Sunday, December 31, 2006

Goodbye '06, Hello '07!

This is my 100th post for 2006 and the last for the year. That averages out to a post every 4 days or so. Horrible!

Anyways, 2006 was quite a year for me. I started a company, 5 months later I bought out my partner, worked day and night, fell more in love with my lady, and got used to sleeping at 5am.

If you look back on my posts for the year, you'll see they hardly mention a thing. Why? No time! Too many things to do, too little time. That ends up causing a lot of stress. That's one of the things I have to fix in 2007. But before we jump into those resolutions, let's go back to my December 31, 2005 post and review the resolutions I had set for 2006:
  1. Get engaged - definitely didn't happen, but 2007 looks to be the year!
  2. Pay off all debt - still working on that and it's heading in the right direction
  3. Hit the damn gym that I prepaid 3 years for! - yeah, no.
  4. Start a company (or 2) - definitely started one!
  5. Become an insurance broker - don't even care about this anymore
  6. Hang out with friends more often - you can thank #4 for this not happening
  7. Wake up early, sleep early - see #4
  8. Spend less - definitely happened. I am still getting my act together, but I've come a long way from the craziness of my past
  9. Read and review 10 books - numero 4 at it again
  10. Watch the entire Godfather series... again - what a stupid resolution. No, it didn't happen.
  11. Write a short story - I don't even recall writing this. No time for that!
  12. Get a new cell phone - Got my PEBL, let's see how long THAT lasts
  13. Learn to read and write in Armenian... again - no time for this either.
  14. Write in blog at least 5 times a week - ha! Not even close.
  15. Learn to play the piano... yet again - I don't think I touched my piano once in 2006.

3 out of 15 isn't bad. Oh wait, it's a pathetic 20%. Ouch!

Ok let's see if we can make 2007's resolutions a bit more realistic:
  1. Pay off most of my debt. I've been spending less and making more, so this is realistic.
  2. Get engaged. I've been dying for this! I have to propose before Araks realizes I'm a psycho!
  3. Sleep by midnight and wake up before 9am on weeknights. This is going to take some work.
  4. Stop trying to please everyone. One of my biggest weaknesses and the cause of a lot of my stress.
  5. Stop being afraid to rock the boat. See above.
  6. Finish all my projects on time. This will improve cash flow and reduce stress. Doesn't get better than that, does it?
  7. Read an hour a day. Why not?
  8. Exercise regularly. Exercise reduces stress. We all know that. Now let's do something about this!
  9. Eat healthy. That means a drastic cut in my meat intake and a drastic increase in fruits and vegetables.
  10. Write more blog entries! YET AGAIN!
What are your resolutions for 2007? How did you do on your 2006 resolutions?

And with that, I shall say farewell to 2006. You have been quite a year. Here's looking at you, kid.

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Windows Vista: Not Exactly a Revolution

After receiving my spanking new ThinkPad the other day, I decided Windows Vista Ultimate will be the primary operating system. I was quite excited at the wonders of what might await once I was using Vista on a day to day basis.

Uh, yeah...

The most obvious difference is the shiny Aero graphics. While it's nice for the first 10 minutes, it is completely unnecessary. Transparent window headers don't add anything to productivity! Skinning Windows XP wasn't my idea of a brand new innovation to an operating system.


The Windows sidebar is stupid. You can get the same thing with Google Desktop Gadgets, Yahoo! Widgets, and Microsoft Gadgets.

The shutdown icon in the start menu doesn't actually shutdown (that would make too much sense, you see). Instead, it hibernates. Not the best option for a laptop. In order to shutdown, you have to navigate through a submenu. Great innovation!


There is one thing that I enjoy, and that is the search option in the start menu. Just type in a part of the program name and there you go! Worth the $400 price? Hardly.

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Friday, December 01, 2006

A Few Bucks Adds Up

Join me for a short bit on a little journey.

Let's say I give you $70 and that is all the money you will ever have.

Before you really knew what the hell was going on, you had already spent $20. Oh well.

So now you have $50.

That's it. $50.

Still with me? Good. Now tell me, are you:

1. Going to spend that $50 on the things you really enjoy and make every dollar count; or
2. Waste it on the same things everyone else does, just because it's not as risky.