The sun is shining here in San Antonio, Texas. And its a brand new year. Looking back on the year that was, I see that there were some good times and some bad. Mostly good though. I did a lot of travel, though its never as much as I would like. I had a chance to visit new countries, like Argentina, Uruguay, and South Africa. I had a chance to visit some of my favorite spots too, like Sydney and Singapore. I had a chance to spend time with my best friends from high school at my 20 year high school reunion (Coral Gables Senior High, 1988). I met new friends by getting out and doing more with MeetIn Amsterdam. And of course the biggest achievement was moving into the first apartment I had ever purchased, and completing its renovation. On the down side, a couple of friends from my days at Microsoft died, Gary Falis and Robert Satterwhite. Then many colleagues were let go after the acquisition of Captaris by OpenText was completed. I had been told by others who had gone through the same process at other companies that the way OpenText did it was amazingly good, but it was still a tough process, even though I was among the still-employed at the end.
Looking forward on the year to come I am pretty excited about the opportunities open to me. I have come up with my list of resolutions, many of which I will not be sharing here. I am open and all, but some things I want to keep closed. But I here are some of my thoughts:
- I am now part of a new company with new ways of doing things. I want to discover how I can best help this one by leveraging my own unique skills.
- Photography has always been my primary hobby, but I don’t practice it enough anymore. I gave many of my photographs as presents to my family for Christmas this year and they were a big hit, but most of them were from years ago. I have a new goal of taking at least one photograph every day, then publishing one on my Flickr account at least every few days.
- I moved into my new home back in January, but most of my stuff is still in boxes. Seriously, my biggest items of furniture are stacks of boxes: my nightstands, my closet, etc…they are just boxes. I will be addressing that issue this year, building some storage, shelves, and more myself.
- I really enjoy my job. One of the best parts about it is the travel. I just can’t get enough of it. I am hoping this will be a year of new places just like every year before. I am hoping to be able to visit India, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Greece, and maybe even a return visit to Nepal.
I have more goals, but I am going to keep those close to me and not share them. I am trying to figure out what is the right way to keep them accessible so I review them regularly. Right now they are in Evernote, but I am sure I can come up with a better solution.
Now I know that some people will say that those goals suck. They aren’t even real. They aren’t SMART, or SAFE, or they don’t abide by some other ridiculous set of rules. These goals are for me…just me. They are not so that you can judge me at the end of the year…they are just for me.
2009 could be a very good year for me and it all starts right now!