This year has been one of self-discovery and of asking myself what I should do next with my life. It has been one of learning and big decisions.

I discovered the importance of nose breathing, went cold-turkey on black coffee (more than 11 months now!), started studying the Navy SEALs (an unrelenting source of physical motivation), took a firearms course.

I discovered some incredible bloggers who have inspired me more than words can describe and whose tweets from various exotic places continue to inspire and motivate me. Most notable are Sid (connected through HN), Amber (connected through Sid), and Colin (connected through Amber’s blog comments). Amber and Colin’s dramatic transition to a nomadic lifestyle motivated and inspired my decision to take the steps necessary to make my own nomadic lifestyle transition a reality.
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For the past few years I have been writing a end-of-year review summarizing major events or changes in my life that occurred for that year as well as reviewing the resolutions I had set at the beginning of the year. I have found the process of writing these reviews extremely helpful for my own personal advancement. Having such reviews to look back at the years also helps me see where I could have improved and what things I considered important. If you have a blog, journal, or even a diary, I strongly encourage you to do something similar.

This past year seems to have brought the greatest number of changes to my life, as seems to be the case for every year that passes (a good thing, I think). Changes on the material level have been equally as great as those on the personal level.

Last year, after realizing that I could not afford to keep my three multi-family investment properties, I listed all of them for sale. But due to the rapidly declining market, all but one was foreclosed on this year. The bank did not even have the courtesy of calling me on the first foreclosure and the property that was sold earlier this month sold at a huge loss. I tried working with the banks on all three properties, but they would hear nothing of it.

The global financial crisis only worsened things, but it was way back in 2007 that I saw where things were headed. That was when I told myself I had to leave all emotion out of the financial decisions and simply do what makes the most sense. For that reason, I decided to file for bankruptcy this year. I’m young and spending the next 5 – 10 years trying to keep up with three mortgages that totaled more than 4x the (drastically reduced) value of the properties made no sense at all. Hey, some of the most successful people have filed for bankruptcy and bounced back. Like I said, when it comes to finances, leave all emotion out of it and just do what makes the most sense. The weight of responsibility, stress, and worry that has been taken off my back is incredible. I never thought I would feel so much freedom and relief as I do now.

Late in September, I decided to move out of my 1000+ sq ft, two-bedroom Arlington apartment and move back close to home (but not at home) to a tiny 150 sq ft room to save money on rent and expenses. The decision was difficult because for the past 10 years I’ve subconsciously used the distance I was living from home as measurement of my independence (it’s silly, I know). The big reason to move was to save money, but it was also because I realized having all that extra space made it that much more difficult to own less stuff (“Reduce what I own”, a 2008 new years resolution I took very seriously). Since my new place wouldn’t have anywhere to put all the stuff (and because I hate crowded rooms), I began letting go of stuff.

It was the end of a 3-year relationship late this year that made me open my eyes and really take a look at my life and the so many things that I have neglected. (I intentionally avoid talking about the more emotional aspects of my life on this blog, but this event profoundly affected the way I look at life, love, and relationships.) Communication holds the keys to every relationship, whether in business, family, or love. Although my sociable limitations have always been a crutch, I’ve managed to “get by” with the bare minimum, telling myself, and others, that not being social is “just who I am”. Well that’s bullshit. Our limitations, and the things we’re not good at, should be the very things we spend the most time improving! Shrugging off change because it’s difficult is a sure way to death. We need to Evolve or Die.

I’ve started being friendlier to people and I try to smile more often (I’m well known to have that “always-so-serious” look). I make an effort to communicate, even with people I don’t know. I’ve also begun doing more online socializing with sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter and I make a conscious effort to read and comment on others’ blogs. In the few short months that I’ve begun making such conscious efforts, amazing things have started happening.

After attending the HOPE conference earlier this year, I realized how much I really love the lower-level world of technology (microcontrollers, robotics, etc.) and I decided I really want to learn to write Linux device drivers and explore the inner workings of Unix. My company paid for a class at Harvard Extension and I decided to take the C/Unix class to get myself started with C and Unix programming. I never really understood how the C language was so much closer to the machine, but now I do (and now I can really appreciate its power). I absolutely love it. Being home-schooled and self-taught my whole life, this class marked the first formal education I’ve ever had and, like my unique perspective of college, the environment was very new.

I never thought I would give up my Blackberry, but this year the iPhone won me over. It’s an amazing device and I’m really glad I switched. Having my phone, email, and iPod, SSH client, web, and camera all in one tiny, very user-friendly device is simply incredible.

After reading Getting Things Done by David Allen, I bought a GTD application for OS X (and iPhone) called OmniFocus and I’ve been using it religiously to keep myself organized. Practicing the GTD method has definitely helped me stay focused and get more things done (though I’m still practicing). I’ve begun reading other books like the very popular How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. One of my new years resolutions for this year was to read one book every month. I haven’t quite achieved that rate, but I’ve at least read half a dozen books cover to cover. I discovered I can read stuff online at 700 WPM with nearly 90% comprehension using spreeder.com and it has helped me get through the large number of interesting articles that I normally would have passed up for lack of time.

Here are the new years resolutions I made earlier this year, along with notes about what was, or was not, accomplished:

1. Drink at least 2 liters of water per day (doesn’t include other liquids)

Not done. The first few weeks I drank a lot of water, but I think if you’re not very active, drinking so much water can be very difficult. I don’t drink 2 liters of water a day, but I usually manage to down at least 16 oz.

2. Drink no more than 1 cup of coffee per day

Done. To my surprise, I was able to stick with this rule throughout most of the year. A single cup of black coffee, usually a small. For the past few weeks, I’ve cut black coffee all together and reverted to a single shot of expresso diluted in a large cup of hot water (an Americano). I also try to drink at least 1 cup of herbal tea every day.

3. 100 pushups, 100 situps, and 100 pullups per day, every day

Not done. Yikes. Not even close. My workout routine was very irregular this year and currently my lats and arms hurt like hell from the two sets of 10 pullups I did two days ago!

4. 10% Bodyfat

Not done. As I mentioned above, this year my workout routine was very irregular (entire months passed without working out!) but there are no excuses! 2009 will be the fittest year of my life!

5. Maintain a 100% vegan diet

Done. Vegan for life!

6. Reduce what I own

Done. As I mentioned in the review above, I have gotten rid of all my properties, sold a lot of stuff, moved into a tiny 150 sq ft room and I’m now down to just a single storage unit of stuff and whatever is in my small room and bathroom. Paying for the storage unit ($120 a month) should give me incentive to get the stuff inside sold ASAP.

7. At least $20k in savings and investments

Not done. Due to the loss of my properties this year and my overall financial situation, this has not been achieved.

8. Get rid of all my rental properties

Done. I tried to sell all three of them, but two were foreclosed on and one was sold. As I said in the review, the weight of responsibility, stress, and worry that has been taken off my back is incredible. I never thought I would feel so much freedom and relief as I do now.

9. Revamp my web hosting business and move it to corbaweb.com

Not done. I decided to change the name from corbaweb.com to actualwebspace.com. Revamping my hosting business has been something I have been delaying for far too long. I made myself a promise that I would get it revamped before my vacation is over, and I will be spending this weekend working on it.

10. Make bbalert.net public (personal project)

Not done. This was going to be a site for setting up BlackBerry email Alerts, but since I got an iPhone, my interest in finishing this vanished.

11. Make myfmo.com public

Not done. This is the fitness management site I’ve been wanting to create for the past few years (it was carried over from 2007).

12. Make savenotes.com public

Not done. A simple web app to save notes online (it was also carried over from 2007). I’ve seen lots of online sites that do something similar (Pastie, NoteSake) and they have mostly discouraged me from creating my own version.

13. Read one book per month

Not done. But I’ve read about a book every two months on average this year, so it’s definitely a huge improvement.

14. Become a better chess player

Not done? I haven’t put any major effort into becoming a better chess player, but the past few days I played with my dad and beat him 75% of the time (vs 25% last year). I thought maybe I was getting better, but then yesterday I lost every single game to both him and my brother. I definitely need to play more often.

While going over all the posts I wrote this year, I came across Managing Trust and Expectation. While reviewing the past year is great, we must never forget the importance of this very moment.

This year, as previous years, has passed by faster than ever.

My web hosting business, akmai.net, is still doing well. I have picked up several new clients, including several sites for Aerva, the new company I am working for (more on that in a minute). A few months ago I upgraded the hosting server from a shared VPS account to a full fledged dedicated server. Previous performance issues have disappeared and I’m now able to offer even better hosting packages.

At the end of 2005 my stock portfolio contained 19 stocks. During the first 3 months of 2006, my portfolio went up as high as 31%, however after that it steadily decreased to the point where I was losing 20% (!). I arrived at a very tough financial decision and had no choice but to sell my entire portfolio at a loss. In the past 3 months however, I have picked up 5 stocks, however they are all on cash, not margin. The stocks are, PLUG, GSX, TKO, FCEL, and ERES.

In late March, I decided to see what kind of Linux related jobs were available in the job market. I was considering studying for MCSE and becoming Microsoft certified, however I knew I enjoyed Linux and Linux administration much more than Windows. So before I started spending lots of time studying for something I wasn’t even very interested in, I decided to submit my resume to a few companies who has posted job listings on CraigsList. One of those companies was Aerva. I wrote a couple of posts (here, here, and here) about everything that happen back in April. Up until now, I have been working there part-time, about 20 hours a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Starting January 1st, 2007 I will be working full-time. Because of type of job, and the responsibilities I will have, I decided it made the most sense to move to Cambridge. Moving will save me about 3 hours per day commuting (15 hours a week), and because of how many things I’ll need to be doing, I cannot afford to spend 15 hours a week driving. After a few weeks of looking, I finally found an apartment very close to my office in Cambridge’s Central Square; a 10 minute walk to my office. I consider moving to Cambridge living in a big city, so I’ll be able to cross that off my list of things to do before I die.

In February of this year, I put my 53 Ware Street property on the market for $310,000. I realized that the amount of work involved with managing three properties was more than I was willing to deal with. Because of the slow real estate market, the house did not move very much at all. I eventually dropped the price all the way down to $289,900; the cheapest 4-family property in Lowell. Still, it did not sell. After 9 months I decided to take it off the market, refinance my 9 Bowers ST property, and put $12,000 into repairs and renovations into 53 Ware St. I had two new heating systems installed, new plumbing in the basement, a new hot water tank, new paint and floors in two of the units, replaced the remaining old style windows, new sink and kitchen counter in the first floor 2bdrm unit and I’m currently finishing renovations in the second floor unit (replacing bathroom paneling, and kitchen counter/sink). I’m having the siding finished as well (end of next week). The one bedroom unit in the front is vacant and needs a lot of work. I’m not even trying to finish that yet because the 2bdrm units will pull in more rent. The ordeal with George Demasse was finally ended. Almost right after that eviction, I was forced to evict another tenant on 53 Ware St.

A few months ago I bought an Audi A4 from my friend Tom. Since I’ll be working in Boston, I will be driving a lot more on the highway. Driving my truck everywhere was really starting to take a toll on my wallet for gas, and a toll on the truck in terms the transmission, which is already in bad shape.

I used some of the money from my 9 Bowers ST refinance to join a 4-way investment with my family to buy a house in Hudson, NH. We spent several weeks working on the house, removing old wallpaper, painting, cleaning, adding new tile to the kitchen, new counter tops, and new appliances. My sister, Meera, and my future-brother-in-law, Thea, and their zoo of pets, have moved into the house and are now living there. I’m actually typing this review sitting on their couch, using their fiber optic (Verizon FIOS) wireless connection.

My workouts have been all over the place this year. There were several months where I was very steady, however I got sick a couple times in a row, and with how busy I’ve been the past month I haven’t had the time to get my workouts organized. Now that I’ll be moving to Cambridge, I will have five days a week which I can organize things very tightly. I’ll be able to dedicate an hour or so to workouts, and I plan to make a really huge improvement next year.

And a quick review of 2006 New Years Resolutions:

1. Limit coffee consumption to two days per week

This worked for a few months, but I quickly returned to the one habit I seem unable to break.

2. 100 pushup’s everyday by May 1st

I was doing 70 pushup’s in 1 minute every day up until late March, however I approached a physical limit; I started to get intense headaches because of all the blood rushing to my head. After that, I stopped the daily routine altogether.

3. Finish myfmo.com fitness management site

I did not work on this site at all. This will be my main personal project of 2007.

4. Finish raamdev.com site

As the archives page shows, I have finally created an area on the web where I can post about anything I want, and feel comfortable doing it.

5. Add 20 lbs of muscle

Did not even come close to reaching this goal. My workouts were quite intense for several months in a row, however I am still the same weight and body fat percentage as I was a year ago.

6. Add 2 inches of muscle to my calves

Also did not accomplish this.

My 2007 new year’s resolutions will come tomorrow. Until then, this chapter of 2006 shall close while the new chapter of 2007 opens.

I missed the 2004 review, but I decided that I should keep up with writing a review each year, mainly because it helps me keep track of my progress as the years go by. It feels as if January 1st, 2005 was just yesterday, and here it is, January 1st, 2006! I guess the reason it passed so quickly is because I’ve kept myself so busy.

My web hosting business, akmai.net is moving along nicely with about 15 customers. I have no plans to expand it, simply because I have so many other things going on right now. The computer consulting work keeps me busy. I signed up on ComputerRepair.com and I’ve been receiving a couple of service calls every month.

My stock investment portfolio has expanded in both value and diversity during the past year. I follow Michael Murphy’s stock advice. You can check out his New World Investor website. I currently have a position in the following 19 stocks: ALVR, BCRX, CSCO, DNDN, ERES, HLIT, JDSU, MVIS, PKTR, PLAY, PLUG, PRSF, SIMG, SNDA, TKO, TRBM, TSM, UTSI, ZHNE.

2005 also saw the completion of the 12′x16′ shed in my back yard. I am now working on renovating my basement and turning it into a studio. It currently has a working bathroom, and finished walls, ceiling, outlets and a light in the bedroom. The gas piping for my main heater is complete with the wall mount heater hooked up and working. I also purchased a third investment property, a 4 unit building, which I am now considering selling due to the high maintenance required.

During the end of 2004 and beginning of 2005, I slacked off on my fitness. I was over confident that I wouldn’t gain weight or get out of shape because of how far I had come. I was wrong. I gained 20 lbs, and lost at least 10 lbs of muscle. When I reached 180lbs (up from 160lbs!) I realized enough was enough. In May 2005 I started my workout program, and stayed on it until November 1st. During that time, I dropped 25lbs of fat, and gained at least 15 lbs of muscle. In November, I started to get very busy and decided to take a short break from my workouts. Surprisingly, I have maintained my weight, and muscle mass, during the past two months. But I’m not taking any chances. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be back on workout program, three days a week.

I will submit another post with new years resolutions for 2006.

Well, its been quite an eventful year this 2003 has. It came and went as fast as I had imagined it would. We waged war on Iraq (no suprise), caught Saddam in a hole (yay), and lost the Beagle 2 Mars probe (damnit).

At the beginning of this year, if you recall, I made a list of New Years resolutions; quite a big list in fact. Below, is that list again along with a summary for the ones I accomplished and an excuse for the ones I did not.

1) Lose 20lbs and get in shape by June 1st
This by far is the #1 accomplishment for me this year. I not only surpassed my goal by 20lbs (thats right, I lost 40lbs this year!) but my appearance has changed so much that I need to get a new license. My workouts will continue on into the following year, as I still have another 10lbs to lose before I am where I want to be.

2) Finish highschool
I did not accomplish this. My only excuse is time. I spent so much of my free time working out that I neglected to study. This will be one of next years top goals.

3) Study for and take the SAT’s and score at least 1200
I did take the SAT’s, however I did not score nearly as high as my goal. Of course, my excuse for this was the fact that I only prepared for one day before taking it. I scored around 850.

4) Get into college for the Fall Semesters
Becuase I did not complete High School this year, I did not try to get into college. Even if I had, I doubt I would have had the time to attend college with the 60+ hour work weeks I’ve been managing.

5) Do more romantic things for my GF
You’d have to ask her about this one.

6) Take my GF horse back riding!
Unfortunetly we did not even get to go camping this year as we had planned, so there was no horse back riding either.

7) Get my MCSE2k and CCNA certifications
No time to study for them, and any free time to study that I had I used for studying High School.

Get at least 1 Linux certification
Ditto.

9) Learn a foreign language
Double-Ditto

10) Learn a computer programming language
I have advanced my working knowledge of PHP this year, however I cant say that I’ve learned the entire language.

11) Save $10,000
This one I did not accomplish, however I have a good excuse! I wasnt planning to buy a house this year, and any extra money I had went into buying things to repair and work on it. But I could have done a lot better with saving. That will be my first and foremost goal of 2004.

As you can see, I did not accomplish nearly as much as I set out for. This year I bought a house, something I was not expecting to do for another few years. However it was a very good decision. Not only do I live free of rent (I rent the first and second floor which pays the mortgage, while I live in the renovated attic), but it also was an excellent investment. I plan to do much more investing in the year to come.