Ok, Ok, OK!! So I feel obligated to write posts on or around special occasions, while being lazy with other posts. Whaddya people want from me anyway??

Well, not to worry. I am, in stages, working on the vacation post I so have promised you all that I’d get to. It’s not easy, because there were so many good things that happened while we were in Germany. I swear, nothing really bad happened, which was amazing, considering all that could have gone wrong. Everywhere we went, society as a whole somewhat mirrored life in America, and the people we met were about as friendly as you would expect over here. So really, I’m having a hard time putting my perspective on the entire experience into words without sounding somewhat stupid or “touristy”. By the way, I haven’t talked to Christian Wüst much since the trip, but I want to assure him that he did much to help us out while we were there. He was a most gracious host as well as being a great friend to hang out with. I also want to tell his friends (Hans-Peter, Sascha, Harry, Suzanne, Dennis, Wongo and anyone else’s names I forgot!) that they left an awesome impression upon me and I’m honoured to have met and talked with them. That being said, just check out the pictures and video in the sections above to get an idea of our experience there. I’m writing more about it, so be patient.

Ok, I got that out of the way. Aside from the awesome trip to Germany last October, my thoughts about Year 2008 was that it was much like any other year, really. The major differences, at least for me, were kind of trivial. I connected with more old friends and classmates on Facebook, especially towards the end of the year. I went a bit crazy on puzzles, buying a Square 1, Pyraminx, Pyraminx Crystal, Eastsheen 4×4 and 5×5 cubes and a V-cube 7 (I got the V-cube 6 while in Germany). The house has been doing fine, except for dealing with pigeons on my roof! Tech-wise, the iPhone has become an indispensable part of my life, allowing me to be online, e-mail, send pictures easier, play cool games, write in my blog and other places, jam to music and much else more no matter where I am. (Did I mention it makes calls, too? Just thought I’d throw that in there…) In fact, a couple of blog entries here were written and published on my iPhone when I had to do without the computer for nearly a month while I was waiting for a replacement part for it. Anyways, the birds did very well this year, although we lost one of our flock to liver disease . We still miss our little Kiwi. My wife got handed the diet from hell, courtesy of her doctor and a high cholesterol count, which forces me to limit what I eat as well to make it fair. Last but not least, my work has gone much better this year, thanks to a deeper understanding of my role and duties in it. I do sense some big changes coming for me professionally for this year, though. We’ll see what happens; I don’t want to worry and it’s not worth worrying about when all I have to do is adapt.

Well, I think I’m done here. I won’t make promises, but I’ll try writing more here, and I’ll be writing more thoughts on the October vacation. Cheers!…

… Oh, before I go, one more thing. I started out 2009 by… you guessed it… buying more puzzles. On the first of this month, I ordered a Mirror Blocks puzzle (also known as a Bump Cube) and a V-Cube 5 to round out my V-Cube collection. You can only get these puzzles in Japan and Greece, respectively, so I made sure my finances could handle it. We are starting the year with no debt, besides the house, and we want to keep it that way! Also, yesterday I used a Barnes & Noble gift card to purchase a Rubik’s Icon cube. Below is the unboxing and review video I made for it. When I get the other puzzles, their videos will be on this blog as well.

See ya soon!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Cool Videos, Cubing, Personal Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.