The Year Was 2007

Blogger's Note: I pretend I'm interviewed by 60 Minutes. I choose Scott Pelley to interview me. Also, the blog entry is unedited for grammar and content. 60 Minutes is represented by "60M" and I'm represented by "RM."

60M: The year was 2007. It's Raymond Mar's worse year in his life that even includes high school and college. The year started great. He started to wear braces in January. In March, he started working at Cisco, and his second week he went on a business trip to Vancouver, BC, Canada. He purchased his first car in May. Thereafter, 2007 went downhill and he never recovered. We interview him asking what happened and the lessons he learned.

RM: Actually, 2007 started bad. My grandfather past away. My family and I went to Southern California. In 2005-2006, my family and my relatives who lived in the Bay Area spent Saturday's with him.

Then from January to May, 2007 went great. I got my braces, and that started helping me improve my smile. That was January. Then in March, I started to work at Cisco. Great timing because Colliers went beyond garbage. It started to head to the sewers. The second week at Cisco, my department got together for their annual meeting. We met in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I got a new cell phone. And I started instant messaging—chatting online. Those were all new experiences.

2007 was getting better. In May, I purchased my first car from my neighbor. It was a 2005 Toyota Camry. The car was a V6 and it has air conditioning. My family cars only my Mom's car has air conditioning.

60M: Then the year went downhill.

RM: Yeah, it did. Uh, I say the downhill started the day I got my car, lol. I locked my keys inside my trunk and the doors were all locked. I had to call my Dad to give me my spare keys. Man, that was embarrassing.

Then Fanime Con was terrible. I made a lot of mistakes. Some events started late. Anime Expo was a disaster. It took place at the Long Beach Convention Center. The facilities were too small. The hot weather made it worse. In fairness, some problems were not Anime Expo's fault. They're not going back there ever again. I made mistakes at both Fanime and Anime Expo that needed to be corrected for future cons.

Following Anime Expo, the summer I created the 2007 Summer Sabbatical. Cisco was stressing me out. I wanted to relax and take a break. The Summer Sabbatical failed.

60M: The Summer Sabbatical was supposed to pause Raymond's daily life. Do something relaxing. Do something different. Do something outside Cisco that's not Cisco.

Why did your Summer Sabbatical failed?

I failed to experience new experiences. I failed to seek new adventures. I failed to meet new people. I had a car. I had a job. I should have done new things. Why didn't I do all these? I was an idiot.

Hmmm, now I think back the Summer Sabbatical was like a cover up. It was covering how bad 2007 had been going. It was an excuse to say, "2007 is bad. Who cares? I still work at Cisco. Whatever."

60M: Raymond's summer was a total loss. However, the fall was a little better. He went to a Ren Faire for the first time in his life. He played Team Fortress 2, his first video game he played online. He went to a cosplay gathering where he did meet a new friend on Halloween. Work started to be better. And he watched The Nutcracker. The last time he watched ballet was in 1997.

RM: What ruined the fall was I spent my Saturday's helping my Dad help a friend install a new roof. Time was running out. My Dad and his friend hired three people to finish installing the roof. The project started in the summer time. The workers took about 3-4 hours to finish the roof. They were fast. If my Dad hired workers to install the new roof, they saved time and have better uses for our Saturday's. Why was my Dad slow? I don't know. Even my brother helped, too, and he spent his Saturday's in the summer helping my Dad.

60M: There are ups and downs in everyone's life. Nobody has a perfect year. Why 2007 is the worse year in your life?

Ummmm . . . . The short answers are idiot, taking life for granted, naive, failing to earn, failing to relax, pretending to be perfect and if someone didn't do something right, I blame them saying you should have done this and that—the mistake was obvious to correct.

But yeah, taking for granted is the biggest lesson I learned. I said to myself that 2007 is going to be a good year no matter what happens. I said that on my first day at Cisco. The rest of 2007 can be bad because the Cisco job superseded all the bad events and bad happenings in my life. So if I make a mistake, something bad happened to me, then no mattered what happened, 2007 is a good year. That was stupid. I took 2007 for granted. I should have corrected the mistakes. I should have created action or at least lessen the pain if something bad happened to me.

In short, I was an idiot. I failed to take control of my life. Life controlled me. If life gave me something good, hooray. If life gave me something bad, oh well. Then I got angry. I was not responsible for my actions, my thoughts, my responsibilities.

60M: What could you have done differently to lessen the bad year?

Oh, that's simple. Not go to Anime Expo. I could have saved the vacation time for something more productive. Knowing me back then, I used the vacation time just to take the day off and stay home and read or play Team Fortress 2.

60M: Why did you go to Anime Expo when you knew it was going to be a bad con?

Yeah, almost everyone knew Anime Expo was going to be bad at Long Beach. The convention center was too small. I was stubborn. I was a hard head. I even failed to make new friends. I wanted to keep my personal streak of attending planned anime cons going.

60M: Raymond Mar never forgets 2007. The positive events eventually pay off in the future such as his own car for vacations and adventures and his braces for a great smile. He definitely remembers the negatives which were personal including taking life for granted and acting childish. He remembers and learns.

The bad events that were beyond my control I'm cool with that. It's unfortunate there are people older than me have not learned life mistakes I made in 2007. I'm lucky I learned these lessons now instead of later on. One of these days, these lessons pay off.

60M: Raymond's Innovating Common Knowledge blog has been online since August 2005. In Raymond's 300th blog, he created the Top 30 Blogs. 33% of the top 30 were in 2007. He was a hypocrite because the good advice he blogged in 2007 he never followed it. Moreover, from Sep 26, 2007 through at least half of 2008, none of those blogs made the top 30. Raymond continued taking life for granted throughout most of '08.

Raymond's 500th blog he plans to repost the 300th blog to remind himself and his faithful readers the lessons he learned. For him, the Top 30 Blogs are like the US Constitution. The blogs are powerful and huge lessons he learned in life he failed to learn when he was young.

Raymond was given opportunities in 2007. Good timing was in his favor. He was at the right place at the right time for the Cisco job and his first car. He felt all the big events he didn't earn it. One day, he creates opportunities.

And speaking of Anime Expo, he didn't attend in 2008 that broke his streak of attending cons he planned. The streak was 31 dating back to 1997.

I'm A Good Guy Growing Up Finding Raymond Mar