What new things did I learn in 2004? I learned how to work with MT code for my other blog. Sort of learned. It is more complicated than I thought and I can't rely on frontpage to jimmy with it since that ____ program automatically changes the strange code into stranger characters, and I don't know how to turn the auto-change off yet. So I hybrid it with Notepad, which does really strange things to the formatting. Ok. I half-learned.

Another really new thing for me was to learn how to read stock writing. :) Yep, all those magical little symbols and numbers that stand for why your money is going down the drain and why everyone else seems to get rich. Of course, I only half understand that in my math-challenged sort of way. But now I have a teeny bit of stock and I can now lose money all by myself instead of depending on others to lose it for me. What a feeling of power and intrepidness!

I haven't figured out funds yet, which is probably good. That is saved for 2005.

I wish I had done lots of this sooner in my life, but wow- what would I have done? Things are probably best in their own time. I am more self-reliant now.

I watched really really stupid things on videos and caught up with last decades culture. I know the draw of Friends, I understand the freaky eschatology of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I know what it is to pull an all-nighter for 24... and be the undead for a week afterward.

I disengaged from online forums. I am now deeply embedded in the blog culture, which I don't really understand the workings of yet.

I am seeing a pattern here....