2009 New Years Predictions: Commentary

It's almost that time of year again! In case you aren't aware, Reyan, David and I started this tradition in college (I don't remember which year, Junior year maybe?) of coming up with 10 predictions for the upcoming year instead of doing New Years resolutions. In anticipation of the 2010 predictions, I'd like to review/comment on the predictions that I made for 2009.

1.Winter and spring in WA will be dull, but the summer will make it worthwhile.
Hmm, I'm not entirely sure what I meant by this. Weather-wise, this was definitely true. I guess in general it was true, too. In June I went backpacking in the N. Cascades, and I started my road trip back home in late August (much of which was backpacking in WA). And the summer field season at the Task Force was definitely good; Tychman Slough assessment, Knotweed surveys, and monitoring/maintenance (which included me getting supervisory experience, and with a Dept. of Corrections field crew, no less!). Overall I'd say I nailed this one.

2.President Obama will assume a major role in addressing climate change, but will fall short with energy policies.
Hmm, I honestly haven't been paying very much attention to what Obama's been up to. I know he got a dog, lol. Not sure if he's still plugging "clean coal," but if so that's definitely some major points docked right there. As for climate change, from what I understand there's been a lot of talk but not much meaningful regulation. Seems like climategate didn't really make a dent in the perceptions of most educated people, as the subject just sort of died down. I've only read a couple of blogs on Copenhagen, but from what I gather it was pretty much a failure. Seems like Tuvalu is making more strides than the U.S.A. So, prediction tentatively failed?

3.Reyan will get another job writing about sports :)
As far as I know this didn't happen, but he did get to interview Seth Green, which is far more impressive.

4.I will get a sub-par job, but I will actually be making money (which I will then save up for travel/grad school)
Yeah...tried and failed. To be fair I only had from late September to really begin this, and then that whole recession thing was kind of unforseen. I need to get on that in January though. Need some income!

5.While in WA, I will consistently follow a self-education program which I began this very day by checking out a geology textbook from the library. Genetics is next.
I didn't do too bad with this. I actually got through the majority of the Geology book, but only a few chapters of Genetics. I just had no focus, especially considering the subject matter. Genetics is broadly interesting to me, but I was mostly brushing up on basics, which I needed to do but it was still dull. I did read a decent amount after that; just not necessarily textbooks (though I'd call some natural history books of the area"self education."). So...prediction successful, if not to the degree that I'd hoped for.

6.Erin and I will coordinate a really awesome camping trip for this summer.
Oh yes, North Cascades in June! Her roommate, Kelly, came along too. It was a great area and the weather was wonderful, and my only complaint is that the mosquitoes were AWFUL!!! Click on my shutterfly page and scroll down to North Cascades June 09 for pics!

7.At least one more of my friends will get engaged.
I'm fairly sure that Jimmy and Amanda were engaged in '09 (my conception of time has been somewhat impaired since graduating from Denison). So I'm counting it. In any case, both David and Jimmy asked me to be a groomsman in their weddings, so it was definitely a marriage-centric year.

8.I will once again remain single this year.
Is this really a surprise? Well, at least I'm fairly comfortable with being single.

9.I will NOT get poison ivy or stung by bees at all this year!
I will never make this prediction again, lol. Talk about doomed to failure. No poison ivy (surprisingly!), but I was stung by yellow jackets once in WA. The yellow jackets there are much less painful than the ones here though. Also got bitten by a ton of mosquitoes. And actually, I revise the "no poison ivy" comment because I may have had a very mild case after walking Angel in the park when I was home for Laura's wedding. Just a few itchy spots which could have been bug bites, but seemed more like poison ivy to me.

10.I will find $5.
I honestly don't remember if I ever found $5 this year. I think this was a joke prediction because I couldn't think of anything else. I'm going to assume that I didn't.

Total Score: 5/10. Not too bad, especially since #5 was the only one that I had complete control over.

P.S. I'd also like to point out prediction #2 from 2007, which I just noticed as I was giving all of the previous prediction posts tags: " I or one of my close friends will have a near death experience." I actually fulfilled that one this year (yes, I realize that it doesn't count because it's the wrong year, but I still wanted to mention it). Word of advice: the extremely cold temperature of alpine lakes severely impairs swimming ability. Cold muscles not liking to work and all. Stay close to the shore ;)