Happy anniversary!

Well, as of today, this blog has been running for two years. Good for me. I was going to waste time running stats to compare the first year to the second, but I'm afraid I do not have that kind of time to waste. Perhaps next year, eh?

Let's see what's happened in the last 12 months:

I did better in my 2B term than I thought I would, as usual. When I got home, I spent some time with Phil before he moved away to Calgary. I went back to my same job at the school board, starting much earlier than usual. I started playing poker regularly with Ryan Holm and his friends, and consistently lost money.

Right when I got home I made a few changes: I cut my hair down and have kept it short since (let's not forget the mohawk!), and I got my first pair of glasses, as well as a cell phone. The glasses were superfluous but have come in handy in some classes, and I don't know how I ever managed without a cell phone before.

My sister finally got her own place, leaving the house a bit more peaceful than usual. Work was really tough, since I had to move hundreds of really heavy iMacs up far too many stairs, but it was a decent enough workout, I suppose.

I got myself a GBA for a luxury item, and overall I'd say it was a good purchase. I got back into gaming with games like Shadow Hearts, God of War, Growlanser, Ratchet and Clank, and FFX, after disrespecting my PS2 for so long.

I arrived in Waterloo for my third year of university, and spent some time turning this room into my new home. I met some people in the first few days who are now my core group of friends, and even developed a crush on someone pretty quickly.

Classes weren't as fun as I thought. I had to wind up dropping my first undergrad course, Mathematical Optimization. It was a bit depressing, but I sort of expected it when signing up for five Math/CS courses. The four courses left were a handful, but got them out of the way.

I struck up conversation with Nathalie on a whim one day, and made a very good friend out of it. I also met Nicole, and consequently Steffi at Nicole's party, both of which made some interesting conversation pieces for some time to come.

I started going to the Euchre club on a weekly basis, and made some good friends there, as well as getting to play cards. For some reason, I got into board games like Risk 2210 and Settlers of Catan (I cannot remember how I got interested in Settlers).

I went to a few clubs and bars including the Bomber, Club Abstract, Fed Hall, the Silver Spur, The Fox and Fiddle, and the Starlight. I've learned that clubbing is not, by any means, for me.

New Years was spent with the family as usual. We had fun playing things like charades and werewolf, as well as some great food. It's less painful spending time with family when you haven't seen them in a while.

In January, I gave this blog a new design to make things seem new alongside my freshly formatted computer. The new design looks pretty good, though it is pretty generic when compared to other blogger blogs.

Andrew, Hugh, John and I signed a lease for the place we'll be staying at starting in May. I hope things go well, but at the very least, we found a place that is quite inexpensive. It will be my first summer away from home, and hence a very long stretch (20 months) living away from home.

Most of the beginning of 2006 was spent splitting my attention between Tunde and Steffi, neither of which panned out. In the back of my head, I put thought into a possible relationship with Laura during the summer. Near the end of the term, I started paying more attention to Sonja from the euchre club, who started off known merely as "Euchre Laura's replacement". Eventually, it became obvious that she was paying attention to me as well, and we started seeing each other (my first relationship in nearly 2 years, nearly since the beginning of this blog!). Unfortunately, we part ways in 2 weeks, and only time will tell what will happen after that.

So, that's most of what happened from April 2005-March 2006! Of course, there are a lot of posts in case you want to read about my life in more detail, but it's a good reminder of what I've accomplished in the last year, and how I've grown.

As for the next year, only time will tell. What will happen to my love life in the summer? Will the new house be everything I want it to be? Will Sonja and I get back together in September? How will university feel, now that I'm taking lighter terms? What will it be like, being away from home for so long? What will I do when I start to realize that my days as a student are quickly coming to a close?

These questions, and more, to be answered in the next year.

Listening to... From Autumn to Ashes - The Switch
Link of the moment... Supposedly the "cotton" anniversary