I've made progress in two areas:

• An intermediate goal of accumulating money & power
• A primary goal of dating successfully

I situated myself as the lead for my company's sexy new product. On Tuesday I led a well-received demonstration to a potential customer, and on Wednesday I told my boss that I wanted a new title with more pay. He's a much better negotiator than I am, but we're still talking, anyway. The details of the agreement we reach or don't reach will determine where I live and work in 2012.

I continue to accumulate cash despite my best efforts to blow it on nonsense. I've started a business that I hope will serve as an investment vehicle for most of my savings for the next year or two. Investing in a market sector that I'm familiar with ought to be a better use of resources than stocks, where I don't know as much and still might only expect to make 10-20% per year.

I've started to play the social games that I swore off for a long time, since I think it's the best way to get people to do what I want (yuck! Even saying it like that reminds me why I quit years ago). And I've been failing, often spectacularly and in front of my friends, but at least I'm trying, and I remind myself that the difficulty is what makes it worth doing. I've taken chances pursuing two single women, and things went great until they went horribly. It's both frustrating and addicting, like when I was learning to program, but the structure is more hidden and the rules aren't as rigid. I'm excited to keep working at it.