Goodbye to 2008

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Goodbye to 2008

Goodbye to 2008 and Happy New Year to everybody out there.

Oh dear, yet another year passed. At the start of 2008 I made a post here on the blog about my goals for 2008 (click here to read it), still makes me smile that I called it 2007 and the link does say 2007, but it was for 2008, really.

Do I plan to set new goals for 2009? Of course but before I write about those it might be an idea to review the goals for 2008, so here goes.

2008 – Living

The goals I sent for 2008 where to get more out of life and attend courses. The years before 2008 I spend most of my time here in the home office; I do still spend a lot of time here but a lot have changed here, mainly due to new friends, new work and poker. I had less time the last few month for friends and poker due to extra work I took on but I hope that early this year that I then will have time for more cinema sessions here in Basel.

I didn’t attend a single course 2008 and will probably not attend any in 2009 either. Lack of time is the main reason.

2008 – Health

Goals where to get back to fitness training and loose some weight (15kg), get more active with walking and cycling. This total failed, sure I did go to fitness a few times but it was not more than a few times. Weight did drop a bit and went back up, so no real change. Rather disappointing I have to say :-(

I did buy Wii Fit and I did renew my membership at the fitness studio but since I’m not using Wii Fit and not going to the studio, then it does not help much. Saying I’m a member of a fitness studio might sound good but you sure can’t tell by looking at me that I’m a member.

2008 – Work

The year resulted in some big changes in my work, I went from been self employed to be an employee. I wrote about what happened here and here. It turned out to be a larger change that I expected. Suddenly I was away from home a LOT more than earlier, around 9 hours at work and 1.5 to 2 hours driving each day. At the start the driving back and forth didn’t bother me, I was actually enjoying it. I still don’t have an issue with the driving but what annoys me a bit is that I do spend 1.5 to 2 hours on the road and that every day. The prices for petrol also went up a lot during the year but have now dropped to less than when I started.

The social part of work is great; we have 1 to 2 coffee breaks where most of us go over to the local ‘bistro’ for a coffee and we also go together for lunch. Sure this does cost (no free lunch here!) but it is very enjoyable.

At work I’m almost only talking German, just a few people I speak English with and of course sometimes when I can’t find the words in German. So my German have improved a good bit I would say (I still make a lot of mistakes).

I have also been involved with a few other projects together with a good friend of mine; so I didn’t leave the games business yet ;-) The side effect of this have been that I had less time for going to the cinema with my friends and also less time for poker.

2008 – Holidays & visiting friends

I had hoped to visit family and friends in Denmark as well as friends in various European countries and of course to see more of Switzerland. Only the last part happened and to be honest, not a lot. My sister came to visit me together with her two kids. So we went on a 2 day trip to Luzern which we all enjoyed VERY much, definitely a place I want to go and visit again.

I only left Denmark Switzerland once in 2008 and that was on a business trip to Graz, Austria, we had a chance to see the town and that is also a place I would like to go for a long weekend at some stage, very beautiful city.

2008 – Finance

Got a few goals sorted here, got my old notebook paid off, VISA card and MasterCard was also paid almost off. Sad thing was that all this was done with a new loan, which I took to gather all credits up in one place. I’m still convinced that this was the right thing to do, but I still have more to pay off. It also hurt to be without job for some month. My savings and pension stayed very close to zero; except the pension that is paid automatic now with my new work.

Sure I’m earning a steady income now (Not been paid in USD any more) but at the same time I have new expenses due to work (car & food), but I still manage but it would be nice to put more money aside for taxes, holidays and savings.

2008 – Poker

My poker time in 2008 changed a lot; I had some month where I played regular online but never enough to become SilverStar (PokerStars). My online bankroll didn’t improve as much as I planned but still I would say my poker improved a great deal. This is probably mainly due to that I now play live poker as often as I have time. I have so far only played at one place (OtherPoker) but have thought about visiting a few other poker clubs here in Switzerland. My only time in the casino in 2008 was for a freeroll tournament, I didn’t get beyond the first round but I still had a great time. I played 29 live tournaments (SNG and planned tournaments) and reached ITM 5 times, this is not giving me any profit yet. If I consider how many hours I spend playing poker and how much (little) it cost me, then I’m very happy (way cheaper than going out for dinner and cinema).

Some people said I should be careful and not play all my money away (This most be the people who have no or little clue about poker), I track every game I play in Excel files, so I know exactly what I spend and what I won. I’m also staying away from live cash games so with just playing tournaments it is very easy to control. Oh, one thing that was very positive for me in connection with poker was that my mother approved it; she actually said I had an eye for it and should do something about it. How often do you hear about mothers that support their sons in playing poker? :-)

2008 – Blogging

In 2007 I had 66 posts which I wanted to triple with this blog and two new blogs. Well, first of all I didn’t start the two other blogs (Still considering it) and I total failed in blogging regularly. So in 2008 I only blogged 19 times. To be honest, I really don’t know why this was the case. I often had good subjects to blog about, often got started on blog entries but just never got around to finish them.

2009 ????

So what is going to happen with goals for 2009? Let me write about that another day; A promise: I will do that.

I mentioned one book when I wrote the goals for 2008, Time Management from the Inside Out guess what, I didn’t get around to read it yet, just no time (Or I spend the time on other subjects). Maybe in 2009…

One thought on “Goodbye to 2008

  1. Pingback: 2009 here goes

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