2021: message_topic.aspx?topic=652487
2020: message_topic.aspx?topic=651849
2019: message_topic.aspx?topic=651155
2018: message_topic.aspx?topic=650451
2017: message_topic.aspx?topic=649505
2016: MIA
2015: message_topic.aspx?topic=646551
2014: message_topic.aspx?topic=643933
2013: message_topic.aspx?topic=639963
2012: message_topic.aspx?topic=632553
2011: message_topic.aspx?topic=620902
2010: message_topic.aspx?topic=605245
2009: message_topic.aspx?topic=584031
2008: message_topic.aspx?topic=552174
2007: message_topic.aspx?topic=506882
2006: message_topic.aspx?topic=447821
2005: message_topic.aspx?topic=375305

Career: B
Still at the job I took when covid hit. hard to believe but in 20+ years of working this is the 3rd longest i've been at the same organization. my old boss from (off) kaplan reached out to me mid year about applying for his old VP job and while I ended up not going in that direction, as a consequence I talked to my current boss about being interested in leading an entire engineering/product development team again rather than leading a 1-man department. this year he got put in charge of one of our sibling companies and last month he put me in charge of the engineering team. I like a lot about this opportunity, but there's a few things that are still not scratching the itch, so we'll see.

Family: B
Parents are doing relatively well this year, although the health concerns are everpresent. My oldest started high school this year and it's been challenging to adapt to their changing personality and approach to life. my younger two have really grown and excelled in a lot of ways this year. Every year that goes by and my kids still love me, I count as a success.

Love Life: B-
I got married earlier this year. We've been together 4 years now, but still bump into a few core differences in worldview from time to time. Life comes at you fast.

Social / Friends: D
I would like to smile and laugh among friends more in 2023.

Health: C+
My kids frequently remark about my dad bod so I bought a rowing machine on facebook marketplace last month.

Money: A-
Market has obviously been trash all year and 2023 looks to be pretty rough. Regardless, I'm doing fine and although I'm not where I wanted or imagined myself to be when I turned 40, I have a lot to be grateful for, and I see a lot of potential in the years ahead so I can't complain. there's work to be done.

Overall: B-
2022 was good in that I took control and made some critical changes in a few areas of my life. Rough end to 2022 but I'll take it.

12/22/2022 7:17:42 PM

F

12/22/2022 8:46:11 PM

It was OK.

12/23/2022 6:48:42 PM

Career: A
Started a new job somewhat unexpectedly early on this year. I left what I thought was my dream job after it was apparent that it was just a toxic shitstorm in disguise. I was willing to try to tough it out, but then a new opportunity landed in my lap without me even looking for it. And it has been almost 10 months on the job now, this job seems to be a great fit so far, and I could see myself working here until I retire (but I have thought that before, so time will tell)

Family: B
My parent's health isn't outstanding, my mom is definitely going slowly downhill (but she is closing in on 80) she still lives on her own, for now. My dad is still going strong, he retired a few years back and now has some part time work and seems to be happy with where he is in life. My oldest is in college now and is doing well. My youngest is in 8th grade and making better grades than I did. Sadly, it does feel like I am losing at least one aunt or uncle every year now, but they are getting very old.

Love Life: A-
I have been married close to 15 years now, its not perfect, but we are making it work and no complaints here.

Social / Friends: B-
I feel like other than my core group of about 10 friends or so, I really don't hang out with anyone else. We go to our kids stuff, go shoot at animals, etc, but I miss having like 50 friends from college I suppose.

Health: B
I am still overweight, but I am 70 lbs less than I was 2 years ago at the worst of it. I went to Busch Gardens again this summer, and was able to fit in the rides again, some of them in the regular seats.
I need to get back in the gym on a regular schedule. Doc says I'm the right track but need to keep going. BP is back in normal ranges again.

Money: A-
I am not a multi-millionaire like I thought I would be way back when, but I'm not worried about paying the bills this month or next month. Having a kid in college is eating into my savings, but I can live with that. Also keeping vehicles, house, etc up costs money, but that's life. If I made more, I would probably just spend more.

Overall: A-
Not where I saw myself way back when, but things are gonna be just fine. When I quit worrying about every little thing, I got a lot happier with everything.

12/25/2022 1:12:55 AM

I'll bite

Career: B
I have now been with the same company for 15 years. I enjoy my role, and the industry, but it's an aging industry and I have concerns long term about where the next generation of skilled labor is going to come from. I have been fortunate with salary, incentives, and a relaxed office environment. However, my office split from our sister office a few states away and there have been some growing pains and all-in I actually earned slightly less this year than in the previous 4-5. I know that it was all due to the split and this change may actually lead to more advancement and possible stake in ownership. But while that excites me I am also starting to keep my eye on other opportunities.

Family: B+
Family is doing very well. Parents have been retired for a few years and are really enjoying life. I'm happy to seem them traveling and enjoying their time. I do wish my mom was more active though. She can't keep up with my dad near as much these days. Also, I lost a close uncle at Thanksgiving after a long battle with cancer which kind of put a damper on the holidays.

Love Life: A-
I got married earlier this year. We've been together about 8 years now, but still bump into a few differences in worldview from time to time. Life comes at you fast. We've built a good thing together and right now it looks like we may stay child free.

Social / Friends: C-
I would like to smile and laugh among friends more in 2023. Getting married was great because I was able to see all of my friends together and celebrating like old times. But honestly, I don't have very many close guy friends here that I can call to hang out with on a whim. That really makes it hard.

Health: C+
I feel pretty good, but know I need to do more to improve my strength and my flexibility. Motivation is very low regarding gyms, so it's a struggle. After a couple incidents and close calls I have pretty much stopped cycling altogether except for casual riding. But at least i haven't put on (much) weight, so that's a plus.

Money: A-
Market is trash but it's not something I dwell over day to day. We're both working full time and fortunate to not worry about how to pay the bills each month.

Overall: B-
2022 was good. I want to travel more and see more friends in 2023.

12/28/2022 9:02:23 AM

Can't break my streak of doing this shit for five years in a row now.

Career: B+

Work from home one day a week has been in force all of 2022 which was pretty awesome. Now my boss wants to try for 2 days a week, which I'm all about as an employee but as a manager I'm concerned about scheduling and coverage. Otherwise hired a new team member (my first solo outside hire) who has been great. Got one annoying guy left but he really pissed the boss off right before we went home for the break so I'm hoping that might get some traction on disciplinary action against him.

Family: B

My grandfather had a stroke this fall and it was a pretty bad one. He went from driving himself and being mostly independent to being in a home and little motor control on his left arm and leg and likely will not ever get that back. Parents have mobility issues as well and mom fell and broke her leg and had to have surgery and was in a rehab facility for six weeks. She is home now but still having a rough go of it due to osteoporosis slowing the healing and the fact she's in her late 60's.

At home my oldest kid graduated high school and is doing the first two years of college at community college and got good grades his first semester. He started driving on his own finally as he has to so he can get himself to school. Youngest got his permit and actually does volunteer to drive so that is a nice change. He's done marching band, working on his black belt and is doing well in school. Wife is still working at her job but has a second part-time job as a faculty member at the community college where she went a few years ago teaching some specialized courses in her profession.

Love Life: B

More of the same, but we hit our 20th anniversary in February and still seem to like each other so that is cool! Hopefully we can plan a bigger trip this year but maybe later in the year when the weather is nicer.

Social/Friends: A-

In the past year I have been hanging at a local bar when my kid is at TKD lessons a couple times a week and I've made a lot of friends in the community from there so that has been nice. Still keep up with a couple of my oldest friends so that is nice. Would be nice to host something as we didn't do that in 2022 so hopefully we can make that happen some in 2023.

Health: C

Need to lose weight but otherwise okay. No issues to report.

Hobbies: A+

Haven't shot much skeet this year but the photography groups I run have only gotten more popular. Got a lot of friends from that as well, so that has been pretty cool.

Money: B-

Got a small raise at work but it didn't even keep up with inflation. So yeah hasn't been a great year financially but we are still doing okay for the most part. My auto insurance went up quite a bit due to the oldest having his license so that hasn't helped and when the youngest gets his next year it will hurt even worse. Got to talk to my boss about a real raise.

Overall: B

Still a good year overall. Everybody is still surviving and the kids are doing good so not sure I have a lot to complain about. Inflation has been tough across the world but our standard of living hasn't changed one bit this year so I have to count that as a win I suppose. Here's looking to 2023!

1/1/2023 12:14:51 AM

Highlights of 2022:

Training my new puppy
Furthering my new hobby of car racing
Maintaining good health

The rest can go fuck itself. Wish 2022 never happened.

1/2/2023 11:57:49 AM

I'm glad this tradition is still going.

Career: B

Making progress.

Family: C

I lost more family members this year than any year I can remember recently. At least my immediate family is still okay, but it still sucks. Don't take your loved ones for granted.

Love Life: D-



Social / Friends: C

It's amazing how many people I met on TWW or at NCSU that I still talk to on a daily basis. Having a social life as an adult is hard.

Health: A-

Still managed to avoid COVID somehow.

Hobbies: B

I've done pretty good with side projects this year.

Money: B

I am doing pretty good overall.

Overall: C

1/2/2023 8:53:08 PM

Career: A-

Work is good. I’m where I want to be and expect to be here a long time.

Family: B+

I love my family, they love me. We mostly have a really good relationship. I’ve got some personal stuff to work through with my dad but otherwise things are good. We had a baby in February (our 1st). She’s happy and healthy and beautiful.

Love Life: B
Very happily married. As I said, we have a baby. So we don’t have as much time for date nights or spending time with just the two of us. My wife’s work schedule is long and demanding. Our free time almost exclusively goes to spending as much as time as possible with our child. Which is not really a compliant, just the reality of our life at this stage. We still try to make time for each other and we’re still very much in love.

Social/Friends: C
We don’t see our friends as much as we used to. That’s a product of where we’re all at in life. We still communicate and talk. But group outings or group gatherings are a thing of the past for us at this time. In some ways it still feels like a carryover from Covid. We went from quarantining to having a baby (and some in my friend circle have also had babies recently) and our social life has suffered.

Health: B
I always feel shitty around this time of year. Just finished a 6 week course of stuffing as much food as possible into my body from thanksgiving to New Years. So, yeah, I could lose some weight and introduce some healthier things into my life. Im not super motivated about that. Overall though, I’m healthy both physically and mentally.

Money A-
We make fine money. My wife’s job provides us with good insurance and good retirement benefits. We finished a big remodel/renovation to our home in 2021. So getting our savings back on track after such a big expense has been the primary goal of 2022. And we’ve done fine. It’d always be nice to make more money, but we don’t live above our means and we can manage to live comfortably right now. It’s just part of homeownership but it feels like the projects never end. Luckily we’re in a place where we can save and plan and pay for a lot of these projects/fixes.

Overall A
Having a baby is the best thing ever (Imo). I’m very happy. Always room for improvement but im in a good place now

1/3/2023 6:30:48 AM

Career: C
Project I was working on got canceled because my vp's ego was a bit too fragile and what I delivered threw all his shit away. Instead I'm asked to port all my work into his abortion. But, I still have a job and hopefully a promo and raise coming in the next few months. The satisfaction is gone and a lot of folks have outed themselves as shitbags, but the money's right.

Family: B
Family is mostly good, just don't visit enough.

Love Life: A
Got engaged

Social / Friends: CSee my existing friends very rarely but can't seem to meet anyone I could hang out with on a semi-regular basis. Got some friends at the race track but that's seasonal

Health: C+
Had to stop eating meat, which improved pain from nerve damage. Still less active than I'd like.

Money: B-
Lost a metric fuckton in RSUs but otherwise pretty good. Finally getting to the point I can truly put money to work so I don't have to.

Overall: B-
Got scammed on a race car that fucked up my summer and really got hit with politics at work that I'd been able to duck for years. Overall ok, but hopefully much better in 23

2/1/2023 7:10:38 AM

Career: A-

Easy work with good people, and massively overpaid. Like probably double paid, haha. I give it an A- (instead of higher) only due to wanting to make yet another career transition into venture capital, and not having yet cracked the code on how best to do that with a non-traditional background.


Family: B

Status quo, more or less. Teenage daughter is awfully distant, but otherwise she's doing well. Taking her to Las Vegas and to ride horses in the AZ desert in a couple of weeks, and then flying across the country in a Piper Arrow, sightseeing the country over spring break. Parents are good. Brother has had some health struggles for years, but I think things are looking somewhat up there.


Love Life: C-

Wife and I separated basically at the end of 2021/beginning of 2022. She was having severe depression/anxiety/etc issues. I was slow to pick up on the severity of it until it got to the point of directly intervening to prevent her suicide. She left shortly after that, although neither of us has filed for divorce in over a year. Things kept on going poorly for her after that--she got involuntarily committed for a few days due to cutting herself at work, then got involved in an abusive/threatening relationship where she had to get law enforcement involved. She stabilized a little bit, and we started talking about trying again a couple of months ago, but I think that has pretty much fallen apart. She twists practically everything into some relentlessly pessimistic, bizarre, warped view of reality.

I had a couple of hookups with randoms and dated this girl for about 3 months. She was a good chick overall, but she was never going to be anything serious for me, and I told her that from the beginning. After a few months she realized I meant it, haha.

I think the odds of finding anyone where I live are vanishingly small. Everyone is fat and out of shape, and there isn't much going on here besides military and tourism, so there aren't a lot of highly educated professional types. Once I get my airplane paperwork sorted out with the FAA, hopefully that will expand the radius that's viable.


Social / Friends: D+

Everybody is old and boring. Plus, I work mostly with people 15 years older than me, and I live an hour away in a small town.

I have a few motorsports friends and acquaintances whom I see a couple of times a year, and there are a few of us at work who SCUBA dive together, but they're all older and not really my social group other than diving and work. There's my airplane partner, too--we rent a big sailboat a few times per year and do some sailing.


Health: A

Lost about 12 lbs while hardly even trying. I think it was due to lower stress once my wife was gone. Got into Zone 2 training and significantly upped my cardio game, running 4-6 miles several times per week. Strength training was about par for the course, other than I joined a new gym that I like better than the old one. Still don't do a great job with sleep.

**Injured my shoulder in a fall, but that was early 2023, not 2022. I wouldn't be shocked if it's the final straw that makes surgery necessary, but TBD.


Money: A

Stacking up $$$ as always. Portfolio took somewhat of a hit like everyone's did, but I didn't suffer as badly as most. I sold my rental house, bought a new primary residence, and sold an old primary residence with some great timing (partly deliberately and partly just good luck). Have a big cash horde I've been slowly deploying into these lower market values, and am positioned to hit it hard if the opportunity presents itself. Continue putting substantial money into angel investments (tech startups). No big payoffs yet, but the portfolio is looking really good. Given time for some companies to mature a little more, I think I'll see some substantial paydays, and then hopefully expand into another angel group for double the deal flow.


Overall: B

Individually, I fucking crush it. I just need more people who can and will keep up.

[Edited on February 1, 2023 at 5:09 PM. Reason : ]

2/1/2023 4:59:46 PM

I'll probably regret this, but oh well...


https://lawrencechronicles.wordpress.com/happy-new-year-from-jeff-shamika-polly-and-nola/

2/1/2023 9:06:14 PM

Career: A-
I'm working directly under a VP now after some management restructuring in the company. It has been good and allowed me to avoid the politics of working through my manager when proposing ideas and trying to get things through. Had led to some good bonuses and now that the VP may be retiring this year, I may be in looks to get the position.
However, the company itself in its work isn't the most inspiring, and I'd like to combine my skills with a company whose overall goal aligns more with what I want to retire from eventually.

Family/Lovelife: B+
Married but have had some disagreements since the wife is unsure about having kids and has sort of backtracked on what we had some plans for. Trying to work that through but with work and a lot of things going on, we've just been carrying on normally. Happy otherwise, going on a trip occasionally or doing some fun activity.
Relations with family in general are normal, we drive over every few months on some holiday or something and visit. Parents in good health.

Social/Friends: B-
Honestly, most of my friends are just guys from work, we play some sports and in a league once in a while, don't have much of a circle outside of that nowadays apart from meeting some of the girls my wife knows when they come for a gathering, but I tend to not butt in to those. She tells me to try to find friends but I don't really feel like it, I think what I have is good enough, although I wish I could restore that feeling of just randomly messing around the neighborhood.

Health: A-
Not really overweight, but not as physically capable as I used to be. Regardless of age, I just don't move around and have lost some of that calisthenic tenacity.
Still jog regularly, no significant knee pain or increase in existing pain, so that is good.

Money: A-
I am not a multi-millionaire like I thought I would be way back when, but I'm not worried about paying the bills this month or next month. Keeping vehicles, the new house, etc up costs money, but that's life. If I made more, I'd just save it I guess.

Overall: C+
I don't know, just feeling kind of bored. Happy when I see my wife and thankful for that stability at home, but when I sit down alone I feel like I'm watching it go by in third person.

[Edited on February 2, 2023 at 3:01 AM. Reason : .]

2/2/2023 2:50:17 AM

^Doesn't read like a post from a current student?

2/2/2023 6:51:29 AM

^creative writing

[Edited on February 2, 2023 at 8:33 AM. Reason : I can/or to a mod/ feel free to remove it if it interferes with the thread.]

2/2/2023 8:22:58 AM

Nah, it's funny. At least you bothered to do one, even if fake. I never have.

2/2/2023 8:53:25 AM

I'd never do a real one.

2/2/2023 8:59:40 AM

def funny

2/2/2023 1:23:01 PM