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Anno Domini is a term applied to our Gregorian calendar by the lovely Christian Church to define an "era" representing the time after the birth of Jesus Christ. Well, atheists like me who do not recognize this defining moment and who do not want the calendar based on this Anno Domini notation seem pretty much screwed and left without a choice. But that's not true.
Many academic fields now use the neutral and non-religious term Common Era, or CE, synonymously with Anno Domini. So here we are, riding the trailing end of the year 2006 CE, and without a doubt it has been, by far, the best year of my life!
Daniel's Journey through 2006 CE
| January: | I was one of the ultra-lucky folks in geekdom who landed a tech job in the sweet spot: downtown San Francisco! Also this month, the U.S. government's abuse of wiretaps finally gained national attention and drew worldwide criticism.
| | February: | I rebudgeted myself and was able to break those old spending cycles. My personal savings started growing. I found a comfortable place on a hill in San Francisco that would be my home for the rest of the year. The situation in Iraq wasn't getting any better, and the famous Golden Mosque was destroyed.
| | March: | Forty days and forty nights of endless rain made it the wettest March ever in San Francisco, but it didn't dampen my spirits. My drug-addict ex-roommate launched a hopeless lawsuit to vindicate himself, so I spent most of this rainy month fighting the little bastard. Strangely, I welcomed the lawsuit and found strength in the battle. Meanwhile, over a million protestors went on strike in France, causing riots and crippling the French economy.
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| April: | The skies cleared up, and said lawsuit ended without favoring either party. Said little bastard did not extract one penny from my pockets, which was the outcome I wanted. Don't worry, I'll write the whole story later.
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| May: | I began covertly reseraching several fields of science that caught my eye over a decade ago. I spent evenings and weekends delving into the research, planning to reveal this later in the year, towards December. Over five thousand died in an Indonesian earthquake, and our favorite Enron ex-execs were convicted.
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| June: | Summer happened, and hedonism ensued in the city. The Gay Pride Parade zipped on by, and I participated in a few of the festivities. Halfway around the world, the Airbus 380 project was widely declared a disaster, and the rollouts of the new 380s won't happen until 2008.
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| July: | The San Francisco MUNI choked and vomited nearly every day, forcing us to find other ways to get to work, including walking. I probably broke my record of cardio exercise this month. Israel and Lebanon bombed the living hell out of each other.
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| August: | I made plenty of progress in my career, and I was quite certain that something was brewing, and that something big was about to happen. The U.K. foiled an airline terror plot, and suddenly all carry-on liquids were scrutinized.
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| September: | A Silicon Valley giant acquired our company, and the deal hit the sweet spot again, making this the best year of my life thus far. At the same time, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off, and its 12-day mission was a success.
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| October: | We spent most of the month learning and integrating into our new company, and I quickly realized that I was now working for one of the most employee-focused companies in the world. This extra dimension bludgeoned my social life, but I recovered. Echoing our acquisition, Google bought YouTube.
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| November: | New friends, new initiatives at work, and growing interest in new sciences all made November a month just full of personal development. I had to delay my plans to return to dating once again. The SF symphony season was in full-swing, quenching my snobby taste for only the best classical music. The Democrats once again won control of the House and the Senate.
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| December: | Work became particularly hectic, and deadlines loomed. I revealed the field in which I am conducting research, and I've been quite happy at the initial reactions so far. The holidays came and went, and I somehow enjoyed them without gaining a single pound. This was the month where I returned to fitness, giving me one last chance to get into great shape as I rapidly approach frailty. The former President Gerald R. Ford died.
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The year two thousand and six of the Common Era. The day it began, I foresaw a very bright and colorful year ahead of me, and as you can see, this little prophecy turned out to be correct. It's a quixotic skill of mine, being able to peer into the coming year, and of course most would just dismiss this extra sense as nonsense. But this forecasting seems to "visit" many of us at the end of every year, and at least for me, the visions almost always turn out to be accurate, for better or worse.
I am experiencing foreshadowing again for the year that lay before me, and what I have been seeing for days now is a curiously red landscape and a very healthy heart finding at last its lifetime desire. The vagueness intrigues me.
Most certainly, 2007 CE will be an even better year than the one before it.
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