Finally stopped using C++ in my day-to-day. Everything now revolves around C#.
Dove deeper into win32 through OpenGL. For the qualification project stage we're writing simple 3D games. For that I wrote a bare-bones engine that could load models built in 3ds max: the level map, the player model, the "weapon" model and the enemy model.
Read Finogenov's book. Messing around with joke programs based on what I read in the Xakep magazine. Wrote programs that hide themselves from Task Manager, a mouse-and-keyboard spy, and a system file encryptor (that last one got me in trouble with the family).
Started getting gigs from local students. Mastering algorithms and template classes (generics).
Resistance abandoned. Discovered I could write little programs to solve my math and physics homework, so I could copy the solution steps from the console while watching cartoons on TV. Oh, and I started going to city programming olympiads.
My parents start instilling C in me via Borland C++. I resist.
Grinding through exercises from the Deitel brothers' textbook. Learning to draw all kinds of nonsense in the console using asterisks, loops and arrays.