StarTAC (1996)
Atari Video Computer System (1977)
Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (1972)
M-Systems DiskOnKey (2000)
Regency TR-1 (1954)
Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)
Motorola Razr V3 (2004)
Motorola PageWriter (1996)
BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)
Phonemate Model 400 (1971)
Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (1978)
Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)
Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 %281998)
Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (1995)
Handspring Treo 600 (2003)
Zenith Space Command (1956)
Hamilton Pulsar (1972)
Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)
MITS Altair 8800 (1975)
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)
Nintendo Game Boy (1989)
Commodore 64 (1982)
Apple Newton MessagePad (1994)
Sony Betamax (1975)
Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)
iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002)
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)
Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (1997)
Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 10 (1998)
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)
Iomega Zip Drive (1995)
Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player (1978)
Milton Bradley Simon (1978)
Play, Inc Snappy Video Snapshot (1996)
Connectix QuickCam (1994)
BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)
Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)
Polaroid Swinger (1965)
Sony Aibo ERS-110 (1999)
Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)
Learjet Stereo-8 (1965)
Timex/Sinclair 1000 (1982)
Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (1989)
Jakks Pacific TV Games (2002)
Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (1990)
The Link.
The Complete List of PC World's 50 Greatest Gadgets
PC World's list of the top 50 tech gadgets of the last half century was assembled after we polled our editors for nominations. We then rated the nominated gadgets for usefulness, design, degree of innovation, influence on subsequent gadgets, and the "cool factor." Here are the results. (For more on our 50 Greatest Gadgets project, see the full story.)
1. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979) - my favourite - I was addicted to mine for a long time and owned several versions. The last one I had finally broke last year.
Apple iPod (2001)
(Tie) ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (1999)
PalmPilot 1000 (1996)
Sony CDP-101 (1982)
Motorola StarTAC (1996)
Atari Video Computer System (1977)
Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (1972)
M-Systems DiskOnKey (2000)
Regency TR-1 (1954)
Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)
Motorola Razr V3 (2004)
Motorola PageWriter (1996)
BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)
Phonemate Model 400 (1971)
Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (1978)
Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)
Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 %281998)
Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (1995)
Handspring Treo 600 (2003)
Zenith Space Command (1956)
Hamilton Pulsar (1972)
Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)
MITS Altair 8800 (1975)
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)
Nintendo Game Boy (1989)
Commodore 64 (1982)
Apple Newton MessagePad (1994)
Sony Betamax (1975)
Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)
iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002)
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)
Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (1997)
Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 10 (1998)
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)
Iomega Zip Drive (1995)
Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player (1978)
Milton Bradley Simon (1978)
Play, Inc Snappy Video Snapshot (1996)
Connectix QuickCam (1994)
BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)
Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)
Polaroid Swinger (1965)
Sony Aibo ERS-110 (1999)
Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)
Learjet Stereo-8 (1965)
Timex/Sinclair 1000 (1982)
Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (1989)
Jakks Pacific TV Games (2002)
Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (1990)
The Link.
The Top Politically inCorrect Words and Phrases for 2005:
1. Misguided Criminals for Terrorist: The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers neutral descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes. The rub: the professed intent of these misguided criminals was to kill, without warning, as many innocents as possible (which is the common definition for the term, terrorist). The phrase was selected by GLM as but one example in line with the published BBC Editorial Guidelines where it is noted that the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than aid to understanding. Suggested alternatives include: bomber, attacker, insurgent and militant, among others. These and similar words are deemed to have no emotional or value judgments. However, the word Terrorist can be used as long as it appears in a quoted attribution.
2. Intrinsic Aptitude (or lack thereof) was a suggestion by Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, on why women might be underrepresented in engineering and science. He was nearly fired for his speculation.
3. Thought Shower or Word Shower substituting for brainstorm so as not to offend those with brain disorders such as epilepsy.
4. Scum or "la racaille" for French citizens of Moslem and North African descent inhabiting the projects ringing French Cities. France's Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, used this most Politically inCorrect (and reprehensible) label to describe the young rioters (and by extension all the inhabitants of the Cites).
5. Out of the Mainstream when used to describe the ideology of any political opponent: At one time slavery was in the mainstream, thinking the sun orbited the earth was in the mainstream, having your blood sucked out by leeches was in the mainstream. What's so great about being in the mainstream?
6. Deferred Success as a euphemism for the word fail. The Professional Association of Teachers in the UK considered a proposal to replace any notion of failure with deferred success in order to bolster students self-esteem.
7. Womyn for Women to distance the word from man. This in spite of the fact that the term man in the original Indo-European is gender neutral (as have been its successors for some 5,000 years).
8. C.E. for A.D.: Is the current year A.D. 2005 or 2005 C.E.? There is a movement to strip A.D. (Latin for "In the Year of the Lord") from the year designation used in the West since the 5th century and replace it with the supposedly more neutral Common Era (though the zero reference year for the beginning of the Common Era remains the year of Christ's birth).
9. "God Rest Ye Merry Persons" for "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen": A Christmas, eh, Holiday, carol with 500 years of history is not enough to sway the Anglican Church at Cardiff Cathedral (Wales) from changing the original lyrics. There are those who suggest going one step further: "Higher Power Rest Ye Merry Persons".
10. Banning the word Mate: the Department of Parliamentary Services in Canberra issued a general warning to its security staff banning the use of the word 'mate' in dealings t with both members of Parliament and the public. What next? banning 'no worries' so as not to offend the worried, or banning 'Down Under' So as not to offend those of us who live in the "Up Over".
The link to the article.
1. Misguided Criminals for Terrorist: The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers neutral descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes. The rub: the professed intent of these misguided criminals was to kill, without warning, as many innocents as possible (which is the common definition for the term, terrorist). The phrase was selected by GLM as but one example in line with the published BBC Editorial Guidelines where it is noted that the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than aid to understanding. Suggested alternatives include: bomber, attacker, insurgent and militant, among others. These and similar words are deemed to have no emotional or value judgments. However, the word Terrorist can be used as long as it appears in a quoted attribution.
2. Intrinsic Aptitude (or lack thereof) was a suggestion by Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, on why women might be underrepresented in engineering and science. He was nearly fired for his speculation.
3. Thought Shower or Word Shower substituting for brainstorm so as not to offend those with brain disorders such as epilepsy.
4. Scum or "la racaille" for French citizens of Moslem and North African descent inhabiting the projects ringing French Cities. France's Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, used this most Politically inCorrect (and reprehensible) label to describe the young rioters (and by extension all the inhabitants of the Cites).
5. Out of the Mainstream when used to describe the ideology of any political opponent: At one time slavery was in the mainstream, thinking the sun orbited the earth was in the mainstream, having your blood sucked out by leeches was in the mainstream. What's so great about being in the mainstream?
6. Deferred Success as a euphemism for the word fail. The Professional Association of Teachers in the UK considered a proposal to replace any notion of failure with deferred success in order to bolster students self-esteem.
7. Womyn for Women to distance the word from man. This in spite of the fact that the term man in the original Indo-European is gender neutral (as have been its successors for some 5,000 years).
8. C.E. for A.D.: Is the current year A.D. 2005 or 2005 C.E.? There is a movement to strip A.D. (Latin for "In the Year of the Lord") from the year designation used in the West since the 5th century and replace it with the supposedly more neutral Common Era (though the zero reference year for the beginning of the Common Era remains the year of Christ's birth).
9. "God Rest Ye Merry Persons" for "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen": A Christmas, eh, Holiday, carol with 500 years of history is not enough to sway the Anglican Church at Cardiff Cathedral (Wales) from changing the original lyrics. There are those who suggest going one step further: "Higher Power Rest Ye Merry Persons".
10. Banning the word Mate: the Department of Parliamentary Services in Canberra issued a general warning to its security staff banning the use of the word 'mate' in dealings t with both members of Parliament and the public. What next? banning 'no worries' so as not to offend the worried, or banning 'Down Under' So as not to offend those of us who live in the "Up Over".
The link to the article.
I saw two more movies this week.
Chronicles of Narnia was great! It's fun to see a book you've read come to life on screen. The film pretty much stuck to the plot of the book like the first Harry Potter movie. I loved Aslan. Is he symbolic of JC? Who knows ... if you're JC-inclined, everything will remind you of him. Heck, I saw "Field of Dreams" and I thought the line "If you build it, he will come" was all about JC. The four child actors were great. The British film industy must be having a field day because of all of these movies with Brit child actors.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was very good as well. It was the first Potter movie where I was really engrossed in the plot. All the actors have grown up, except Daniel Radcliffe it seems. Hermoine looks much as older as does Ron and his brothers. And Neville Longbottom has gotten so tall. This film was much darker which is in keeping with the book. Harry and Ron make perfect goofy awkward teenagers; they are both definitely late bloomers.
Chronicles of Narnia was great! It's fun to see a book you've read come to life on screen. The film pretty much stuck to the plot of the book like the first Harry Potter movie. I loved Aslan. Is he symbolic of JC? Who knows ... if you're JC-inclined, everything will remind you of him. Heck, I saw "Field of Dreams" and I thought the line "If you build it, he will come" was all about JC. The four child actors were great. The British film industy must be having a field day because of all of these movies with Brit child actors.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was very good as well. It was the first Potter movie where I was really engrossed in the plot. All the actors have grown up, except Daniel Radcliffe it seems. Hermoine looks much as older as does Ron and his brothers. And Neville Longbottom has gotten so tall. This film was much darker which is in keeping with the book. Harry and Ron make perfect goofy awkward teenagers; they are both definitely late bloomers.
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