2012 was a decidedly mixed bag. Work ate my brain and became my life, crowding out most other things. K and R were sick ALOT. We had a lot of hard financial times.
BUT I was employed the whole year long, went on two work trips, became an LRE and am appreciated by my company. K got a contract position she loves. R got to go to preschool, which has helped him develop socially, and continues to grow up to be a perfectly well-adjusted three year old who is asserting his authority, much to our frustration, occasionally.

( 2012 In Review )

2006, in Summary, was the year of dealing with things I maybe didn't want to deal with, but that I'm better off for dealing with them: financially, health-wise and emotional health-wise. I didn't enjoy dealing with any of it, but I'm a little more financially secure, or a little more emotionally secure because of it.
2006 was an all-around positive year. Yes, I had to go to TWO funerals, and I got into numerous family disputes, but I have a fiancee now, and am over 50 lbs. lighter than I was when I started. And both are poweful and important.

So, month by month, here's the breakdown of events, both in my life (and in Kristen's, because her life affects me), and current events that mattered to me.

( 2006 in Review )
My songs of 2006
2006 was a good year for me, musically. Between Tower Records going bankrupt, CD Warehouse in Georgetown, and my agreement to buy myself a new iTunes CD for every 10 lbs. lost, I got lots of music.
With that in mind, I did a Double CD this year :)
Here's the track listing :)

CD 1
Tenacious D - Kielbasa
The Pitchforks Of Duke University - Tribute
Bloodhound Gang - No Hard Feelings
Ani DiFranco - Deep Dish
Captain Tractor - Maria's Last Words
Eve 6 - Small Town Trap
Smash Mouth - Defeat You
Tenacious D - Beezleboss (The Final Showdown)
Carbon Leaf - Under The Wire
Barenaked Ladies - Take It Back
The Capitol Steps - In The Metro
York University Wibijazz'n - Rosanna
Nina Gordon - Sufragette
Weird Al Yankovic - Virus Alert

CD 2
The Arrogant Worms - Particle Board
Dramarama - Everybody Dies
Bob Rivers - Can't Afford To Drive My Car
KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
The Arrogant Worms - Canada's Really Big (Semi-Conducted Version)
They Might Be Giants - E Eats Everything (Remix)
MIT Logarythms - The Kids Aren't Alright
Fatboy Slim - Wonderful Night (Radio Edit)
Bloodhoung Gang - The Inevitable Return Of The Great White Dope
OK Go - Here It Goes Again
Towers of London - Kill The Pop Scene
Eve 6 - On The Roof Again
Army of Freshmen - Uniforms
Monty Python's Spamalot! OST - Run Away

Video Games of 2006
DDR: Extreme 2 and DDR: Supernova
Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania
The Movies: Stunts and Effects
The Sims 2: Open For Business and The Sims 2: Pets

Wow, another year came and went. We laughed, we cried, we... yadda yadda.
This has been an interesting year. From the lows of NOT getting a job and NOT finishing my thesis on time to the highs of falling in love, being at my first marriage ceremony and getting three interviews for one company.

Let's look back at...

The Year In Review

• New York's Representative Charles Rangel introduced a bill to Congress to reinstitute the draft. Luckily, said bill never went anywhere. *fumes*


• I got a new computer, dubbed "Precious" (instead of "Birdhouse")


• I bought myself all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD


• SARS hits Toronto. Neighboring areas (including Buffalo) cringe... and wait.


• I became a permanent member of Livejournal


• With the help of numerous sites and a book of Top 40s hits from 1955 to 2001, I came up with a fairly good set of 60s songs I like for my mp3 collection


• Fire breaks out in a nightclub in Rhode Island because of faulty pyrotechnics. 96 people die before ever reaching the door.


• The Columbia broke up on it's way back home.


• I bought a book on MySQL and PHP and created an mp3 database for myself.


• I saw Billy Joel and Elton John together in concert (officially we went with, but did not sit with dawnstar and kolys)


• North Korea steps up it's nuclear weapon program. Things look scary for a while, but eventually seem to settle down (or get drowned out by Iraq).


• The Congress, in one of their more stupid moments, decided to take French Fries off the menu and put Freedom Fries on instead. Idiots.


• Elizabeth Smart is finally found and brought home.


• Went back to Syracuse to be part of the Great Lakes Research Consortium Student Seminar series (giving my own presentation on my thesis). Again, I did not win...


• I bought The Sims Online, played it for a couple weeks and never looked at it again. God, was that an 'eh' idea.


• Bush declares war on Iraq. You know how well THAT has worked out so far.


• Jessica Lynch is "rescued".. well.. sorta.


• I buy myself a plog, trying to be "on the ground floor" of what seemed like a really good idea. Between the fact that my friends are all on LJ (including and especially Kristen) and... the fact that Plogs never really took off, I never really did much with that account.


• I DDR'd, and then went out and bought myself DDR Max! Yay! :D


• Get into Homestar Runner


• The front passenger tire of Josh's car comes off about a week and a half after getting Pep Boys to put new tires on. Josh and Dad were supposed to be suing Pep Boys, but as so far, 8 months later, they haven't.


• My mom gets a nasty secondary infection. So bad that she's stuck at home for three months before she "got over it", including having an IV drip in her arm for a month and a half


• I "graduate" once again from college, this time with my masters (well, I finished my classes, if not my thesis).


• Meet and fall in love with ecwoodburndork :)


• My cousin Jaime spends the entire summer finding ways to zing Josh. Josh, for his part, is a fairly good sport about it :)


• Go to see Weird Al in concert at Melody Fair.


• Meet the rest of the Brain. I can't say we're all fast friends, but I've definately become close to some of you :)


• I bought Chez Geek and Fluxx for myself.


• Mars gets the closest to Earth it's been in a long long while.


• Go to see They Might Be Giants at Thursday in the Square with various Rochester peoples. A bit short, but yay! :D


• Dork-A-Thon!! kareila, alierak, xb95, coderlemming, janinedog, dawnstar, kolys, kholnuu, trillain and ecwoodburn all show up to my house for Lasertron, Midnight Bowling and much gameage. Much fun was had :)


• Have a phone interview with Ecology and Environment Inc. Nothing comes of it.


• Fail to see Flogging Molly with Kristen because of stupidity on someone's part.


• Vice President Cheney is sued for fraudulent accounting. Nothing comes of it (yet?)


• Qusay and Uday Hussein are killed in a firefight in Iraq. Good Riddance.


• I go to Darien Lake with Kristen


• I get into the Ozy and Millie webcomic.


• Josh joins the Amherst Summer Theatre Production of "Sweet Charity". Josh did a good job, but I didn't really like the musical itself much.


• See Gallagher with Todd at Melody Fair. What a show!! :D


• Spend my birthday doing dinner with Kristen :)


• I got into Kings of Chaos (for a while, at least)


• The lights go out over most of the NorthEast for a few hours (up to a couple days for some people farther east than I)


• My mom gets a new car: a Saturn Ion


• I lose my virginity. Finally.


• Badgers! (No, it didn't affect my life profoundly, but... it's so.. amusing!)


• The Bills begin a thoroughly disheartening 6-10 season.. by kicking the New England Patrot's asses. Sadly, things went downhill from there.


• I get into a fight with hbbtrbbtbcnbt over a misunderstanding over an angry 9/11 post. The fight is resolved a few days later.


• Hurricane Isabel strikes the east coast, causing chaos and destruction, but failing to stop me from going to Rochester as I'd hope to see Kristen :)


• Went to see Carbon Leaf with Kristen, Dawn and Oli. I can't say I enjoyed the concert, but I went.


• Kristen starts her job with EDS.


• Something... stressful happens in Dawn and Oli's life. At this point, if you don't know about it, don't worry about it.


• I buy Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts on DVD. Nifty specials. Also, Dinosaurs are just cool! :D


• Arnold Schwarzaneggar becomes governor of California after a circus of a recall election for ex-governor Gray Davis.


• Got all worked up over a random email from someone wanting to know about a girl named Marci I used to know. Nothing came of it and I'm not going to get involved anymore.


• Weston and Sampson invite me to Boston for an interview. Nothing comes of this one either, except getting to see Boston dorks :D


• Dawn and Oli get married! :D


• I try out iTunes and instantly fall in love with them. I now have TWO ways to go about finding my music... iTunes and my PHP database.


• Kristen and I have a big fight. The biggest fight ever. One that took three people and about a week to get over.


• I interview with Jacques Whitford... twice on the phone and one expected early in January. *hopehopehopityhope*


• I fail to go see Barenaked Ladies in Rochester due to nasty weather :/


• MP3.com, a site I used to put my music on, calls it quits.


• See The Buffalo Chips.. twice! Once with Kristen and once without.


• The money runs out on my thesis. This sends me into a downward spiral of depression and anxiety which I'm still trying to stay afloat of.


• My mom, in her semi-infinite coolness, gives me Two Towers extended and West Wing Season 1 for Hannukah :D


• Kristen, in her semi-infinite coolness, gives me Spots, a leopard from the Build-a-Bear Workshop.


• Spend Thanksgiving at both grandma's house and Kristen's house. I was stuffed more than the turkey afterwards.


• I get a job (hopefully temporary) working at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's not glamorous and sometimes I really hate the job, but it's money.


• The US (maybe? Perhaps the Kurds instead) captures Saddam Hussein. Don't know what good that'll do them, as I doubt he knows anything, but...we'll see.


• My computer nearly goes and I take this as the clue to go on a massive burnfest of all the MP3s I don't currently own on CD.


• Video games of the year include SimCity 4 (with Rush Hour expansion pack), Dance Dance Revolution Max (1 AND 2), Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection


• Instead of giving you a quick list of the music I got into, I thought this year, I would just create a playlist, a cross-section of the sorts of stuff I probably got into. I present to y'all my 2003 25, said cross-section... As you can tell, there's some TMBG, some new Weird Al and BnL, some new Hard Rock, some music from Kristen, some stuff I got from other dorks and stuff I found for myself, some DDR stuff, Some 60s stuff... just a large variety of music
  
  
  
  1. They Might Be Giants - Wearing a Raincoat
  
  
  2. Weird Al Yankovic - Hardware Store
  
  
  3. Barenaked Ladies - Celebrity
  
  
  4. Coldplay - Clocks
  
  
  5. Evanesence - Bring Me To Life
  
  
  6. Amanda Marshall - Love Lift Me
  
  
  7. Blue Rodeo - Head Over Heels
  
  
  8. The Tea Party - Paint It Black
  
  
  9. Sister Hazel - Champagne High
  
  
  10. Freezepop - Freezepop Forever
  
  
  11. The Dandy Warhols - Scientist
  
  
  12. Linkin Park - Faint
  
  
  13. The Lords of the Rhymes - Nine-Fingered Frodo
  
  
  14. Neon Genesis Evangelion - Armageddon
  
  
  15. School of Rock Soundtrack - School of Rock
  
  
  16. Capitol Steps - Talk 'bout Saddam
  
  
  17. Bob Rivers - Goodbye Saddam
  
  
  18. Mr. Ed Jumps The Gun - Smoke
  
  
  19. Bus Stop - Long Train Runnin'
  
  
  20. Happy Tai - Yatta!
  
  
  21. Carbon Leaf - The Boxer
  
  
  22. Captain Tractor - Drunken Sailor
  
  
  23. Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love
  
  
  24. The Box Tops - The Letter
  
  
  25. Vertical Horizon - We Are
  
  
  
  

It's been a hell of a year, a hell of year. More memorable than last year, I think.

Not everything on this list is about me, but it all directly affected me in one way or another.

This year:

• I visited Jen and Robby in Boston to see BnL live on 1/1/01.


• I, due to the near boundless generosity of Jen, get the first three seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus on VHS :D


• TMBG came out with TMBG Unlimited.


• Even more parents learned what real fear was as a large number of kids came to school with guns.


• The US crashed a spy plane into China.


• Terry Pratchett's earlier Discworld books become released (a little at a time) in the US.


• I became president (and then "graduate advisor" of UBEESC.


• Joshua shows the world (or at least those at the talent show) that he CAN SING!


• My friend Carl is dumped by his then girlfriend, Jessica in a very messy fashion. In typical Carl fashion he rants on and on for half an hour wishing, and I quote, "The Food ROTS in her hand as it touches her lips!". He found another girlfriend somewhere in September and the two of them are very happy.
  
• I went on a brief stint on #tmbg before I was reminded why I didn't like irc.


• I got a livejournal. The whole world could read my random thoughts.


• I quit Beechwood. Finally!


• I started doing graduate research, trying to model a containment system in West Valley.


• I got offered the Lake Ontario project to do as a thesis.


• I get a car, finally!


• Timothy McVeigh (may he rot in hell) was finally executed.


• Marky and Janine started dating.


• Gary Condit was questioned on the mysterious disappearance of Chandra Levy.


• Dot Coms closed and the economy took a big turn for the worse.. and, apparently, back up lately..


• My mother got her very own computer. A couple weeks later we bring it back and replace it with a GOOD computer, an HP. Insanity and Fun (tm) ensues as we try to hook up a collection of external CD burners to her computer to find out... for reasons we STILL don't know about, we can't.


• rhayden joins ChaoticMUX. I don't recall when we became friends, but I consider Rhayden a good friend now.


• My friend Carl finally graduates school and starts looking for a job.


• Unix and Linux Computers all over choked on the 1 Billion Second Glitch.


• I went to Darien Lake on my birthday with Jen, Kalina and my brother.


• I get a digital camera for my birthday.


• Marc went to Israel for a month. He'd originally intended to try and live there a while, but after being in a car bomb (so he says), he finally gets home.. about a week after September 11. (He was SUPPOSED to be in the 12th, but with all international fligjhts cancelled and the airports a mess...)


• I started losing weight. Down to 261 now. Go me! :)
  
• I started exercising daily and eating better. I finally started taking care of myself.


• We got a DVD player. The collection continues to grow.


• "No!" didn't come out, but "Mink Car" did! (and I got MY copy signed by the Johns :D)


• I started and ended Neogenesis.


• EA scraps Simsville. :(


• Aldar starts dating Ashli. They make such a cute couple.


• I became a grad student. And a TA.


• sTiLe's show, Nicole, started. It's always worth a listen. You never know what cool songs I'll find on it this week and download for myself :)


• Osama Bin Laden and his legions of idiots attacked the Pentagon and destroyed the World Trade Center, killing thousands. The world suddenly changed.


• George W. Bush came to his own as a president.


• Deve is chased off ChaoticMUX, so far not to come back. He was chased off because of his unpopular opinions. Still, *I* liked him.


• Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail came out again on the big screen. I got it. twice.


• I started collecting Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail collectible card game cards.


• We got and lost Merlin.


• ChaoticMUX celebrated it's 5th birthday... and no one noticed.


• I get the whole Chaotica idea... which has yet to see fruitition.


• Some joker (I still don't believe it was an arabic terrorist) started mailing anthrax-filled letters to congressmen and the press.


• Zenty started and stopped dating both Solace and another girls whose name I don't know.


• Afghanistan and the Taliban felt the wrath of a very angry nation.


• Kalina and scoob decided I wasn't fit to be her friend anymore.


• Due to the whole ara and scoob thing and something else, I leave Yahoo Clubs altogether choosing, instead, to spend my time at One Phat Man and various Q&A sites (Conversawang, Forum 2010)


• Another plane crashed in Rockway, New York. An entire nation held it's breath, scared out of it's mind.


• The Sims: Hot Date finally came out, making The Sims what they'd originally intended. LITE gets Zoo Tycoon too.. and it rocks muchly.


• Get into a stupid fight with Stebe. Add one more to the list of people I don't talk to.


• I FINALLY got a Palm Pilot.


• Joshua gets the Male Lead role in this year's musical production of 'Hello, Dolly!"


• Mideast peace was shattered again when suicide bombers kiled a few thousand Israelis. The LITEster doubts that Mideast peace will ever happen until the lunatic terrorists are all killed (which will probably decimate the Palestinian population, but if they feel the need to turn to terrorism, I don't mourn their loss.).


• I started working on my web page again and redoing it, more or less, from scratch. Finally.


• Soreth met and dated Trillian, ultimately, dumping her for Josh.


• Trillian left ChaoticMUX. Possibly for good. This does not make me happy.


• New bands I found this year include some Guster, the Josie and the Pussycats Soundtrack, the Royal Canadian Air Farce, the Dance Dance Revolution Songs, Press Gang, Linkin Park (some of their stuff), Cake, Vanessa Mae


• The Fellowship of the Rings and Harry Potter both came out in theatres. And rocked.


• And I'll end this year with my friends Dave and Carl and Carl's girlfriend at Eric's house, hopefully having a grand evening.