The Critical Decade

I graduated high school in June of 2005, which was 10 years ago. Next weekend I will get married, and that will complete a decade long journey from adolescence to adulthood. It's been quite a journey and quite a critical decade. It's crazy to think that 10 years ago I was 18 and going out on my own in the world for the first time, and now, a decade later I've found my way in life and am about to settle down into married life. It was a decade full of inflection points both good and bad, and they each shaped my life in a different way.

At 18. At the beach in North Carolina.

I think years down the road I'll look back at this past decade as the defining decade of my life. Sure, my adolescence was important, and future things to come may be just as meaningful, but I postulate that the experiences of the past decade will outshine much else in the story of my life.

At 22. Graduation from college.

Life, love, self-reliance, education, work ethic, values, friendship. They all come at you very fast in those years. Just when things start to make sense, so much can change. People, cities, jobs. In the past decade I've lived in 4 cities, lived with 30 different people, held 4 jobs and moved 11 times. The only time I moved as a kid, I was a 1-year-old. I have moved more than once-a-year since then. I made great friends and watched as they slipped away. I traveled. I saw amazing things and had amazing experiences. I did things I never expected. I quit jobs. I quit relationships. I have been at the top of the mountain and at the base. But I enjoyed the ups and downs of the climb.

At 25. Visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

So here I am. At the precipice of marriage. I feel wiser than I once was, but still a fool. I know there will still be excitement, and am looking ahead towards future experiences. But the era of me against the world is over. I'll now have a teammate in life. Someone to enjoy the journey with. It's hard not to look back and wonder where I would be if some of life's randomness had unfolded just a little bit different in the past decade. But here I am, and I'm proud and happy to be here.

At 28. Married.

Sustained Success

It's time for everyone's favorite post. My annual birthday facebook post analysis. For new fans of the blog, the general process is to count the number of "happy birthday" facebook posts I get and then either gripe about it being lower than last year, or celebrate it being higher.

As you may have guessed the title "sustained success" is there because overall this was a pretty good year. In fact it's the third year in a row that I've been happy with my results since a disastrous 2011. Overall I clocked in at 42 FB posts, 2 emails, 3 texts, 2 calls, 1 set of flowers, 1 card and 3 snapchats (a first). So here is the updated chart of facebook posts that you have all been waiting a year for:

Onto the details:

Statistics
Taking out 2011 which has been deemed an outlier, I now have N=9 data points. For a first time in birthday post history I've done higher level math. The mean number of posts is 40.6, and the standard deviation is 6.63 posts. With 42 posts I'm just above average, but I think I'd have to use a T-score to know exactly what the probability of this is, which is a bit too much math.

Total friends
Last year was the first year I tracked my total number friends, since I theorized that my post number might be dependent on the number of friends I have. Last year I had 587, this year I have 590. Which means I'm losing FB friends almost as fast as I make them, and probably not a major factor in the number of posts.

Fartface
There was more than just sustained success in number of posts. I also received my third annual "happy birthday fartface" post from my friend Beth. I enjoy how she remembers to call me a fartface each year without fail.

Ray
Since profiling Ray in my 2012 birthday post I've been tracking whether my most acquaintance-ish facebook friend wishes my happy birthday. This year he came through with a simple "Happy Birthday". The guy might have 1,900 facebook friends, but the 20 minutes we spent together in 2009 must still be fresh in his memory. Thanks for keeping the faith Ray!

Double Rachel Morgans
I got a happy birthday post from BOTH Rachel Morgans I know. If there is someone I know named Rachel Morgan it's pretty much a guarantee that they will wish me happy birthday on facebook.

The self-aware poster
I did have multiple people mention this post in their birthday post. But surprisingly it turns out it's the nearly the same people who mentioned by birthday blog post last year. Which means I can safely say I have 2 people that post on my facebook because of the blog post implications.

Twitter
In other news I did tweet on my birthday that the Statute of Limitations on all my underage drinking officially expired on my birthday. That got 2 favorites, which is the only twitter birthday interaction I've ever received. I guess twitter is just not a good birthday message medium.

A late happy blog birthday

I missed the birthday of my blog once again. I always remember that it's in January, but I can never seem to remember the exact date. Anyways happy 8th birthday to the blog. I guess I never thought I would still be updating this thing 8 years later. In a way I barely am. But let's keep this thing limping along for another few years.

So let's get into the things that have become more important to me than blogging.

1) My job. I started my current job 54 weeks ago, and I really couldn't be happier. I love what I do, and the people I work for. Unfortunately it looks like my boss might get new orders (he's active duty), and his boss who is also great might retire in the next year or two. But for right now, my job rocks. Especially because I've been getting to travel more which I really enjoy. I just got back last week from Japan which was cool. Next week I'll be in DC and then in a few more weeks I'll be in Twentynine Palms, CA. It looks like this might be the year I take a run at mad Delta status.

2) My wedding. I'm getting married in June to a girl I met on FarmersOnly.Com. Just kidding it's to Carly. Planning a wedding is a lot of work. For Carly. So I've been trying to help out - she lets me lick the envelopes after she addresses them all. I do have real responsibilities, but mostly I follow the instructions of Carly.

This is where I clean dirty jeep parts

3) My house. I've done a lot to the house in the last 8 months, but it seems like there are always more projects to do. I've gotten some of the most urgent ones out of the way. Right before I left for Japan I put in a utility sink in the garage. That was a fun project because I got to use my new PVC cutters instead of a hacksaw. My next big project is building a The Cooper Howell Memorial Chicken Coop. I'm still miffed that Ann Arbor's chicken ordinance was so restrictive. Luckily San Diego has a pretty lax ordinance. Also egg prices in CA are up 30% due to the state requiring 119 square inches of space per bird. My birds will have 1,584 square inches. I might not build the coop until after the honeymoon.

Looking good in the hood

4) The Jeep. The Jeep has been keeping me busy - in a good way. Last month I started changing out all the fluids including the differentials, transmission and transfer case. Yesterday I fixed the engine temperature gauge and started work on the tachometer installation. I'm still working in my head what I'm going to do for a sound system. I love working on the jeep, and on the weekends I almost exclusively drive the Jeep because it is awesome and I love it.

5) The Cats. While no Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, the two Siamese cats we have are really growing on me. I had one in my lap today while doing my annual blog-year-in-review. The one cat likes to sit on my keyboard while I type and then sit on my chest while I sleep. It likes the warm.

So to summarize, I have a full and happy life with no need to use a blog as an emotional crutch or fill the major stints of boredom. But I guess the same could be said about me in 2007 when I started blogging. The beer, roommates, and schoolwork was just replaced by something more real life. But I'll keep trying to blog, not because you want me to, but because I want to.