Wrapping up 2008

The end of the year can't arrive quickly enough. Jesus, this year sucked. Let's hope next year is better.

With the end of the year, it's fair to look back and see if I did what I hoped this year.

• Cash in a WSOP Event. Nope - I bombed out of a Circuit event in Biloxi and didn't try any others. I did not try to do too many satellites to go to Vegas, thanks to beginning work here.
• Win a large-field MTT (1000+). Nope, but I did win a 300-person field online and a couple bloggerments, and finished 7th in the donkey dime rebuy on Full Tilt of 3600 people. No win, though. Close, but no cigar.
• Finish the drill - graduate. Didn't happen, but only because I began full-time work. I'll still finish this academic year and I'll walk in May.
• Find a job in IT and/or management. Done, as I deal a lot in process management and write enough code in this new job to qualify.
• Study harder. Marginal improvement - I probably worked harder in the Spring and Fall terms than I did during my undergraduate days, and it had a positive effect on my grades. Go figure - more studying leads to better grades. It's not a 4.0, but I'll take semesters where I average a 3.4 every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
• Quality family time. Easy win, and I'm not just saying that because my daughter likes to snuggle while watching football. There were lots of fun times. Easy win.
• Volunteer more. I did do some more volunteering and church work, mostly with Knights of Columbus, than I've been able to do recently, and I've given a bit of time to service fraternity stuff (though not too much - no 12-hour conference drives for me anymore!)
• Travel more, and ENJOY it more. Biloxi was a trip from hell. New York was one of the best trips we've ever taken. We went to the Georgia mountains several times, and we went to New Orleans. I've got one more trip coming up with the kids soon, and I think they're going to enjoy it despite the long hours. It'll be one hell of a trip, and I'll probably do some photo dumps on the road just so we can keep the camera fresh.

OK, going by this, the year wasn't that bad. But a host of other things - Maggie passing away, Kim's grandmother passing away, cancer hitting several people in our family, more unemployment woes - have made this year pretty rough.

Here's hoping for a better 2009.