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:
- Limit coffee consumption to two days per week
- 100 pushup's everyday by May 1st
- Finish myfmo.com fitness management site
Finish raamdev.com site- Add 20 lbs of muscle
- Add 2 inches of muscle to my calves
This worked for a few months, but I quickly returned to the one habit I seem unable to break.
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.
I did not work on this site at all. This will be my main personal project of 2007.
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.
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.
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.