COMMANDER'S LOG
Stardate 200812.20
End of Year Report
December 2008: No trees were harmed in the production of this year's letter, although billion upon billions of electrons were shoved about a bit. That's it. No more paper. At least this year. This letter may seem a little short, but all the details of the year's activities are in the links. I suspect it would take 30 pages to print out everything in the ancient manner (not counting the little present at the end, which is another 30 pages.
The big news this year is next year. I'm RETIRING !!! Come spring I will be eligible for Medicare, have enough in the retirement system, and be through with all higher education expenses. By my calculations I will have more disposable cash than I did two years ago. And it will be coming not a minute too soon, as the commoditization of mental health is now complete, and the work environment has become intolerable. I might not even stay on to my target retirement date the way things are going.
Plans? I have a lot going on with the car, bicycling, Star Trek, jazz, and some writing. There is plenty to keep me busy. I will be open to some more volunteer stuff. I am working with Stephen Larsen of the Stone Mountain Counseling Center on possibly doing some non-psychiatric groups: stress management and the like. On my bucket list is to go on a bicycle tour of France, including at least one mountain stage from the Tour de France route. I am still looking for a riding partner.
As for this past year, most of my activities are reported on my logs on my Web page. There are all the stories of the year, complete with lots of pictures and even videos. Highlights are:
Liz is ALMOST FINISHED. As I write this she is sending out copies of her dissertation to the readers, and waiting work when her defense will be in January. Even though the dissertation is done, she still spends day and night writing stuff like proposals, and getting some papers ready for publication.
Jennifer is in her second graduate school year at THE Ohio State University. I January she will be going to Paris for some sort of astronomical conference.
Irene is in her last year at Emerson. Being a senior, she has moved up the totem pole to Scenic Designer and Technical Director roles, but still seems to spend most of her time in the shop. She still has all her fingers and toes.
The Zhang Heng has re-kindled my interest in Star Trek. Some of this is covered in the logs. In the course of checking our bulletin boards and stuff on the web, I found out that the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton was closing in September. So, I arranged a family vacation so we could all see it before it closed. It is sort of a mini-theme park with a couple of immersion rides, a timeline and museum of Treknobilia, a restaurant, a promenade fashioned after Deep Space 9 with shops, and outside a bunch of space and SF-themed slot machines.
In addition to the ST Experience we took in a number of the Lost Wages sights including a trip to Red Rocks Canyon and seeing Cirque de Soleil's Beatle's Love. There are several albums of pictures on Flickr from this trip.
Lastly, my present to you. My experiences with the car, the Prius and hybrid car communities, and the Star Trek events inspired a novelette, or a long short story if you will. Its main elements came to me in a couple of flashes, and then a lot of work on the details. I was also inspired by a book that Steve Larsen recommended to me, Stealing Fire from the Gods, which presents a view of how psychological and mythical elements make a story great. It is recommended, but not required, that you see Star Trek Movies II-IV (The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home) that set up many of the lines in the story.
My best wishes to you for the New Year.
Live Long and Prosper,
Willie