Sometimes when we feel we're getting smacked around, that just means we're doing better than we thought.

It always seems a bit funny to me to see the surprises life hands us. When we feel like we're taking a beating, we usually win our greatest victories.

I noted a couple of weeks ago that I had taken the GRE. I had all the scaled scores except the Analytical Writing, which I honestly didn't expect to be all that great. I hadn't had to write a timed analytical essay in quite a while and I didn't feel I had done well. The official scores arrived yesterday though and, to my great surprise, I scored a 6.0 on the Analytical Writing. That's the highest score possible and it's described as "outstanding." This came as a great surprise and it has been a great boost to my confidence for this week. Today I took the first of three tests I'll be taking over the next few days. I think I did well and I expect to do well on the one scheduled for tomorrow.

I'll turn 23 on the 19th and on that day I'll be exactly 2 months from my expected graduation date... Time just seems to be flying right now.

I'm going to be ordering two (IMO) nice coins in the next couple of days (possibly tonight or tomorrow evening). For me, those coins will be a mixture of celebrating my birthday, the good outcome on the GRE, and being mostly past this latest round of tests. One will be a MS70 2010P Koala, which will return me to the top of the rankings for that series before we reach the 12/10 deadline. (I can't believe we're at the end of the year, again, already!) The other will be a MS70 Australian Lunar "Year of the Tiger" coin. I was born in the year of the Tiger (1986) so this just seems like a fun coin to be picking up right around my birthday (though it would probably be more appropriate if I bought it a year from now when I turn 24). I've been trying to pick up gold coins for my birthday the last couple of years, but that really just isn't in the budget right now. That seems like an odd conclusion for me to come to when I'm currently holding more cash than I have either of the last two years, but I'm trying hard to keep a solid cash reserve. I'm not sure what's coming 6 months down the road and that worries me. I have to be at least somewhat ready for what could be rough going. It would be nice to move out and become more independent, but I may end up living with my parents for a bit longer.

My biggest present for this birthday will be coming from my parents. They're giving me a new computer since the one I'm posting from now is 4.25 years old and starting to enter its final days (I've used it hard and it's showing). One of the honor societies I'm a member of gives me a discount (7%) on the purchase of a Dell. I guess good grades do help after all. So soon I'll be getting to surf the registry with a much better system than this one (which is crashing with increasing frequency).

I guess I should end this by offering Rick a pic. Truth be told, I'm a little disappointed with the new 2010P Koalas. They appear to have given up the textured, sparkling fields that have been seen the last three years. I loved that look and how it made the series seem so unique among the other silver bullion issues, but I guess others got tired of it... sadness... but it still looks great.