Resolute
I’ll skip the obvious year review and just jump straight into the public–facing resolutions for 2009, as I didn’t blog enough in 2008 to really deserve a retrospective:
Learn another language
And I don’t mean in the Python/Ruby/Erlang/[insert trendy language here] sense: I’m talking about the language of a country.
I travelled a lot in 2008 (11 countries by year end), and the one common thread of it all (besides wonderment at how awesome the world as a whole is) was my own utter ignorance when it comes to languages.
It’s truly embarrassing to meet people in other countries, and have them ask: “would you prefer us to speak English or [local language]?”, and then proceed to have a mostly fluent conversation in English (including subtle jokes) right before your eyes, when I could barely manage to ask for beer (we all have our priorities).
English–speaking tourists are unforgivably lazy when it comes to travelling, and quite arrogant in the assumption that everyone would speak English. Whist this approach works for most of Western Europe, once you get beyond there (Russia, for example), you’re on your own. This is also true of most small towns—when you venture beyond the areas that are supported by a major international airport, the rate of English knowledge declines along with the tourist numbers.
So, the resolution is to finally bite the bullet, and learn a new language. This will likely be quite difficult, as I’m both relatively old (and thus set in my ways), and also I’ve never been very good at other languages (although that might be attributed to teenage apathy).
But which language?
At the moment it’s a choice between Spanish (for all–world utility), or Mandarin (because I enjoyed China more than almost anywhere else I’ve been; because I’ve always enjoyed Chinese culture; and because it’s only going to be more important in the future). I’m leaning towards the second choice, which obviously makes my life more difficult. But what are resolutions for the new year if not spectacular ways to fail?
Release a personal project with Amanda
Given our respective backgrounds (I’m a developer, Amanda is a web designer), it would seem we’re a good professional match. The challenge therefore is not skill–related but idea–related. Either way, I’d like to release a site that’s been driven by both of us (not counting Yahoo! Answers).
No ideas are yet forthcoming, but we’ve spoken about this and agree we should try for something we both enjoy and want to publish. I’m in favour of a charity/goodwill–type site, just for posterity (not saying Amanda isn’t, just that that’s what I’ve got in my head).
Cut down on the booze
Given my relative fame for being photographed with beer, this might seem like a strange one.
The background is that I’ve known several people with genuine alcohol problems in a past life, and I can recognise the early signs now. This is not to say, however, that I consider myself an alcoholic (although the new media lifestyle in London makes us all borderline on that front), but rather that I’ve seen a few signs in myself that are the “canaries in the coal mine”, as it were, to a potential bigger problem.
So the resolution is: to stop drinking at home (for the record this is one (1) beer several nights a week), and to avoid continuous nights out (so no Friday drinks after Pub Standards).
This will hopefully have the added benefit of improving my ever–increasing waistline situation, and also improve my bank balance, which segues nicely into:
Start saving. For real
When I moved to the UK I was in serious debt. The debt in question was all accumulated lifestyle debt rather than student debt. Trying to find my feet here certainly didn’t help this situation, but as the majority of my debt is held in Australia, earning Sterling is helping my greatly in paying that off (although markedly less so in the last month).
Once it’s all paid off (should be by mid–year), I can start saving for more important things: like owning property, or my (eventual) old age.
I think I’m now old enough that I can’t afford to be blasé about savings anymore—and this is the year it changes for me.
Improve my personal projects and participation
To a degree, this has already happened through the wonderful GitHub, and I fully intend to continue on this tract. I’m currently working on a new version of this site incorporating all the things I’ve learned being a professional Django developer (this site was originally built to help me learn Django for my then new job); and will definitely include comments.
This also includes public writing, especially with regards to this site. In retrospect I’d always set myself up to fail—my attention span is better suited to short pieces of writing than long ones, but regardless the latter is the model I’d set myself up to use on this site. So, that’s on the feature list for the upgrade (which might be better described as a rewrite).
Be a better friend
To a degree I’ve been a bit slack on all fronts in the last year, particularly with respect to my friends and family in Australia. I’m travelling back to Sydney in August for a wedding, and hope to catch up with many people whilst there. I’m also going to try and be a better communicator via email and SMS (I’m not on Facebook anymore so that’s out the window). This is more a habit than a difficulty, and should hopefully not provide too much of a challenge.
Fin
So, that’s it from me for the moment, I hope to keep you updated with my progress as I go along. And, if you see me out and about, and remember this post, bump me about it. Nothing keeps one motivated like being bugged by friends.
Happy 2008, it was a year of unparalleled learning and growing up for me. I hope 2009 is good to all of you.
