I have much to be thankful for this year 2007.

Financially it has been the best of all my 31 years. I received bonus from Nortel in March, then they let me go at the end of April. I started working for Shared Technologies immediately and got year end bonus payout from Shared just last week. The severance pay from Nortel was pretty good as well. I managed to increase my net worth by about 25% this year. Yes, obviously I have a very small denomination to work with but again I am a first generation immigrant, not a child of trust fund. All in all I cannot praise God enough for this year.

I finally bought a house in May and after some fixing up, I moved in the middle of July. I bought it from the estate of the couple who built it in 1963 and had owned it since. Had to rip out the wall and redo the tiles in both bathrooms, paint the entire interior, and replace the carpet in the dining, living, the hallway and the vinyl in the kitchen with high end laminated wood floor, replace the oven and cook top, kitchen sink, and the washer.

And yes, finally I can say that I learned to play the guitar. I was encouraged to be part of a 6-member guitar ensemble for the Christmas Eve service at our church. It turned out well, no major screw up.

I was appointed this year as the State Republican Executive Committee Liaison for the Texas Young Republican Federation. I was also appointed to the Young Republican National Federation Information Technology, Policy, and Outreach committees.

For the first time ever, I ran the 8 mile Dallas YMCA Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. Already registered and is training for the upcoming Cowtown Half Marathon on Saturday, February 23rd. I now benched 185 lbs, the most ever for me, and that's 15 to 20 lbs above my body weight. Hopefully I can cross the 200 lbs limit by the end of 2008.

My dad has been to the emergency room about 4 times this year. The doctors have never figured out what's wrong with him. But he's getting up there with age so I learn to accept it as a fact of life and praise God for every single day that I still have him and my mom, knowing that God knows everything.

My new year resolution for 2008:
1. Move up my time of coming to work earlier, like 08:00 or maybe even 07:30. That way, I can have time to work out everyday, then go to a lot of functions in the evening.
2. Get accepted into law school.
3. Saving up for the next car, which in all likelihood will be the X5.
4. Continue to practice my guitar, and hopefully I'll be able to play pretty decent by year end 2008, maybe even some classical pieces.

Long term things I want to do here before going home to my Lord, Savior and Creator:

1. Speak Spanish fluently.
2. Get my private pilot license, first single engine VFR, and eventually multi-engine IFR.
3. Learn how to play the piano.
4. Read and write at least another language: German, Chinese or Russian.
5. Run one or two more half marathons and then go for a marathon.