That sounds like a good name for my annual end-of-the-year Xanga review. Hopefully by the end it will make sense.

I was watching the evening news at my folks’ place in early January (I hardly ever watched the news in So Cal), when it was announced that Barack Obama had won the Democratic Iowa Caucus. Needless to say, I, and apparently the rest of America, was hooked to election coverage for the next 10 months.

When I got back home I bit the bullet and paid for internet service. Facebook changed my life.

I got a part-time, work from home job doing Flash Animation for a TV pilot. Not that exciting, but I was able to put together a little portfolio.

My last grandparent (father’s mother) died in February. I went with my family (including sis-in-law Christina) to Taiwan for a week. We had a pretty good time, considering, eating good food, seeing museums, riding the train, enjoying the city. We made a trip up to a place translated as “Gold Mountain” to visit my grandfather’s burial site. It was raining, we had to squeeze six into a taxi, and it took half the day to get there. It was worth it.

Otherwise, the first part of the year was spent furiously writing and re-writing the Prince and the Butterfly, by then renamed The Prince and the Milkmaid. I spent most of the day writing at Borders at the Santa Anita Mall. The guy at Juice it Up knew my name by the beginning of summer.

Sometime in May, I came to grips with the fact that the Prince and the Milkmaid was not working as it was written, and would not be finished before I ran out of money. The work for the TV pilot ran out, and I needed to find a job. It’s one of the worst feelings, to be thrown off your groove. Three-and-a-half years of work and nothing to show for it except the lessons I’d learned.

Made a trip to Yosemite for Memorial Day Weekend. Hiked all the way to the base of the cables, but couldn’t go the last couple hundred yards on account of snow. Ironic, I know, given the situation with my writing. But Half Dome is beautiful in the snow, and now I can say that for true.

I stopped writing. Moved into my brother’s new house in Monrovia to save money. Signed up for 24-hour fitness by adding onto my brother’s plan. Got back to reading (which I hadn’t been doing a whole lot of). Started looking for a job. Bank account kept shrinking.

In July I went to an interview at Disney, set up thanks to my friend Louisa from the church I’m going to in Pasadena. I showed them the stuff I’d done for the TV pilot. They hired me on the spot. In fact, they gave me my first assignment on the spot. It was perfect. A full-time, work from home job animating characters I grew up loving.

Congratulations to Christine and Will, and Rita and Andrew for their sunny summer weddings.

So You Think You Can Dance? Best season yet.

Went home to SJ for a very surreal high school reunion weekend. I put it like this: Everyone is much cooler than they were in high school, except the ones who aren’t, but I don’t care about them. It was like talking to strangers, but not really.

The second half of the year went by really fast. I suppose that’s to be expected with the pace of life and work and all. I can’t remember much about it, except the Rock Band nights at Mike’s, being aggravated by Sarah Palin, and celebrating Obama’s November win with a glass of merlot.

“There’s never been anything false about hope.”

Funny thing about being a writer: A writer can’t stop writing. Around the end of October I started making notes on a new book. Mayhaps in another three-and-a-half years I’ll finish it. We’ll see.

As per tradition, here’s a list of all the books I read in 2008: Lucinda’s Secret, The Frog Princess, The Ironwood Tree, The Wrath of Mulgarath, No Ordinary Time, War and Peace, The City of Ember, The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, The Diamond of Darkhold, The Importance of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays by Oscar Wilde, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Inkheart.

So what’s going on in 2009? My contract at Disney lasts until October. I’m going to get going on the new book. Hopefully in May I’ll get to try hiking Half Dome again. And I’m gonna keep living, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

“You have so much to enjoy and to be and to do.”