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Well, 2020 was quite a year. The COVID-19 pandemic, the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, the Presidential election, the subsequent unfounded accusations of widespread election fraud, and incitement of an attack on the Capitol. Talking about how the year went for me seems incredibly self-centered, but this is what i do every birthday.

Thankfully, my family and I have been lucky this year. My stepson lost his food-service job when the pandemic hit, and my wife has struggled to keep up with all the demands being made of teachers, but we're healthy and secure, as are our families and friends.

As I write this, Joe Biden is going to be inaugurated in a few days. We can hope for more competent and responsible leadership (it really can't get any worse). About 4,000 people are dying in the US each day. Vaccines are becoming available, but the government distribution has been yet another screwup.

Donald Trump has been impeached for a second time, due to his involvement in the attack on the Capitol, and the Senate will try him in the coming weeks. Polls show that 75% of Republicans don't believe Biden legitimately won the election. I don't know what will come in the next few months, but I think we can expect the partisanship of the past few decades to continue.

The company I worked for was acquired by another company at the end of October. For now, I still have my job and still get to work remotely, but it's unclear if they will still have a place for me after we integrate our product's best features into their product, and if they do it's unclear whether that's a place I will want to occupy. So this is one of those years where I really need to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.

I've completed my first semester in the online master's degree program at Georgia Tech. I failed badly at the time-management aspect of it, completing none of the projects on time, but I ended up with a B in the course. I've just started the Spring 2021 semester, taking two courses, and have committed myself to diligently stay ahead of schedule on all the coursework. If all goes well, I expect to get the degree at the end of 2022.

My wife bought me a nice ES-335 guitar for our anniversary, so I've started teaching myself jazz guitar. The last 40 years of trying to teach myself rock guitar hasn't gotten me very far, so I figured a new approach was needed. I've been pretty good about practicing on most days. I can play a lot of chords, arpeggios, and scales, but haven't really learned how to play any complete songs.

I let my hair grow long, for about 10 months, during the year. I thought I was developing a cool Snake Plissken look, but apparently I was the only one who felt that way. So a couple of weeks ago, I cut it myself. It's now short and spiky, and my wife and I both like how it looks. I think this will be my new hairstyle even after it's safe to get professional haircuts again.

My wife talked me into joining a bowling league. I was concerned about maintaining social distancing, but there are only eight people in the league, grouped into teams of two, and they skip every other lane, so it seems relatively safe.

I am hopeful that by the end of the year COVID will no longer be an issue. I'd like to start going to the gym again, and take Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes again. It would be really nice to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my parents.

© 2003-2023 Kristopher Johnson