The end-of-decade celebrations have included a lot of timelines, so I thought it would be fun to contrast my life then-and-now.
| 2000 | 2010 | In between | What's next? | |
| Work | Working for a large consulting company | Working for a small consulting company | Became an independent contractor for Honda; opened a bed and breakfast | Renew my work permit in May, and then who knows? |
| Computers | Running a 486 on Windows 98 with a dial-up modem, hooking up to a public server in Colorado to access the Internet. | Running a crappy old laptop, that is still 20 times faster than my old desktop | Went through 3 computers, including building a desktop from scratch two years ago; now it's a doorstop; bought laptops for nieces and nephews | Upgrading to a new netbook next year, with Chrome OS |
| Technology | After years of saying I would never have a mobile phone, finally bought one | After toying with the idea of an iPhone, got a Motorola Razr that doesn't do anything | After years of saying I would never get an electronic organizer, finally bought one (and when that broke, I bought a used one that was even older) | Again toying with the idea of an iPhone |
| Music | Ripped most of my albums to CDs. This was a laborious and time-consuming process, and took so much space I deleted the music off my hard drive | My laptop, phone, alarm clock, and electronic organizer can play MP3s, but I stream most music over the Internet. | All of those CDs died, so I lost all of that music again. Ripped all of my CDs to MP3 files. Bought a record player, but sold it when I moved to London. | Get my dad's old records out of my mom's garage |
| Television | Had a 20" TV set which was already 10 years old | Have a 32" TV set, which I bought for $30 | Didn't watch much TV until I got Tivo in 2003. Only shows I watch regularly are Doctor Who and The Daily Show. | Get rid of my TV. (Went 6 months without one and didn't miss it.) |
| Home | Had a 3-bedroom house in LA | Have a 1-bedroom flat in London | Moved 9 times (twice back to LA) | Moving in with Jessica, and buying a house together in May |
| Car | I had just bought a '98 Pontiac Sunfire convertible, forest green | Don't have a car; have been using public transportation for 3 years :-) | Left it in Pennsylvania; I have no idea why | Moving out to the countryside, and will need to buy another car :-( |
| Microwave oven | Didn't own a microwave | Don't own a microwave | Never bought a microwave | Jess has said if we move in together, a microwave is non-negotiable |
| Photography | Had just bought a Canon SLR camera | Just bought a Canon digital SLR camera | Got really into photography for several years, then lost all interest | Jess just gave me her old digital camera, because I kept complaining the SLR was too heavy to lug around |
| The Internet | Didn't know anyone who had an email address | Regularly blast my friends with email spam | Started four blogs, built three web sites, and still completely missed the digital revolution | Toying with a Twitter account |
| Comic strips | Dilbert | xkcd | I still miss Calvin & Hobbes | Fail blog |
| Books | "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold (published in 1949) | "King Solomon's Ring" by Konrad Lorenz (published in 1952) | Read a whole lot of books on business process management and historical home restoration | Haven't read any fiction for about 15 years, so I have a lot of catch-up |
| Movies | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | Can't think of anything I loved, but still want to see Nowhere Boy, Up in the Air, and maybe Avatar | Lord of the Rings! | Alice in Wonderland, The Rum Diaries and the A-Team :-) |
No comments:
Post a Comment