2008 Personal Executive Summary

Executive summary of my 2008, a bit late. Off the top of my head and somewhat random. Representative photos below of my brother and me swimming in the Amazon and of me signing books in San Antonio.

I traveled to Quito and the Ecuadorean Amazon jungle, Zurich, Prague, all over Costa Rica, Alaska, and rural Tennessee. Re-visited and spent time in Washington D.C, New York, and Colorado. Gave a dozen paid speeches in various U.S. locales. Read 60 books. Signed hundreds of copies of my own book. Wrote a hundred thousand words on my blog. Completed two semesters of college. Turned 20. Won an essay contest. Made new friends. Tried to become closer still to old friends. Cried a few times. Laughed a lot. Dined with famous people but enjoyed the no-name dinners more. Got somewhat messily dumped by a girl I had dated for 13 months and was fond of. Lost 5-10 pounds. Lost money in the stock market. Started playing basketball again. Voted Bob Barr and No on 8 in the election. Ziplined through a forest canopy. Fished for halibut off a boat. Hiked around an active volcano. Met one-on-one with David Foster Wallace and then mourned his death. Thousands of minutes on treadmill and thousands of push-ups. Took in a few sunsets. Played 30 games of chess and too few games of ping-pong. Recorded a few commentaries for NPR. Philosophized. Watched too many Seinfeld episodes. Ate peanut-butter Clif bars. Worked on my tan. Plotted world domination.