2009 in review
The year 2009 turned out to be a year of consolidation for me. I brought several goals to a close and several more moved along
nicely.
I came to appreciate my job even more as it settled down from the frantic pace of development of the previous two years. I enjoy
working for a wonderful boss and competent co-workers and well defined projects. Sometimes it has been challenging, but I met most
of the goals for work which I set at the beginning of the year.
I spent quite a bit of time working on my apartment: purchasing new furniture, hanging up artwork that I enjoy, and clearing out
much of the old material objects that no longer have any meaning to me (or have negative meaning). By years end, I managed to get
rid of over 50% of the junk I've accumulated over the years, which cuts down the things I owned to about 25% of what I had when my
wife passed away.
I've come to appreciate my friends in both the belly dance and renaissance faire communities. I've become much more outgoing and
relaxed with people in the past few years, and this year I continued to realize, thanks to come good friends, that I am far happier
being with people than being alone.
I am thoroughly enjoying every aspect of my life. My job is challenging and
stressful, and to relax I spend quite a bit of time involved in other activities
including photographing, producing and photographing bellydance shows, visiting
renaissance (and other) faires, traveling and working on my many web sites. I
also have been writing and doing more graphics.
My goal of expanding into many creative areas is moving along very well. I've
purchased (and have been learning) several graphics products including Poser,
Bryce, Carrara, Hexagon, OnFocus, Portrait Studio, Adobe CS3 (the whole suite),
Corel Paint Shop Pro and others. I've also been learning more about photography
now that I am using my DSLR, and I've been experimenting with different styles
and lighting techniques.
My carpal tunnel syndrome, which was acting up big time in 2007, has thankfully remained
completely gone. With the help of a competent chiropractor, my back pains have reduced tremendously.
I've been having many successes in the area of bellydance. I photographed hundreds of shows and events all over Southern
California, and even expanded to other states such as Arizona and Colorado.
One interesting phenomenon that's happened this year is my relatives on the
"Lowe" side of the family found my genealogy web sites and have been contacting
me with additional information about my family.
I have made a point of following the guidelines given in
The Way to Happiness and that
has led to tremendous improvements (over the past few years) in the quality of
my life, my outlook on events and other people and the way life effects me.
Goals Met in 2009
- I an finished with my goal to get out of debt.
- I have completely upgraded virtually all of my web sites (almost 100 of
them) to XHTML Strict, CSS 2.0 standards.
- I put on my Birthday halfa, now a yearly tradition, and it was just as
good, if not better, than last year.
- I produced half a dozen Bellydance Kaleidoscope showcases.
- I took almost 30,000 pictures at Southern Faire this year, and split them
into sub-albums by topic (by popular request).
- My renaissance faire site exceeded 550,000 pictures
- I visited over two dozen other faires throughout the country, including the
Wisconsin (Bristol), Ohio, Colorado and Arizona faires.
- I renewed all my domains for the maximum period of time.
- I went on a Bellydance Cruise.
- I succeeded in getting a nearly perfect physical for the entire year. My
diabetes is fully under control and there are no other health issues (besides
sciatica).
Major Goals for 2010
- To find a true love, a lady with whom to share the remainder of my life with
- This year I will meet a goal I've had for almost 15 years and achieve a new level of spiritual freedom.
- To lose 36 pounds (3 pounds per month).
- To publish at least one book (fiction or nonfiction)
Other Goals for 2010
- To visit several scenic areas, including:
- Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Corel Reef national parks
- Carlsbad caverns (again)
- the Grand Canyon caverns
- The Grand Canyon (again)
- Devils Post pile and Lava Flow national park
- To produce four Bellydance
Kaleidoscope showcases.
- To photograph the entire run of Southern faire, and exceed 50,000 pictures
taken in one season.
- To visit as many California, Arizona and Nevada faires as possible.
- To visit a few big out-of-state faires, including Wisconsin, Colorado and
Arizona.
- To exceed 700,000 pictures on my Renaissance faire/bellydance site
- Get a perfect physical each quarter for the year.
- Keep my diabetes fully under control.
- Put on a great birthday celebration
- To upgrade my A+, Network+ and Inet+ exams
- Learn the DAZ Studio product and use it to produce an online graphics novel
- In 2009, I am pursuing several avenues of writing:
- I will write one article, story or chapter on a daily basis.
- I will write six or more publish-on-demand books and publish them
- I will write and sell twelve or more articles
- I will work through my web sites and update my older articles, especially the computer related subjects.
- Finish Fantasy novel "The 8th jewel"
- Finish Science Fiction Novel
- Finish Historical romance novel "A Love for the Ages"
- Start historical novel "Roman Betrayal"
- Some other goals for 2009 include:
- Update stamp collection
- Build small rock and mineral collection of places I've been
- Organize personal collections
- Grow a series of plants from seed/bulb to death
- Photograph a lightening storm
- Plant a seed, a bulb and other things and watch them from "birth" to death.
- Visit Nova Scotia and Wisconsin to see the Lowe and Crowe sides of the
family
