I had some time off due to the Christmas holiday, so I opted to update my web site because it was needing it. A couple months ago I ditched jumpline.com as my host because of my abysmal customer service experiences with them, and moved to itsamac.com for service. So far itsamac.com has been pretty good, responsive, and their customer support has been a wonderful experience... just had to get my pages up to scratch as well.

As I was going through the pages, updating copyright notices, fixing broken links, and other bits of housekeeping, I saw my "What lies ahead" for 2002, read it, and thought it was interesting to see where my head was at a year ago. So I thought I'd take a little time to look back at what I wrote and look forward as well. I'm fearing tho that if I do this one more time it will become a tradition, because once an Aggie does something three times, it's tradition. I'm not an Aggie, but my wife is and she's rubbed off on me. :-)

Looking back on 2002

We're still in diapers (Aaron's got at least another 1-2 years), but certainly are gaining traction and getting on with life. About mid-way through 2002 we started house hunting and found a great house on the south side of Austin, Texas. We had thought about moving elsewhere (e.g. to other cities or states), but we love Austin too much. After my birthday (I turned 30), we bought the house, moved, and settled in. This house is big enough that it should hold us quite well through the kids' growing years, but still gives us some room to move about, renovate, and redecorate. As soon as we bought house #2, we put our old house on the market. The down side was that this was right at the start of the school year, which is normally a slow time for house selling, but it was made worse by the downturn of the economy and the fact that Austin was no longer a boom-town with many people moving into the city every day. The house stayed on the market for about four months before we found a buyer. But we did find a buyer and although the house sold for a lot less than we wanted, we were happy to have it sold and still have enough money to get a new mini-van for Michele and the kids. It was a good Christmas present for us. As I write this, we're seeking out bids on a 2003 Mazda MPV, so here's hoping for a new mini-van since the present minivan is about to peed out on us.

We've adjusted to life with three children rather well. A family of five does make some things difficult and more expensive (it seems the world is orchestrated for a family of four), but it's a lot of fun too. Aaron is old enough now to really play with his older siblings, and Wade and Fiona find Aaron to be more of a little person than this helpless lump of flesh lying on the floor. It's a great joy to watch the three of them being together, playing together, even fighting together. Michele and I hope they'll continue to grow and bond with a solid relationship that will last their lifetimes.

I still work for Aladdin Systems, Inc. on Spring Cleaning and ArchiveSearch, and I still do all this work from my home office (full-time telecommute). It's been a bit of a challenge to work from home the past some months, but I attribute that to all the hassle from moving, relocating, and some depression over the previous house sale. But life with Aladdin is good, enjoyable. I'm hoping that in 2003 I will be able to do more work in my own business dealings, likely not enough for me to quit my day job, but hopefully to bring in some supplemental income and continue to build my knowledge base of running your own business and expanding my capabilities and exposure.

Looking ahead...

I really don't know what lies ahead for us. We've spent so much time over the past years looking to get to and past some important milestones, and in 2002 we pretty much achived those. There wasn't much point in looking past those milestones, and now that I think about it I realize that we do need to do more planning and dreaming for the days ahead of us.

I do know of some things that ought to be accomplished in the coming year, mostly in terms of increasing my own business work and presence, and other financial goals. But those matters are too personal or too much in development to share here. :-)

And in some ways, I don't want to plan too much. Life's been so hectic for so many years that I'd like to take some time to just enjoy it more. Life's a journey, not a destination. We're very blessed, very fortunate, and very much where we need to be to continue journeying as individuals and a family in the years to come. I think a good thing would be to enjoy life a bit more, stop and smell the roses more, but also start to lay the groundwork for where to go from here... start to figure out what roads we wish to explore.

One road I hope to explore is getting a family computer, likely an iMac. I'd like to see what the kids can do, given a computer and good software. I'd like to see how Wade will take to creating artwork on the computer instead of his Magna Doodle. How will Fiona take to music on the computer. And Aaron... at this point I just don't want his sticky, food-covered fingers on the keyboard. ;-) Plus, how will Michele take to it? The computer will be downstairs and more available to her than the computers are now (locked up in my office). Will she become less analog and more digital? Time will tell.

As I said last year, a roller coaster ahead, but it's going to be a fun and good time overall. I no longer wish to be drowning in a daydream. And gettin' thar is half the fun. Continuing on the journey....

- Hsoi