My 2008 Annual Report – Year in Review

Ok, it’s March 1st. I forgot this was in my drafts folder awaiting final polish but it’s time to set it free before it comes my 2008-2009 annual report.

Two thousand and eight was a blur for me – it seemed like a pretty good year but I was inspired by my Dopplr annual report to look more closely at what it entailed. Here’s what I found:

High Level Statistics

• Traveled 51,306km in 11 trips including one around-the-world for three weeks
• Wrote 76 blog posts, mostly about technology
• Struggled with living in the surburbs
• Succumbed to Facebook
• Learned to hypermile truck to cope with $5/gal diesel prices

Now, in Technicolor Detail

1. January
   • Technically it was 2007, but I surprised Jennifer for her NYE birthday with our a trip to Vancouver
   • We celebrated my dad’s 60th birthday in Winters with family at the Buckhorn. Also celebrated arriving alive having navigated flooded country roads en route.
   • On January 11th, I proposed to Jennifer in the Santa Clara Rose Gardens and she accepted! We’re getting married this April.
2. February
   • Went back in time for a modern-day ANSI art exhibit; something I didn’t think I would ever see.
   • Mark and I had a booth for MotorsportReg.com at the SCCA National Convention in San Antonio, Texas. It was a great event for us.
   • I took one day off in February.
3. March
   • Traveled to Salt Lake City to present at a BMW CCA conference. Went snowboarding at Snowbird and my burning legs told me I was way out of shape.
   • I took one day off in March.
4. April
   • In April I was working around the clock, eating microwave dinners at the office, trying to complete a major rearchitecture of MSR that was already months behind schedule.
   • Attended the Indo-Japanese wedding of Brian and Mala Masuda in Santa Barbara. Had some of the best wedding food ever!
5. May
   • Released major rearchitecture of MotorsportReg.com May 3rd. Had performance issues but, like usual, worked around the clock to resolve. Saving grace was incredible customer goodwill earned from years of great customer service – the bump in the road was forgiven.
   • Spent rest of month recovering.
   • Steven graduated with his Masters in Florida. Congrats!
   • Actually had fun at my 10-year college reunion at Santa Clara University.
   • Memorial day camping at Shaver Lake near Yosemite. It was cold, rainy and miserable, but we still managed to have fun defeating the elements with blue-tarp-o-mania and waiting for Dan and Dacia to arrive.
6. June
   • Decided being out of shape sucked, joined the Jewish Community Center gym around the corner from my house.
   • Traveled for R&R to Puerto Vallarta for five days. Injured my back boogie boarding in 2 feet of water. Made gym membership useless.
   • Dexter, our tuxedo rescue cat, arrived from Utah to much rejoicing.
   • Drove my racing kart for the second time in six plus months. There goes the racing season…
7. July
   • Jennifer and I spent a day at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve enjoying wine and cheese on the beach. Watched sea lions lounge around.
   • Left on a three-week around-the-world trip to cover the 2008 TransSyberia Rally from Moscow, Russia to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for SpeedTV.com courtesy of my friend Marshall Pruett.
   • Slept in the Moscow Kempinsky looking out window at St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin.
   • Flew in a Soviet-era helicopter to watch the first stage of the rally race.
   • Visited cousin Patrick in Rome.
   • Took overnight train to Munich and stayed with former business partner Rob who was interning with IDEO.
   • Went to Hockenheim to see the Formula 1 German Grand Prix! Bought Kevin a sweet Red Bull hat that I secretly wanted to keep.
   • Flew to Mongolia via Beijing, China. Two weeks before the Olympics, I went to Tiananmen Square and completed a hat trick of communist capital photos (Vietnam, Russia, China).
   • Explored the countryside of Mongolia and watched the final stage of the rally. American team disappointingly broke down the day before the final stage. Flew back to California.
   • A sad day: returned Dexter the cat to the rescue shelter. He spent his entire time with us under the bed or dinner table and needed other cats to feel comfortable.
8. August
   • Labor Day weekend in San Francisco for food and touring and a trip on the Niles Canyon Wine Train near Fremont. Jennifer tricked me into my first pedicure complete with a glass of chardonnay. Ffffffabulous!
   • Jennifer was hospitalized with a kidney infection. It was scary for awhile but everything turned out OK. Kaiser Permanente did a great job taking care of her.
   • After three years of putting together paperwork, my dad, brother and I applied for dual Italian citizenship at the Embassy in San Francisco.
   • Flew to Las Vegas for Jason’s bachelor party-pa-looza
9. September
   • Just three weeks later, I became an official dual citizen of Italy! So much for lazy Europeans!
   • Kevin and Natalie chowed down with us at the Kendall-Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival.
   • Celebrated my 32nd birthday. Jennifer buys me a bike and tells me to get on it. Embarrassing.
   • Surprised my mom for her 60th birthday with her parents and a cousin in Redding.
   • Was a groomsman in Jason and Nicole’s wedding in Morgan Hill. Got my boogie on.
10. October
    • Received my Italian passport and right to work and live in the EU. Sweet, sweet success.
    • Working with Mark Mazelin, got serious about cfpayment, my open source project for credit card and e-check processing for ColdFusion developers.
    • After twelve months of planning and execution, gave up on trying to reach PCI DSS credit card security compliance in a two-man startup. Outsourced to the tune of $2k/month.
    • Cried like a failure for the balance of the month.
11. November
    • Recovering from boogie boarding gone wrong, signed up with Jennifer for Fuse Gym boot camp.
    • Voted for Barack Obama on November 4th
    • Made a foursome of it with Kevin and Natalie for the almighty three-michelin star restaurant The French Laundry. Having achieved such highs (and emptied my wallet at a supersonic rate), readied ourselves to die (happy).
    • Relocated our mystery Christmas tree farm using Google Maps and felled our second annual Silvertip (the only real Christmas tree)
    • Having left most of our holiday decorations in storage, went for the “modern” look of little more than lights.
    • Got busted by the Aventino apartment complex for having lights on our balcony. Fascists: 1, Brian: 0.
12. December
    • Raced as part of four-driver Team Bimmerworld in the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill enduro achieving a goal I set several years ago.
    • We took our engagement photos with Tanja Lippert… this wedding thing is getting serious.
    • Took a rock climbing class at REI in Saratoga.
    • Jennifer’s niece Zoey stayed with us right before Christmas; we made cookies and took her to see the Festival of Lights. Experienced schizophrenic alternating squeals of joy and crying for mommy.
    • Celebrated Kevin’s 30th birthday in style in San Francisco after having a great dinner at Fish and Farm with Jason and Nicole. Partied with Spec Miata master Jason Hoover before he moved to Atlanta. Dan showed up, because he knows everyone. Went big, went home (to hotel) and puked my brains out.
    • Spent two days recovering.
    • Celebrated Jennifer’s 33rd birthday with a house party