Sunday, January 13, 2008

A Great Sports Day

Sports are important to me. It all goes back to the thrill of competition for me. I think this personality trait stems from my nature and not my nurture. Although growing up with a 16 month younger brother who was bigger than me at age 5 and excelled in sports (baseball especially) probably had something to do with it.

In any case, I am a big sports fan and days like January 5th, 2008 don't occur too often.

A Recap:

Seattle Seahawks defeat Washington Redskins (35-14) in the Wild-Card round
Washington State Cougars Men’s Basketball defeat University of Washington -- Go Cougs!
Gonzaga Bulldogs Men’s Basketball defeat University of Georgia -- Go Zags!
Tom Brady selected NFL MVP -- You're my Boy TB!

A Few Brentisms

“Work hard, play hard.” -- Unknown; I’ve been singing this mantra for a while now.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Papa Bero

"Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail" -- Christina

“Lack of preparation on your part doesn’t make it an emeregency on mine” – Papa Bero

“Miscommunication leads to DISASTER” – Ryan Wells

“I don’t puke; I take off my shoes and hang out” – Me in one of my finer drunken moments

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Recap '07

Here we are again, at the cusp of a new year. Some excitement and fear fills me for 2008. I’ll look back and talk about where I was in 2007 and look ahead to possible paths for 2008. A little reflection never hurt anyone.

2007 was a year marked with overwhelming success but one striking tragedy for me. Successes include my career, health, finances, and adventures. I feel as if I am on an accelerating pace to a rewarding career, supurb health, and financial wealth. Thus, I’m increasingly comfortable with who I am and where I’m going; that is a pretty satisfying feeling. My greatest failure in 2007 was my relationship with Kelcy. It takes two to tango and it turns out we dance to different beats.

I got the most out of the Rotation Engineers Program (REP) at Intel and found a great job working for the Manageability Engine hardware design group. I design hardware that goes into every Intel Chipset (marketing calls this our PCH) from 2008 onward. I see rewarding challenges ahead in this career and am putting forth and steady and intense effort.

My health is ever-improving. I am fit and full of energy. It’s been another steady year of working out, playing sports, and making healthy lifestyle choices. Snowboarding, tennis, volleyball, football, and basketball were my sports of choice this year. I joined 24 hour fitness in autumn and took some yoga/core strength classes. My Hoopfest team (“Scratch ‘N Sniff”) played well in Spokane and we came away with 3rd out of 16 teams in our division. Chris, Pat, Collin and myself are the teammates, but next year we’ll have to replace Chris as his wife is due around that time. I became proficient in snowboarding and a bit of a snow bum. I was introduced to Tahoe powder on a glorious day of snowboarding at NorthStar ... we floated through knee-deep fluffy powder. Ohhh yeah! I hope to join a USTA tennis league, play well at Hoopfest again, carve up some mountians on my board, and place better at the Folsom Site Games in 2008. I’d like to gain 8 – 10 pounds of muscle and be able to pump out 12 pull-ups.

I made some good calls in 2007 in terms of the stock markets. I saw the housing drop-off coming a long way back and am poised to buy my own home in these depressed markets. Also, I correctly forecasted a stock market drop off in late Summer / Fall and was able to sell a lot of risky positions and shift into lower-risk securities. Of course I missed out on some whammies like selling Nokia too soon and not shorting the market but overall I’m pleased with my standing heading into 2008. My big push in 2008 will be to determine if I’ll buy housing in the Folsom area while continuing to effectively manage my roth and 401k. Early 2008 might also provide some opportunity to take profits on INTC stock. Maybe I’ll be able to start an online business ... some website that tailors to WiMax could have potential.

Hopefully 2008 will be kind to me in terms of relatoinships as 2007 was brutal. Kelcy and I had major problems in this make or break year for us and we’ve decided to move on. I hope this provides her with an opportunity to find a person to make her happier and helps her achieve her goals of getting married, starting a family, and moving closer to the Spokane / Missoula area. I wish her the best. It would be good to stay friends and keep in touch but I think she might need her space so I’m taking that approach. Ladies, this stud is available!

2008 is here and I’m ready for it. As always I’ll be working hard and playing hard.