The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera Web browser

This has been one of the most significant years of my life. There've been so many wonderful changes, I'm having trouble recalling all of them. Here's some of the highlights, in no particular order:

• Rebekah and I celebrated eight months together on December 27th. Of course, that means that we started dating again this year. We were apart for a bit more than two and a half years after dating for a bit more than one and a quarter years before college. Things are going very well and this change is one of the things that truly made this year great.
• I graduated from college. I don't think I doubted that it'd happen, but it's still quite a nice accomplishment. There were plenty of hurdles along the way, too. Obviously this is a large change in life, as it means I'm now a part of The Real World.
• I got a job with my dream company. After spending the summer in Oslo, Norway working for Opera Software, I was offered a job working from home for them. I've just renewed my contract for another six months and I'll be heading back to Oslo in about two weeks for over two months. My summer trip to Oslo was my first voyage off the North American continent and gave me my first passport stamp.
• I got my braces off. It was a day eleven and a half years in the making, but it's finally happened. I'm still getting used to my retainers and I have not yet had my surgery, which probably means I'll get braces again. But at least I've entered another phase of my orthodontic treatment.

If I missed something that you were involved in or think was significant, I apologize. Just let me know.

Change can be good. Yet, I hope next year gives me more time to enjoy the changes of this year and do more with them. Maybe I'll get engaged and married. Maybe I'll get a more permanent position with Opera. Maybe I'll get my oral surgery. Or maybe things that I have a hard time imagining right now will happen. I surely didn't expect all that happened last year to occur.

In any case, thanks for sticking around through the many transitions. Hopefully I'll make a bit more of my web site in the new year for y'all to enjoy. As for now, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Who would have thought? Believe it or not, it happened today; a 4.5 on the Richter scale, to boot. Shortly before 4pm, I was sitting on my bed, taking a quick break from work. I was petting one of my cats (Tessie) and the pot holding my bamboo plant started rattling against the marble top of my night stand. The bed shook ever-so-slightly underneath me. Our house is situated somewhat in the flight path for Baltimore-Washington International airport, so we sometimes have planes or helicopters that'll shake the house a bit, so I didn't think much about it. It continued for about ten seconds before I stood up and unconsciously walked to the door way to stand against the door frame. My cat was sitting up, looking every which way, obviously disturbed by something.

As quickly as it started, the rattling stopped. I couldn't decide if it had been an earthquake or not. Years and years ago, I remember feeling an earthquake in this area, so I knew it was a possibility. I sat down and quickly checked WashingtonPost.com for any confirmation, but found none. A quick Google search for earthquake turned up the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, which gives maps of recent quakes and other pertinent information. However, I couldn't find anything there. I searched around a bit more, found nothing, and figured I was just imagining it.

A few minutes later, a friend from school came online and asked myself and someone in Virginia, did y'all just have a small earthquake?

You felt that too?!? I thought I was nuts, I responded.

Further searches at the USGS turned up information about the quake. WTOPnews.com was first with the story. The WashingtonPost.com quickly got their own story online. Reports of the quake flooded in to the USGS from all over the region. The Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory shows seismograph data.

It's not really a big deal, I'm just glad I'm not nuts.

I should probably mention that I got the date(s) Rebekah and I started dating again wrong in my previous post. The whole thing started on April 26th, not the 27th. And we started dating on the 27th, not the 28th. Hopefully I'll have all this straight by the time April rolls around next year.

I think there's a point in a person's life when everyone else decides that person can't be changed. Certain character traits simply and permanently become part of who they are. There must be some cut-off when parents give up in shaping their children and just accept the way they turned out, hopefully deciding they did a good job. Young adults permanently become bullies or jerks or unreliable or whatnot.

I believe there's always room to grow. I believe that no matter how old or set in their ways a person is, they can change if they want to. Maybe I need to believe that because of some of the people I know and love or because of who I am and traits in myself that I don't care for. Or maybe sometimes there are things/people that are too important to give up on. Whatever the case, I don't think there's ever a point when we can write a person off. You have to have faith in them and care enough to help them change, if they want to.

I'm home. I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Good night.