Buster Benson’s Big Checkin for 2009

2009 was the year of… replacing frantic energy with calm focused energy.

The year could be described as Difficult, Happy, Challenging, Stabilizing, Future-focused, Building, Life-changing, Calm.

Buster Benson’s labels…

alert, atheist, brother, democrat, energetic, entrepreneur, fair, feeling, focused, frantic, friend, frugal, good, healthy, humanist, husband, independent, introvert, intuitive, liberal, lucky, male, monogamous, perceiving, pet owner, polite, proud, reclusive, restless, son, straight, stressed, thinking, uncle, unhealthy

Buster Benson's Holmes Rahe stress score for the year was 218.0. This score is calculated from the number of potentially stressful events that may have happened, and can be used to determine the possibility of stress-related illnesses. Scores between 150 and 300 are considered moderately high, but not too bad. The average from all people this year was 193.

Buster Benson’s inner circle

Kellianne Benson
Love of my life.
Carinna Tarvin
We hung out at least 40 times this year, more than anyone else other than Kellianne. Carinna is my astro-sibling from another dimension, and it’s been great bouncing ideas around with her and concocting adventures.
Megan Welling
Megan is the embodiment of merriment, and I definitely got to know her better this year. We hung out 31+ times, ran a half-marathon together, and had quite a peanut butter jelly time.
Josh C. Bis
Wolf-brother. I think we have a spiritual connection through Fantastic Mr. Fox somehow.
Ingo and Andy Pixel
I love the Pixels, and we hung out over 18 times this year. I love that we have a tradition of hanging out at Ingo’s parents’ house for the holidays.
Katie Pavia
She’s a part of my family.
Rick Webb
We got to see him at least 9 days this year. He was #10 on most seen at 8:36pm despite living on the other side of the country, and I think there’s some kind of love compound being built by him as we speak for our future retirements.
Chris Jones
We hung out a lot this spring and summer and did a lot of drinking. We ran a half-marathon together. Something about a baby bird. Lots of crazy drunken times with this guy. He’s a good one.
Jimmy James Hall
We rendezvoused on the East Coast at Kathy’s wedding, and had a mini road trip. While I don’t see Jimmy James a whole lot in person, we’re always on the same wave.
Jana Kleitsch
Confidant. We connected over our mutual de-employments this year, and also over all things pregnancy-related.

Travels

Vancouver, BC
Twice. A short trip up with Katie, and another short trip up when I visited Stewart Butterfield and Tiny Speck.
Wilmington, DE
Once for Kathy’s wedding, side-trips to Baltimore and DC as well. Once for a week of Christmas.
New York, NY
2 weeks. First with Rick Webb’s new place, second at Misha and dB’s apartment.
Deception Pass
Camping with Kellianne, Carinna, Megan, and Josh Bis.
Orcas Island, WA
Cabin retreat with friends.

The year in pictures

Kindra's fake wedding

Stilton: the head-cheesening

Our first attempt at the p-patch

Krunking Numbkits half marathon team

Easter

Mike's plaid party

Camping at Deception Pass

Half-marathon finish line

Drunkles at Chris Jones

Chris Jones boat party

After Kathy's wedding

Canning day

Relaxing in the park

Visiting NYC for 2 weeks

Kellianne's 30-four-the-people party

Cabining on Orcas

Buster Benson’s cultural zeitgeist

iPhone
Both the iPhone and its apps. For profit and enjoyment.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Identity flick of the year!
Babies
Hospitals versus home births, midwives and doulas, brain development, thinking about what it means to be a good parent. Lots of friends seemed to be having babies too…
Infinite Jest
Though I’m still only half-way done with it, Infinite Summer continues to bounce around in my brain. It’s a crazy world. Escaton… man.
Local food
I think the run-off from Health Month led to some reading about nutrition and eventually to Locavore. I’m not really practicing this a whole lot, but as I become more and more attentive of such things I think it’s a direction we’ll all be heading in over the next decade or so.
Mad Men
So good.

Crushes

Zooey

Strongly held beliefs

Health care reform
It’s gotta happen.
Marriage equality
I felt strongly that marriage equality is something that our country absolutely needs. And I couldn’t help but feel like some people in this country are evil and stupid, and that the only solution is to wait til the next generation. Hopefully we’ll be able to outlive them and be smarter in the next generation.
Humanism
I think my spirituality is slowly morphing into something that closely resembles humanism. A belief in the natural over the supernatural. Watching Cosmos by Carl Sagan helps.
Natural birth
I think the world of pregnancy and birthing is about to make a big shift in the United States as midwifery and home births gain popularity. It just makes sense.

Curiosities, interests, and passions

Kellianne's pregnancy
Learning about the pregnancy process has been an exercise in awe. We slowly learned about the benefits of midwives, home birthing, and now hypnobirthing. I think that babies of the next generation will see our generation as the one that got our culture back on track with the way women are treated before, during, and after pregnancy.

Not to mention, watching that little future baby kick and wave in the ultrasound was pretty life-changing.
Self-employment
Learning about how best to survive while not under the wing of a big, paycheck-sending, corporation has been a struggle and a huge relief. Learning that approval can come from my own sense of accomplishment rather than from a constant morphine drip of a steady paycheck has taken many months to unfold but I’m slowly coming into my own about it.

Accomplishments

Wrapped up McLeod Residence
Planted a vegetable garden
Ran a half-marathon for a charity
Built Locavore
Got out of credit card debt
Quit my job
Started my own company
Built a photo booth
Started a pregnancy/parenting blog
Built 750words.com
Built BigCheckin.com
Continued 8:36pm all year
Summary of all 8:36pm activity is here.

Memorable moments

Saw my baby move on an ultrasound
I saw baby Benson first at 10 weeks, and heard the heartbeat a couple times. But the most amazing moment was at 20 weeks when the baby was moving, kicking, waving, and seemed to be laughing all in Kellianne’s little belly.
Finishing the half-marathon
It was a great feeling to finish the half-marathon with friends. It was something none of us would have done by ourselves, but together it was a great testament to surprising ourselves and doing things that we wouldn’t normally do.
Bastille Day party
This was a great party. We debuted my photo booth. We saw chicken races. I got there early (3pmish) and stayed late (2amish) and was able to see a whole slew of people that I knew to varying extents from the last 10 years in Seattle. It was a beautiful sunny day. There was a bouncy house. There was dancing. There was much merriment.

Roles

A

Husband
This was our first full year of marriage and we got a lot done together. We found ways to work that fulfilled us. We got our finances in order. We traveled, we planned, we enjoyed everything about this early part of our lives together. Next year we’ll step into the first big year of parenting together, and I feel like we both did a great job of getting to this point as prepared as we can be.
B

Brother
I made a goal to bring my family together. I didn’t really do this. Though, with Kellianne’s pregnancy, I have gotten to know Kristy a lot better and I feel like we’re as close as we’ve ever been. Having something in common to talk about will keep us going strong into the new year.
B-

Son
I should call my mom more often.
B

Employee
I wasn’t a very good employee this year. But I did decide to solve that by quitting my job rather than riding on the back of a paycheck and taking advantage of that situation too much. Starting my own company (again) with a fresh start, a great idea, and a big opportunity gives me the chance to really excel as a self-employee in the new year.

How Buster Benson did on 2008’s resolutions

B

Learn how to cook
I can say that I do know how to cook now, after doing about a dozen or so new recipes (mostly Indian) in the first part of the year. I’m still not fast at it, and it’s still draining and difficult.
B-

Make four pieces of art
I did some art, mostly on note cards. I’m giving myself a B- because it wasn’t really the kind of “art” I was thinking of. But in some ways it did serve the purpose of helping me think through some things via drawing.
B-

Go to yoga twice a week and start a medidation habit
I did this for a good few months in the spring. After quitting my job though I was no longer near an amazing yoga studio, and took most of the summer and fall off in terms of exercise. I’m just now getting back into the habit and have begun running twice a week, which is fulfilling the same needs that yoga and meditation were filling (working on physical and mental health through exercise).
F

Organize a family reunion
I completely failed at this.
A

Make a budget and plan to fix my finances
Made huge progress here. I think I succeeded at the big picture plan (recover from McLeod Residence debt) but will need to continue to work on figuring out how to make my business sustainable for the next year (with a baby on the way) and also I need to start saving money again.
F

Revive McLeod Residence
I gave it a try, found new investors, found new motivation, but ultimately failed due to circumstances outside of my control.
A+

Build an ever more amazing relationship with Kellianne
We are closer than ever, and our lives together are only becoming more interesting and fulfilling as we continue to explore and build on the relationship. Big adventures are ahead.
A+

Continue the 8:36pm project every day
I don’t think I missed any days in 2009. The archive continues to grow here.
F

Do 100 pushups
I gave up on this when I injured my wrists. Now I use some Nike grip pads but despite the better form I find that I can’t do nearly as many on the grip pads. So I’ve given up on the 100 for now.
A+

Secret resolution
Our secret resolution was to have a baby. We are about half way there, and super excited.

Goals for the year 2010

Be Kellianne's birth partner
I want to be with her through this experience, prepared where I can be prepared, and ready to learn where I can only be ready to learn.
Become a good parent
This is a big one, and will be something I’ll be thinking about all year, defining what that means to me as I go.
Make sure our house and finances are best prepared for our child
I would love to be able to end the year in a house better suited for raising our kid, but if that can’t happen then we’ll make the best of what happens. I would also like to end the year knowing that our finances are stable.
Make my business sustainable
Enough said.
Improve my exercise and diet
I gained 10 lbs in 2009, which is not healthy weight. I would love to be able to get back down to 160-165 and stay there, while also feeling healthy. For January, this means no drinking, no refined sugars or flours, no processed or fried foods, no coffee, only lean red meats, poultry, and fish.
Work on my quick cooking skills
I think I can handle big cooking projects well, they suit me. It’s the smaller one-off meals that I’m not confident with yet. Ones without every single ingredient or without a new recipe to tackle. I’ll need to get on this before May when I’ll be in charge of meals for a while.
Continue the 8:36pm project every day
I should also think about ways to make this project even more rewarding than it currently is.
Write 750 words a day
This is about keeping my subconscious flowing. Developing a rich inner life, one without stagnation or confusion. Mental health.
Continue to invent
As I evolve in my career, I think I’m learning that I’m an inventor of small to medium sized technologies that are designed to somehow improve my life. This is what meaningful work is to me, and they are the things that fulfill me creatively.

Portrait for the time capsule

Me, Jan 3rd, 2010, 11:07am

Sopor, Jan 3rd, 2010, 11:14am

Final thoughts

Here’s my write-up from 2008.

I can sense the progression of time with each year. I am making progress, moving towards something that involves 1) strong, connected, loving relationships 2) sustainable, healthy living 3) meaningful creative work, and an overall sense of calm energy, focus, and enjoyment.

Onward and upward! Stay hungry. Stay foolish.