Reflecting on 2010

cartoonish. i like it

Random Observation/Comment #252: Writing these year-end reviews always put me in such a good mood.  It enumerates and puts meaning to my accomplishments.  It gives me a burst of motivation to complete my goals list.  It lets me reevaluate my progress and recreate a new list of things to do the next year.  It gives me at least a direction to walk in this ominous path.  Try it – it will free you.

2010 was a different year for me. Compared to last year, I had not done as much traveling or photography, but I had worked on different parts of my personality. I have become more social and tech involved with a greater focus on relationships and learning. In this past year, I visited Cozumel, Key West, Miami, Marseille in France, Cinque Terre in Italy, Florence, and Rome.  I saw her again.  I wrote a few more entries consistently involved in career advancement. I attended at least 50 after hour drinks and networking events, meeting with around 20 valuable mentors.  I became technologically synced.  I learned much more than I once knew about relationships.  I learned to cook better and ate new dishes that were purposefully tasted for the purpose of cooking it at home.  I went sky diving and had the most amazing feeling of euphoria. I helped Komtra get their produced CD recognized and put online.  I helped design and write Ryan’s comic book.  I got into rockclimbing and bought shoes for it. I took the CFA with a certain level (haha) of studying and commitment.  I learned a bit of French and improved on my Japanese. I took pictures for 10 iClick photography events that became published on internal sites.  I made a second home.

This year was really more about career and girls.  Although every year is usually about girls, this one was a little more in depth with the drama portion and finding one that would actually fit into my bigger plan.  Everything seemed ridiculously complicated, but it was probably much easier than I made it.  There were a lot of great memories and a lot of inside jokes that never faded.  My eyes were opened into much more independence and it let me glimpse into a world where my parents were free of the burden of guiding me through everything. I hope they know my decision was made to help them use their time more creatively.

To continue with my tradition, I’ve set up new goals, aspirations, dreams, and fantasies for the next year.  Most of them are revised and redefined.

Goals:

  1. Stop procrastinating – become much more productive
  2. Learn to write more in Chinese
  3. Learn to speak fluently in Japanese, Mandarin, German, and Spanish by 25.
  4. Review more restaurants
  5. Cook more complicated meals and pair with items that complement each other
  6. Finish comic book
  7. Finish writing Love with an Expiration Date eventually
  8. Add more to my bottle cap and labels collection of beers
  9. Finish my side projects list (top secret for now)
  10. Have 50 friends use my pictures as facebook profiles
  11. Travel to Machu Pichu, Hawaii, and Iceland next year
  12. Continue to collect memorable quotes from amazing nights
  13. Make a second home
  14. Stay true to the promises made
  15. Get six pack abs – for reals this time
  16. Become a better public speaker
  17. Create a reputable online identity
  18. Keep a scrapbook of all memories

Aspirations:

  1. Get Engaged and make a plunge towards commitement
  2. Find a career with flexible hours, low stress, and high pay (maybe this should be a fantasy or at least a dream)
  3. Publish a book (autobiography, memoirs, novel, etc)
  4. Make money from photography
  5. Get an MBA
  6. Save someone’s life – change it for the better forever
  7. Beat Edmund in a game of Table Tennis
  8. Own a walk-in closet of suits (like Barney)
  9. Go restaurant reviewing with my brother – he drives the nice car and I pay for the meals
  10. Work for Google

Dreams:

  1. Visit all 7 continents
  2. See all 7 wonders of the world (all of them listed on Wikipedia which makes them like 50 based on different organizations)
  3. Travel to at least 50 countries (currently at 17)
  4. Make my first million by the time I’m 28
  5. Eat at almost 80% of all restaurants in The City
  6. Early retirement
  7. Make a living traveling and writing
  8. Learn to fly a plane
  9. Own a house that I’ve designed (I would build it, but I’m afraid it would fall down while I sleep)
  10. Become as influential as a professor – possibly become a professor
  11. Change the world with something
  12. Get on the Colbert Report
  13. Travel to space – weightlessness would be cool too
  14. Bar owner where all my friends would drink for free

Fantasies: (All new sorts of ridiculousness: see past few years of entries for other funny ones)

  1. Have Force powers of persuasion
  2. Host a TV show about Engineers selling out to Finance
  3. Have my own theme music wherever I go
  4. Open a mashed potatoes restaurant
  5. Live GTA video game in real life for one day without consequence
  6. Be the only one who could lie in a world that everyone tells the truth
  7. Understand women
  8. Control an alien and essentially have mind-sex with animals so I could control them with my pony-tail
  9. Speak to animals in a romantic comedy movie with Scarlet Johanson
  10. Be the Barnacle and Suit Up all the time
  11. Drive a car that transforms into a robot alien with Megan Fox being my girlfriend
  12. I got it! Slick Shoes!
  13. Wear glasses that can disguise me between my split normal and super hero life style
  14. Roam the desserts bringing a book out West. I am badass with a machete and partially blind.
  15. Win “So You Think You Can Dance” and have girls (and probably guys) swarm me
  16. Car chase driving an Aston Martin

As always, Health and Happiness, my Friends…

~See Lemons Look forward to 2011