response 1 of 40:

Dec 7 18:25 UTC 2000

Thank GOD this year is almost over.

Man/Boy/Child I lived with that last year seemed about to propose at Christmas
turned into a violent lunitic, didn't take care of his heath, and screwed me
financially, emotionally, and friendship wise.  (bad)

I got a job I like at a place I like for a boss I like. (good)

I moved out from that raving asshole (good)

I got my second kitty Tanis and he brought my older kitty out of her shell
(good)

Teeny bopper pop has taken over ever facit of music and I can no longer run
and hide, and I even can like some of it if forced to listen to it (baaaad)

Getting in touch with fun and some friends that I'd been seperated from (good)

response 3 of 40:

Dec 7 19:10 UTC 2000

I am adding one - it looks like Mario Lemieux is coming back.  This is good
- way good!!!

response 5 of 40:

Dec 7 21:25 UTC 2000

Well, dates at the time have lots of historical issues, but here are some
things of note that happened in or near the year 200:  
  - The bishop of Rome began to be recognized as the head of 
    the Christian Church.
  - Theologians first started to use the word "trinity".  
  - Septimius Severus became Emperor of Rome by military means, 
    confounding the plans of the Praetorian Guard, who planned to 
    auction off the throne.  
  - The end of the Han Dynasty in China ushered in the "three kingdoms"
    period, one of the most interesting in Chinese history.  

Or was that a typo?  :)

response 7 of 40:

Dec 7 21:54 UTC 2000

<snicker>

response 9 of 40:

Dec 7 22:02 UTC 2000

  2000 was a year with some fairly big changes for me -- finished school,
  moved across the continent to a new city in a new state, changed to a
  different career, found a new job in a new company, and lots more.

  By and large the changes have been positive ones.  About my only
  regret is that I've been working a lot and have been slow to build up
  a new social circle here, which is something I need to work on now
  that I'm geographically separated from my family and friends.

response 11 of 40:

Dec 8 01:33 UTC 2000

Good things this past year -- Katherine Zoa Dorney Jarrard (my god-daughter),
lots of great music, a pretty decent summer/fall weather-wise, and Rhiannon
graduating from high school. 

Bad things this past year -- my Dad dying, my Mom getting another brain tumor,
feeling depressed... and some rough times at work (nothing I suppose to bitch
about, but it made the year worse than others).

response 13 of 40:

Dec 8 06:09 UTC 2000

My son blossoms astonishingly.  My parents decline alarmingly.  I just go on.

response 15 of 40:

Dec 8 08:18 UTC 2000

The last few years I've thought discussions like this were silly.  Maybe I
just wasn't doing interesting enough things.  I certainly don't feel that way
about this year.

2000 didn't start off so well.  My grandpa, who had for several years been
my only remaining grandparent, was in rapidly declining health, and died
within the first couple weeks of 2000.  I had a job with which I was becoming
exceedingly frustrated, and it was keeping me from enjoying the rest of my
life.  I think I was becoming somewhat bored with life in general, which was
starting to seem awfully repetative, as well.

Of course, such things, once recognized, are correctable.  After a week long
vacation in which I spent lots of time talking to a couple of friends who kept
telling me they weren't ready to be "responsible adults" yet, and lots of time
driving around remote areas of Colorado and New Mexico looking at beautiful
scenery and doing lots of thinking, I realized I needed to make some changes.
Discovering at the end of my week off that I still dreaded going back to work
had quite an effect too.  I went back to Ann Arbor and started job hunting,
but didn't see anything that looked all that exciting.  Work got worse, and
after a few more weeks of it I quit, and spent a really enjoyable two months
doing whatever I wanted to do, as long as it didn't cost much.  I did lots
of mountain biking.  I drove to the East Coast twice.  Out of frustration that
I hadn't seen much of the Western US, and that it was hard to get to from
Michigan, I started looking for ways more conveniently be a West Coast
tourist.  I got flown to the West Coast for job interviews twice in a week,
one in Seattle and the other in San Francisco.  Then I took the job in San
Francisco and, turning down their proposal to send me a plane ticket and ship
my car there, set out on a 3,000 mile round about drive from Ann Arbor to San
Francisco.

Since then, the adventures haven't stopped.  I spent a month looking for
housing in the Bay Area, which was quite an adventure, and evntually found
a nice place.  I've gotten to know San Francisco, and Berkeley, and many of
the surrounding areas.  I've done lots of hiking in the nearby mountains, and
gone on a longer trip to explore other parts of Northern California.  I've
made lots of friends, and done lots of stuff I hadn't done before.  I'm having
a blast.

Like Mike, I've gotten out of touch with some people I care about (like Mike).
By being insensitive, I think I managed to anger an old and dear friend into
not being willing to talk to me.  Several people I knew and liked have died
this year, and I'll miss all of them.

Still, 2000 has been a wondeful year for me.  It's been the year I've stopped
thinking of things I wanted to do as impractical, or unattainable, and started
doing them, and that's a wonderful change to have made.

response 17 of 40:

Dec 8 15:58 UTC 2000

The worst thing?  Florida.

response 19 of 40:

Dec 9 00:10 UTC 2000

Ryan Christopher, my beeyootiful nephew, born just 2 days before my 
birthday.

My mom got diagnosed with Autoimmune disease of the Liver.

Two relationships that ended badly but I guess were worthwile.

I moved into a house.

I had my tonsils out.

I went to Michigan (and missed grexland, sniff).

I turned 28, and felt quite a bit older.

response 21 of 40:

Dec 9 07:47 UTC 2000

(Sindi, I know you have some very strong opinions about the right way for
people to live, and you may even be right in a lot of cases.  Still, please,
for a moment imagine that you are Jim's son, and that you might have stumbled
across this item.  Those of us who have been following this conference for
the last several months have all heard the story.  If I remember correctly,
Jim's son is a horrible evil person who talks to his mother and wants to buy
a car.  Still, even for such horrible evil people, it can't be easy to read
comments by their parents, or the significant others of their parents,
refusing to acknowledge that they're related)

gull -- I don't think sending a rejection letter is something companies do.
In my job hunting experience, I've had one company give me what was sort of
a rejection phone call, but it included an attempt to recruit me for another
job.  The rest of the time, companies have either tried to make offers, or
I've never heard from them again.

As far as I can tell, most posted jobs either don't exist as described, or
the companies involved have figured out how to do job postings, but haven't
figured out their hiring process beyond that.  It gets further complicated
if trying for relocation, since many smaller companies either lack the funds,
or have never done that before and are scared by the process.  Spam out lots
of resumes, post your resume widely (especially on monster.com and dice.com),
and be prepared to spend a few weeks fielding phone calls from really clueless
headhunters.  Something good, probably several something goods, will turn up
eventually.

response 23 of 40:

Dec 9 13:10 UTC 2000

Good grief, you're right.  Elian slipped my mind entirely.  "How
soon we forget," eh?