Each year is rated on a variety of scales from 1-10:

Social/Romantic (How were my relationships during that year?):
Educational (How was my education during that year):
Self-Improvement (Did I learn anything about myself during the year?):
Vocational (How was my employment during the year, weighted more to years when I'm an adult. This includes volunteer/clubs)
Overall: This is generally a straight average unless one important score is significantly out of whack in either direction.



1. 2005

2005 was the best of the past ten years for me, no doubt about it. I had a girlfriend and a job for the majority of the year, and for four and a half months, I had both. Overall, this year was not amazing, but it was so much better than 2004 that it looks even better in comparison.

+Had a girlfriend for most of the time
+First job
++First raise
+Spent more time with people IRL, less online
+Straight As Spring 2005

-Broke up with my girlfriend when we probably could have worked things out (but I don't think either of us wanted to, really.)
-Didn't have a job until May of that year.
-Grades went down in Fall 2005.
-Had roommate drama, falling out with a friend.
-Probably could have gone out with a different girl (that I also liked) by the summer if I had played my cards right, but I was perhaps too loyal... not really a fault, I'd say.


Social/Romantic: 9 (self explanatory)
Educational: 8
Self-Improvement: 7 (while I didn't learn anything too important, I was able to learn that I wasn't destined to be alone.
Vocational: 9 (had a job, finally)
Overall: 8.5 (Excellent year, I wouldn't mind living through the first nine months one more time.)


xGot banned from YT. (Not sure whether this was good or bad.)

2. 2006

+Had a date with a girl I thought I'd never have a chance with.
+Was gainfully employed for the entire year.
+Saw tons of free movies due to my job.
+Was less affected by what others thought of me.
+Came back to YT and was able to enjoy it more due to ^
+Learned and became successful at movie projection.
+Made honor roll both semesters

-Only had the one date that year.
-Got passed up unfairly for promotions twice.
-Had some roommate drama, got picked on in the dorms.
-Got into a car accident that was on my record.

Social/Romantic: 7 (no real relationships, but some solid friendships and a great new friend that I still speak to)
Educational: 9 (great grades despite working
Self-Improvement: 8 (I learned that I could handle working full time and going to school, though perhaps in retrospect I would have more fun had I opted to work only part time.)
Vocational: 10 (I worked a lot and did well.)
Overall: 8.5 (Another great year, held back a bit by a lack of romantic activity.)


3. 2002
+Had a girl I talked to and liked a lot/liked me.
+Got excellent grades both semesters.
+Became the school's main yearbook/school paper photographer by the fall.
+Became friends with people I hadn't know at all my first two years of high school.
+Continued to play the bass well.
+Played D&D a lot with my friends.
+Continued to write a lot.
+Became more active in Best Buddies, becoming an Officer in the program.

-Still relied on internet friendships to keep me entertained instead of making efforts to hang out with RL people like I should have, though this wasn't as bad as it had been in the prior two years.
-Had some issues with another guy in Yearbook class that were not helped by my attitude toward him.
-Became too reliant on a certain website (YT) for my happiness, and ended up quitting it "forever" but that only made matters worse.
-The girl I liked talked to the most online was as mysterious as a girl could be and her true identity still eludes me!
-Became fearful of my mom like I had been a few years back due to stuff on (YT)
-Had multiple run ins with my "gay terrorist stalkers" and I wouldn't be surprised if someone they know read this and sent it to them. :-P Eh, fuck people, ya know? Even assholes get to have friends. (Sidenote, is it true that Dmitiry is a gay model?)

Social/Romantic: 7 (My only relationships with girls were not quite what I thought they were at the time, but I had a core group of friends and was always making new ones)
Educational: 10 (great work all around, didn't really have senioritis)
Self-Improvement: 5 (I didn't make great strides like I had the year before, and was sort of too self-satisfied
Vocational: 8 (My newspaper/yearbook stuff kept me plenty busy, but this really could have been a lot better if I had a job I suppose.)
Overall: 7.5 (A lack of self improvement hurt this score.)


4. 2000 (B 84/100)

+Finally developed a solid group of friends from high school, people who knew me for who I was, not the preconceived notions that people had developed at my former school.
+Became succeessful in the Jazz Band. My teacher had not expected me to perform in any concerts the first semester or even first year, but I made it to the first concert in the previous fall and kept going.
+Got contact lenses and began to feel more confident about myself.
+Successfully got my Learner's Permit in December.
+Met my real life best friends (one of whom I still speak with very often.)
+Got into D&D.

-Spent a lot of time online instead of with the friend I had made.
-Became obsessed with trying to be "cool" instead of doing what I felt was right, or what I really wanted to do.
-Began to get sick due to colitis, starting early that summer, but also better by the fall.

Social/Romantic: 7 (made plenty of new friends that year)
Educational: 7 (took a back seat to being "cool" by the fall, sadly)
Self-Improvement: 7 (my forward strides in the first 9 months of the year left me ahead of where I started, even if I was reversing the trend by the end.)
Vocational: 5 (wasn't much going on, but I did have a few clubs I was in.)
Overall: 6.5 (Decent, but not great in any one regard.)





5. 2009 (B- 82/100)
+Got good grades in both Winter and Spring quarters.
+Had a nice lunch date with some girl who was "looking for a nerd" on Craigslist.
+Had first experience that could honestly be described as "Drunken" with no hangovers or vomit.
+Bought two more Radiohead albums on Itunes and the new Lifehouse song.
+Starting in the summer, began to play Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly again for the first time in a while.
+Came back to YT in March with no ill effects/further drama.
+Starting writing more, and got about 25 pages into a new story.

-Had falling out with a friend and a "friend" over them spying on me online. Still am yet to hear from the one I want to talk to, and still get harassed by surrogates of the one I never wish to speak to again.
-Fell for a pyramid/MLM scheme Luckily, didn't lose any money. Actually, got $156 total. Hopefully they don't end up taxing me double on that. (Both parts of payroll tax.)
-Privacy became a thing of the past and I had to accept that whatever I put online would be read by people who felt they knew what was best for me and would report anything that "violated regulations" to my parents.

Social/Romantic: 5 (First half wasn't too bad, but the drama in the second half of the year really wasn't worth it.)
Educational: 9 (Getting my master's degree was quite the accomplishment!)
Self-Improvement: 8 (Learned by the end that I had enough friends and that I didn't constantly need to be surrounded by people to be happy. A lot of self-reflection that winter-spring as well.)
Vocational: 3 (Only employment that year was a week of a scam job, and wasn't really involved in enough clubs at school.)
Overall: 6.25 (Some widely disparate scores in here make this a very interesting year. Depending on what you value, this could take place ahead of 2000, but I find that my social drama made this year more trouble than it was worth at some level.)

6. 2008 (C+ 77/100)

+Got accepted into a master's program.
+Had a date/talked to a girl online from a dating site for a month.
+Met another friend from YT that I still talk to occasionally.
+Began to purchase albums on Itunes.
+Wrote for the school paper actively once again.
+No drama that year involving any of my friends!
+For the first time (out of two), I voted for the winner in a national election.
+Had a couple months where everything just went smoothly.

-Poor grades my final semester of college (senioritis...)
-Got sick twice that fall and ended up spending 13 days in the hospital
-Began reflecting way too much on my past for a while that fall, not really learning anything from it.
-Had a "text message romantic" relationship with a girl who I shouldn't really have been talking to in the first place because of differences in distance, spirituality, and sanity.
-Got banned from YT for no apparent reason and kept coming back and getting banned on different names.


Social/Romantic: 6 (While I had a "friend" that I hung out with in the winter and spring, he was really just a 5'11", 255 lb (that's fatter than Pablo Sandoval, kids!) leech who used me for my car and acted as if we had a friendship and ended up hurting me more than anyone I can remember, ever. That fall, I didn't hang out with people as much as I should have until the last couple of weeks of the year, and my romantic interests were all flops.)
Educational: 5 (Poor results my in undergrad, and graduate school was tougher than I expected, at least in one of my three classes. If I had put more effort in, I could have done better.)
Self-Improvement: 6 (Yes, I learned a lot, but when I first had the knowledge, I used it unwieldy and was very rude to be around. The effects of my knowledge wouldn't truly hit for about a year.)
Vocational: 7 (Had a decent job for the entirety of the summer that in some ways was better than AMC, but I didn't have the same enthusiasm for work that I used to, and I didn't join all the clubs I told myself I would join when I got into Irvine's DASA program.)
Overall: 6 (I initially thought this wouldn't be a good year, but when it all got added up it wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. Saved perhaps by the summer when I had a job.)

7. 2001 (C 74/100)

+Finally identified my own musical tastes instead of just listening to music that I played in jazz band in my spare time. (Lifehouse, especially)
+Played D&D a lot, nearly every week.
+By the fall, studied harder and did better in school.
+Found websites that were not harmful to me morally or psychologically (or so I assumed, at the time.)
+Got quoted in the school paper.
+That fall, joined the Yearbook staff.
+Had a lot of friends from Cupertino that went to my birthday party that June.
+Managed to get an A in Algebra 2 by really working hard to the point where I didn't have to work hard by the end to get an A.
+Learned a lot about myself through self-reflection that spring, lessons that still stand today.
+Joined Best Buddies.

-Didn't really care about school that winter, and had Cs and Ds until I got a lot of help and was able to bring my grades back up.
-Spent more and more time online. Even though I had a solid group of friends, at the same time, I withdrew further into the Internet, though it was not as bad as it had been as I let some of my friends into that world as well.
-Began writing several stories that would become novel length.
-Became desperate and upset that I had not had a date by the age of 16.
-Got banned from YT for no apparent reason and kept coming back and getting banned on different names.
-Found myself becoming stressed out more over relatively minor things.


Social/Romantic: 4 (This is a mixed bag. While it wasn't a BAD year in this regard, I certainly was upset at the lack of romance going on at the time, and I spent far too much time online talking to girls and not enough time in real life hanging out with the friends that I had made over the past two years.)
Educational: 7 (Overall this was a decent year. It was impressive that I was able to recover from such a poor start. It was a pretty bad six months from the end of 2000 to early 2001 but since it never dominated an entire year it wouldn't really show on the record.
Self-Improvement: 10 (I am yet to have another year where I learned so much about myself. The only downside to this was I felt I knew all there was to know about myself and became somewhat arrogant because of it. I felt that I was great and nothing would stand in my way, perhaps a little too much.
Vocational: 6 (I did a little "forced volunteering" and also joined Best Buddies, which was a rewarding experience, but overall I wasn't doing as much as I could have been, and this was when I began wanting a job.)
Overall: 5.75 (I've always regarded this as a somewhat "bad" year but from looking at it, it shows that it wasn't quite as bad as I thought, and a lot of the worst stuff was concentrated in the early months, improving it overall.)

8. 2003 (C+ 79/100)

+Got good grades in my final semester of high school.
+Was more social and talkative to both guys and girls.
+Didn't suffer from much senioritis.
+Continued to take pictures for the yearbook and school paper.
+Went to Europe that summer, had my first beer at a beer garden, as well as my first glass of wine at some restaurant.
+Met new friends at college, and also met some YTers in real life.

-Did poorly by my standards (average by most standards) in my first semester of college.
-Found out the girl I liked in 2002 was nothing like I had thought she was, and decided to stop talking to her.
-Slept through morning classes way too often.
-Spent more and more of my time online once again, to avoid all the drunken debauchery around me that really wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
-Went to college later than most of my friends, so I had a couple of weeks where most of them had left and I was still at home.
-Felt like one two of my friends were excluding me (though they weren't, really)
Social/Romantic: 6 (Great first three quarters, last 3 months, sorely lacking.)
Educational: 6 (Good first half, but my fall semester in college left much to be desired)
Self-Improvement: 4 (While I became more social and more active physically, a lot of the stuff I "learned" that fall was not very helpful, and made my life worse in the long run.
Vocational: 5 (Felt sort of disillusioned when the final school paper went to press and I had nothing more to do. That fall, I didn't do all the things I thought I would, disappointing myself greatly.
Overall: 5.25 (Overall, an average year without any score sticking out as significant in either direction.)





9. 2007 (D+ 68/100)

+Became a projectionist pretty much full time, working 40-50 hour weeks and getting overtime nearly every week.
+Worked out more, and began to get a little more muscular (less scrawny.)
+Went to a true Lifehouse concert with my brother, not just the cheap-ass San Mateo county fair.
+Spent less time online as I became busier with school.
+Managed to get a new job after just about a month of looking.
+Hung out with my new roommate and got along well.
+Had a date

-Got picked on a lot by some guy at school, typical for me, sadly.
-Had a lot of sleep problems that summer, caused by my awkward schedule the entire year.
-Began relying on caffeine once again.
-Started talking to people far too much online again that summer.
-Had to miss school in the fall due to sleep/stress issues, something I've never really been able to accept because it was embarrassed.
-Had to quit AMC due to medical/sleep issues.
-New job was boring and challenging without being interesting or engaging.
-Said date would talk shit about me constantly and make stuff up about me for months without me finding out until six months later.

Social/Romantic: 6 (A mixed year. I was friends with Vince, who was a great guy, but Will was a complete douche. Helped by the fact that I didn't spend all my time online in the winter, but hurt by my summer and fall social choices. The end of the year helped with my date.
Educational: 4 (Not that bad on the surface in the spring, but I could have done so much better had I put my mind to it and stopped working so much. The fall was completely sucktastic in regards to my education, as I didn't even take a single throwaway class at Foothilll or De Anza.)
Self-Improvement: 7 (I learned a lot that I still hold onto, but a lot of what I learned was mostly me correcting the mistakes I had made earlier in the year, so it wasn't a GREAT year in that regard.)
Vocational: 4 (Yes, I had a job throughout most of the year, but the quality was not so great. Working at Cupertino 16 was not as fun as it had been at Baystreet and I was becoming more frustrated with my lack of promotions at AMC. Michael's was just boring and not much of a challenge at any level.)

Overall: 5 (I lowered this from a strict average of 5.25 because the Educational/Vocational scores were bringing me down. Overall, not an awful year, but one of my worst due to the sleeplessness and general family drama.

10. 2004

+Began to accept myself for who I was by the end of the year.
+Played D&D again, starting in the summer.
+Hung out with my friends pretty often in the winter and spring.
+Had more interesting classes than I had in the fall.
+Got a new camera and began taking pictures more often once again instead of just lazing about.
+One night, starting writing my novel that is finally "almost done" six years later.
+Saw my friends from high school a lot that summer
+Went to one of my best friend's weddings, travelling across the entire state to do so.
+Went to a party in San Diego.

-Had one of my worst semesters yet with no redeeming value.
-Became more and more addicted to the internet, which really fucked with my sleeping patterns.
-Began writing several stories that would become novel length.
-Became introspective to the point where I was becoming obsessed with myself and the fact that I had made mistakes in the past that no one else even remembered let alone cared about.
-Put too much meaning into relationships that never had any meaning
-Became very sick in August, having to go to the hospital for several nights near the end of the month.
-Spent 12 days in the hospital due to a reaction to medication in September, and blamed myself for it for years to come.
-Honestly did not have a single "good" semester that year, not counting Jan Term or the Summer.



Social/Romantic: 4 (This wasn't so bad because of any doing of my own, but because missing college for the fall caused me to stay home and miss out on many potential social opportunities. The last few weeks of dating Angie brought this up from a 3 to a 4, even though that was just two weeks of the year.
Educational: 3 (I don't know what to say, except flat-out awful. There was really nothing to like except for getting an A in Jan Term and Summer School, which I wouldn't really count. Had I not gotten sick in the fall, this might not have been such a bad year.
Self-Improvement: 4 (A lot of backwards strides were made in the winter through the summer, and while I recovered some by the fall, I had a lot of misconceptions about where my life had "gone wrong" that I would hold on to for another four or five years. I really thought by the end that going online had been the source of my problems, and that spending more time with my brother would solve them, but it was more complex/simpler than that.)
Vocational: 3 (Sure I "worked" for my mom and got paid for it, but it was a last-ditch effort on her part because she knew I was depressed about not landing a retail job that summer, and that year was when it really began to count.
Overall: 3.5 (My only genuinely bad year, though 2007 wasn't too hot either. Overall just a poor year without any score significantly lower or higher than another. I don't think some of it was really under my control, which made this year really suck; I couldn't blame myself for it.)

2010 so far:

It's looking decent, though I haven't done much in the way of self-improvement. If I get this job I want, 2010 could be the best year since 2005 or 2006.

I know the best is yet to come.