your top highlights from 2007, and your new years resolution!

[scooterSST]

Ya know I am pretty private for the most part but what the hell its a new year and I am not hung up on things anymore....

2007 was one of the worst and best years of my life. I gave up drinking for good (hopefully) and every day that I remain sober I see how much of a difference it is making in my life. Not much for resolutions. One thing I am really trying to do is make sure I recycle as much as I can, we are really tearing this world up and every little thing that I can do I will...

One great thing about 2008 , its Bush's last year and I am so freaking glad of that.....

Bear

Dude,

We don't talk much, but if you need to vent, I'll listen.. I've been there.

 

[J-Man]

Just curious, Belts are only given out in Karate, I believe Sash's are given out in Kung Fu? Maybe she is taking Karate?

Congrats on a great year non the less

Bear

Nope, it is belts, she is taking Kung-Fu San Soo, I know some forms of Kung Fu do give sash's but not in San Soo.

 

[Bear]

Good for you Bear! The best gift you can ever give to yourself is making a commitment for the better. Trust me, my daughter's father is an alcoholic (to be honest, he's probably been drinking for the better half of his life now being that he started at 13-14 and will be turning 40 in the spring). What he has lost during that time is our daughter (whose 16) and doesn't want anything to do with him. Alienated himself from his family (they can't tolerate his behavior either) and basically has drunk himself to the point of crazy (after what he pulled on us this past holiday is possibly moving toward a restraining order against him).

Don't be one of those types of people Bear, you are worth so much more than that. There will be struggles, but never give up on yourself!

Thanks Babs and Scott. Well trust me if I continued to drink I would eventually be like that, that is way most true alcoholics end up. They say jails, institutions and death...I can honestly say that I have no desire to drink anymore, its been 5 months now that I haven't had a drink and if anyone remembers me from PPUSA's and Powerfests in the past they know I was a heavy duty partier and drinker and alot of those times were fun but

I feel healthy mentally and physically and I know it can only get better, for me its just time that I freaking grow up too, I'll be 40 this year and I really want to buy my own house or condo, so these are things that i will be able to do if I stay the course. All I can say is at least I realize it, I have a friend that is facing 6 years in prison because of his 9 drunk drivings and he is in hard core denial about his alcoholism....Anyways Happy New Year!!!

Bear

 

[booB]

no more mexican food, since ive taken physical fitness seriously here lately, ill make no more trips to this local mexican place which has killer food, but of course isnt the healthiest of choices.

Taco salad is the healthy way to eat Mexican. Also, if you have a Chipotle near you, get a Burrito Bol minus the rice... and get guacamole on there, it's VERY good for you, especially if you're eating an otherwise low-fat diet.

 

[nailz]

My highlights of 2007:

Got to show off Arizona to the Parents in a good light
Landed a SWEET job working for a large College that is run by the government..which means
...FUCKING AWESOME BENEFITS... after..
Spending a week in Hawai'i, seeing Ouahu with someone who's lived there
Snorkeling/Snuba Diving in Maui
Cutting back on World of Warcraft
Building myself an AWESOME new Rigg (computer) after 3 years of waiting.
Spending yet another year with someone who loves me back.
But I have to say that the biggest highlight of 2007 was dropping 35 pounds.

Resolutions for 2008
Continue down a path of healthy choices including eating habits and exercise. It really is a way of life. I enjoy going to the gym and I don't really miss all of the fast food and other crap I used to eat. I still have 20 pounds to lose towards my goal weight of 160, and then I'd like to build muscle mass.

Get back into college. Since I'm basically getting a 2nd shot at a free 4 year degree (thank you awesome benefits), I'd like to take advantage. I already have an associates degree and some classes towards a bachlors under my belt. It's time to finish.

Get out of Debt, finally. This is the year I'm poised to do it. I'm nearly 5500$ in the hole right now, but thats not much considering a 12 month time. And it's all credit card debt too. With a gallant effort in cutting back, I can ensure I am debt free by no later than September.

Those are my main goals right now.

 

[nailz]

o shit it's leap year.

 

[scooterSST]

Nope, it is belts, she is taking Kung-Fu San Soo, I know some forms of Kung Fu do give sash's but not in San Soo.

Did a little research, it's an offshoot of Shaolin Kung Fu, less concerned with sport fighting than self defense.

I received my Black Belt in Taekwondo (WTF) a couple of years ago, it was one of the great moments of my life. But in reality it's just the beginning, I've just scratched the surface...

Congrats to your daughter

 

[Stingray11214]

Highlights:

1)Went on the "Adventure of a Lifetime": Went to Hong Kong, Macau, and the Philippines in January. Two weeks I would not trade for anything.

2)Got married, which was a direct result of going on "1".

3)Finally got to see Nightwish live. Not once, but twice!

4)Met Sonata at their "listening party" in NYC.

Resolutions:

1) Need to get my health in order.

2) start building my family

3) Prep for two church weddings: One here, and one in the Philippines.

 

[Yippee38]

Having someone to love who loves me back

What are all of us here? Chopped liver?

most of these can be checked off if I just move to Brazil in 2008. I pretty much have a guaranteed job and a whole new life waiting for me if I choose it. It's looking better every day.

Good for you! Bad for us. That means we'll see you less frequently than we do now.

 

[sh0kr0k]

What are all of us here? Chopped liver?

Awww!! You're not chopped liver! I love you too!

Good for you! Bad for us. That means we'll see you less frequently than we do now.

Yeah that might be the case if this pans out. I don't have formal plans at this point, but who knows what the future holds... I would miss you too much if I left!

 

[DemonOfTheWoods]

2007 was one of the worst and best years of my life.

I can easily second that statement. I hate years like that.

Nevermind the crap that happened to me this year. As for highlights,

-ProgPower, of course, and everything involved with ProgPower (the show, the people, hanging with Zak Stevens, Jon Macaluso, the Cellador guys, the Pagan's Mind guys, all the other people I met and hung out with through the weekend, I could go on forever about PPVIII)
-Seeing Primal Fear (that gets its own mention!)
-Seeing Threshold (that too gets its own mention!)
-Seeing Genesis
-Seeing Doro
-Flight of the Valkyries, meeting SwordLord, everything involving our ventures to Minnesota (see BlackRoseMetalHeart's post for full info. She already wrote it all out. No point in writing the exact same thing )

I'm tired and my brain has shut itself off. Other great things happened in 2007but I can't think anymore.

As for resolutions, I used to always make a bunch and never go through with them so I stopped with New Years Resolutions.
This year, I do have one very important resolution which I will make sure I do, and that is to finally get the 3 albums worth of music I have written & recorded finalized, mixed, mastered, and somehow put out so people can finally hear it!
That would make me happy.

 

[jaimek]

2006 and 2007 were among the worst years I've had - there were a handful of good things about them, but I was very glad to see them both go to ground. The world is not allowed to fuck with me in 2008: I'm moving south in a few weeks, and I'm going to take the opportunity to make a positive change in the things I CAN change.

 

[Burnout]

As far as highlights go, I got to meet James Malone on the Arsis/Enslaved tour. I haven't made any resolutions quite yet though.

 

[DarkOne]

I try not to make resolutions, but here are some non-music highs and lows:

Highlights:
My wife and I finally making it to Japan after years of my friend asking me to go.
A week in an all inclusive in Mexico
Hanging out at Progpower

Lowlights:
Getting promoted to management (okay, also a good thing. Sometimes)

Looking forward to:
Halloween at Universal Studios
3 weeks on an Italian cruise

Yeesh. My life really does revolve around my vacations!

Happy new year to all!

Steve in Philly

 

[Pellaz]

My New Year's resolution? 640x480


I'd resolve to lose weight, but instead I'll resolve to try to eat a bit healthier and to get more exercise.


Highlights of 2007 for me:

• ProgPower USA, the Showcase (FK!) and everyone involved in both. It was an outstanding year
• Dragon*Con, and my small but hopefully valuable contributions to it as a director
• Texas MadFest -- well worth the trip!
• Another good summer up in Tennessee at Blue Hole
• Georgia Rennaissance Festival -- it's imperfect and average at best, but 'home' for me during the Spring
• I'm still making my mortgage payment! Two years and counting!
• Dimmu Borgir live
• Porcupine Tree live
• Cradle of Filth live (the second time around)
• Nightwish live
• The 69 Eyes live
• Virgin Black and To/Die/For live
• (insert other great shows I'm forgetting, here: _________)

Lowlights:

• Grandmother passing in early summer
• Godmother (my grandma's longtime companion) passing a few months later, before finalizing her will (wave g'bye to about $1 million, Paul)
• Cat passing in November
• A/C breaking down during the summer (but not costing too much to fix, *whew*)

I guess 2007 was, on balance, a 'meh' year.....

 

[Evil Penguin]

Highlights 2007:
ProgPower USA
new fencing coach
Australia
landing a book with Simon & Schuster
finally getting over my fear of Chicago public transportation

Lowlights 2007:
life

Resolutions 2008:
drink more coffee (2007 coffee intake = under 5 cups)
go see more shows (2 shows in 2007, Progpower USA and Virgin Black)
Try to have less sucky life
replace my $45 used laptop with a broken Function key with a new one
Arctic trip in the summer

 

[Pellaz]

Highlights 2007:
landing a book with Simon & Schuster

Wow, that's cool! Details, details!


(I've just got one short story published. It was in an anthology, so happily it paid pretty well. )

 

[Jibrille]

Highlights 2007:
Getting engaged
ProgPower USA & all the other awesome shows I saw

Lowlights 2007:
Really wanting out of my job starting about 2 months ago.
Getting into a car accident in August.

Resolutions 2008:
Loose 30-40 pounds for the wedding.
Get a new job (waiting to hear about one right now).
Make it to PP despite already needing 2.5 weeks off from work between honeymoon, time before wedding & Nightwish shows in May along with time and money restraints getting everything ready for a Nov 1st wedding.

 

[spag]

Low points of 2007
==============

Started the year, January 6th to be exact, by smashing into the side of a SUV on my motorcycle, breaking my shoulder in multiple pieces. That sucked. Took a while to get back from that one.

I worked way too much. I only took one week of vacation, and even that was split up over the year. No trips, except for the occasional extended weekend dirtbike trip or something.

High points of 2007
==============

I got a chance to fly my Mom out for a couple for weeks. She lived here in the 70s, and still has friends in the area. It was a nice vacation for her, and of course I liked spending time with her as well.

Found a great house.

Barfest, and a few other great concerts I managed to get to. Ending it with Twisted Christmas again this year was awesome.

Resolutions for 2008
===============

Work less, and still try to get promoted at work. Work smarter, not more.

Take a long trip. I had actually planned a week long trip dirtbiking around Costa Rica for this month, but work already squashed it. I'm not starting well

Loose 20lbs that I gained last year sitting at my effin desk.

Figure out a few other personal things.

Nothing too lofty, so I might actually manage it this year.

 

[See You In Hell]

2007 in the rearview mirror:

Good

• Taking my wife for a surprise 3 day weekend to Chicago to see her favorite band (Maná) and doing a few touristy things in the city.

• Taking my daughter to Honduras for her spring break. Great, quality time seeing lots of really interesting things.

• Attending my first ProgPower and loving every minute of it.

• Taking my daughter to Houston for Texas Madfest and both of us getting to help John, Tammy, and Lance with various odds and ends. It was quite educational and also lots of fun. The bands kicked ass too!

• Seeing Mindflow live twice and getting to know the band (and their tour manager Diego). The "Mindflow BBQ" at Tammy's place was loads of fun!

• Seeing more shows in one year than I ever have and bands I thought I'd never see live and actually getting to meet lots of the bandmembers. The Dallas / Fort Worth area actually didn't do too badly concertwise in 2007.

• Reconnecting with my father after about 12 years or so of not seeing each other due to a perceived rift between us that neither of us could even recall the cause of.

Bad

• My mom being suddenly and mysteriously hospitalized for what turned out to be a severe allergic reaction to some prescribed medications. That was quite an ordeal but fortunately she is now fine.

• Our cat, Lucy, dying due to a sudden and unforeseen deterioration of health. We adopted her from an animal shelter when she was age 9. We had about 10 months with her before she passed. At least she had a good 10 months with us -- lots of older animals get overlooked at these shelters with little to no chance of being adopted.

• Buying a car for my daughter only to have it vandalized a couple of months later. And another month after that someone running a stop sign forced my daughter off the road leading to a minor (fortunately) one-car accident (her own) when she brushed up against a road sign putting a nasty crease in her passenger side doors. Fortunately, she was not hurt.

• My own car having three major repairs needed, all unforeseen, during the month of July setting me back about $1800.

• Underutilizing my vacation time.

2008

• Be diligent in going to the gym all year instead of blowing off the last three months of the year!

• Try to see as many concerts as I can while hopefully learning more about the "behind the scenes" work to make them happen.

• Try to take another international vacation. Have a few ideas in mind but nothing concrete yet.

• Try not to stress out over minor things nearly as much as I do! This will be the hardest resolution to keep!!