Mile
Zero

• Celebrated five years together with Belle, an achievement for which few words would be sufficient. Thanks, babe!
• Mostly followed my gaming resolutions from last year. Definitely played more indie titles, skipped tedious grinding, and avoided console shooters when possible. Did not get around to trying an MMO, which was probably for the best.
• Bought a Kindle 2 and an Android Dev Phone. Became a developer for the latter, much to my dismay.
• Wrote about a quarter of a game engine, then quit when I got to the parts that aren't instantly gratifying (preloading, faux-threading, AI). Still managed to learn way more than anyone should know about high-performance Actionscript optimization.
• Survived a congressional session, a corporate purchase, and a promotion.
• Survived a mild case of extensor tendonitis, and resolved to take better care of my hands.
• Rewrote my personal subset of Blosxom in PHP, increasing the speed of this blog by an order of magnitude. Resisted the urge to convert to a real publishing platform like Wordpress. Purged a number of old entries, while I was at it.
• Read a fair number of books, including a long, miserable slog through Chris Anderson's Free.
• Began taking breakdancing classes, which (after six months) qualifies me as something of a b-boy-in-training, I guess. Lost about 20 pounds in the process, but failed (so far) to conquer a general deficiency of flavor.

Reviewer's notes: The special effects may be showing their age, and portions seemed rushed or in need of additional polish. But overall, 2009 delivered a solid annual experience, not to mention a definite improvement over previous franchise installments. Possible candidate for Year of the Year. Score: 9/10