So, today happens to be a big day. If you’re living in France, it’s probably better known as Bastille Day. If you happen to know me and you don’t live in France, then it’s probably better known as my birthday. Everybody else probably better knows it as the Feast of Ulrich of Zell. Either way, it’s time for rejoicing!

Betwixt rejoicing, I’ll take this time to analyze the past, present, and future. Get your tea leaves ready!

Five Years Ago (2009)

I was living in Houston, working for NASA. This was my first year under a new subcontractor, and things were at times more difficult and at other times more simple. I wasn’t yet a father, but my wife and I had two cats and lived in an apartment ridiculously close to Johnson Space Center. It’s also around this time that Clear Lake Area Writers started blossoming into what it is now. At that time, it met at the Arts Alliance Center of Clear Lake.

Today (2014)

Now I’m living in Northeast Ohio, doing software development for a small company. Earlier this year, I worked for a major player in the Entertainment Content Management industry, before losing my job^[1]. I am the father of a delightful daughter, and my wife and I have one cat. We’re living in a house that started out as a dream, but is gradually becoming a nightmare. At least the commute is reasonable. Clear Lake Area Writers is under a new set of hands, and is running along smoothly, meeting at the Harris County Public Library Freeman Branch. Meanwhile I’ve only written one chapter in the novel I’m working on since moving to Ohio.

Five Years From Now (2019)

Well, I’ll be ramping up my bid to run for President. Hopefully my senate career hasn’t jaded me too much, and I can honestly promise change and transparency and actually deliver on it. I can formally renounce much of the power the executive branch has usurped, causing the system of checks and balances to be more about paper checks and market balances that it is about a nice distribution of power. I’ll actually shut down Guantanamo Bay, and make sure all the people there get fair and open trials with a presumption of innocence. I’ll make sure that the Constitution is enforced, and stop enforcing (from an executive level) any law that is in direct conflict to this document, and encourage Congress to repeal it and the Supreme Court to make a ruling on its constitutionality. I’ll also work to make real estate fraud a felony, because let’s be honest, it should be.

In a more realistic future, I’ll hope to have actually finished that novel, preferably no later than when my daughter is old enough to read. I hope to get some of my ideas implemented. I also hope to have all this nightmare with our house behind us. I worry, too, as our one cat is (in 2014) ten years old, and will be fifteen in 2019. While cat #1 lived past 20, I can’t be sure that any other cat will be so fortunate. That being said, I hope cat #2 will be alive still, and maybe just a bit lazier than she normally is.

In Closing

I’ll try to remember to do something like this each year. And maybe look back and see how well I did.^[2]

That being said, if there are any trends you’d like to see on my blog, feel free to let me know. While I post about whatever strikes my fancy at the time, I’m not above listening to my readers’ (or is it reader’s?) opinions (or is it opinion?).

Thank you.

[1] This was mostly attributed to a lack of bidirectional communication between myself and management, but it’s a long story I don’t want to get into here.

[2] I wouldn’t complain if I got some write-in nominations.