It’s almost Christmas. Things started to calm down, especially in Post Office, the malls should be packed by last minute shoppers now. I received some emails and calls from old friends already. I have 4 days holiday for X’mas. Today (12/23) is the first day. When I was running some errands, I thought about the year 2005. First I used “being blessed and loved” title not purely for religious meaning.
I think everyone, religous or not, could spend some time reflecting the past year. Americans have this thing called New Year’s resolution. While I am not a believer on “resolution”, I think I tend to repeat same mistake again and again. I am not just talking about investing. I could use some time to think about my mistakes in the past year and hopefully don’t make the same ones next year.
One of my problem is “impatience” or “hope for quick money or success”. This can be applied to my stock trading and other things. So I bought this stock called “PetsMart”, after listening to my roomate who is pursuing MS in Finance. I waited 3 weeks patiently. Nothing happened. At the same time I talked to another friend who bought “Apple” and he made lots of money. I decided to sell the “PetsMart”. Shortly after I sold it at a loss, the stock went up. I made same mistake on “Yahoo”, I could make $9 but made only $1 on it (per share). I also thought about doing something more exciting than “programming everyday”, and doing another kind of programming. I was not successful. I decide to concentrate my work for now.
I am doing OK at my job. It seems my bosses are happy with my performance. I did write some useful code and solved some tough problems. I also tried to help my teammate in any way I can. I think I will have more opportunities as I “hang in there”.
In the summer I learned Golf. I continued to take Tae Kwon Do (Koren Martial Arts), both without much progress. Actually I did not take one promotion test on TKD so I am still red 2nd. I continued roller skating. Once I fell down, broke my chin and went to emergency room. Later on I realized I was lucky enough not killing myself by skating without checkin out the trail and wearing helmet. In winter I began to skate on the real ice in Creve Coeur Ice Arena.
I also took two accounting courses in the community college. Now I got a better grip on the business and financial statements.
I went to some old places and new places: Grand Canyon, New Jersey, Shanghai, Beijing, Congqing, Jiu Zhai Gou, Austin, Silicon Valley and Yosemite. They are all beautiful and unique, but I feel more at home at St. Louis right now. My condo (apartment) is messy but it’s very peaceful with good location. I can walk to the movie theater, St. Louis (Panera) bread company and the Nissan dealership.
The most important of all, I felt I am blessed and loved. While losing some “mad money” in the stock market, it did not hurt me too bad but made me wiser (hopefully). While I was thinking about things about my career, I received lots of advice and encouragment from my friends, old and new. While I do have frustrations at my work, things eventually worked out when I tried real hard and got help from my colleagues.
Wish all my friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!