Starting Out 2011

Once again a new year.  At this point I've seen four decades, which is starting to make me feel a bit old.  The 90's are now a far away, humorously stereotyped decade that soon college freshman won't be able to remember.  And yet, somehow, I'm still waiting for that singularity, cure for diabetes or self-driving cars.  Maybe getting close on some of them, though, and that'll be pretty interesting.  Either way, I'm looking forward to this year.  Unlike this time last year, I'm happily employed and with health insurance, so that's a big plus.  Also, I'm recently moved to San Francisco and am enjoying that tremendously.  On the other hand, still missing my ex a bit, but can't win them all.

As I haven't blogged in a fair while, I initially set out to write this post with all my thoughts on the last year and the new; including my goals, reviews and commentary of 2010 and predictions and predictions for 2011.  That ended up being a bit long, and as I've got to get work, I'm going to break this post into three parts and just start with my goals for now.  I'm trying to formulate them a bit so as to provide some discipline, and for that reason have begun using 43things.com.  We'll see if that keeps me in line, but going to write them down here to talk about them a bit.

Firstly, with regards to work, need to keep learning more programming.  I'm involved in some projects right that are introducing me to ORMs and better database management, and then others that should teach me a good bit of JavaScript, JQuery, etc, which will help improve my web app development.  I would also like to learn some Android development by years end.

Outside of work, I'd love to actually code some stuff on my own again, haven't done that in years.  I've been meaning to code my own social graph software, should start there.  Then there's the traditional wanting to exercise more, eat less meat and more vegetables, and get back into martial arts.  Handicraft wise, I'm meaning to get a bar built in this house with the help of Truebe, and finishing my furniture that I've only done 20% of in three and a half years.  Need some discipline.  Oh, and I need to pick up new music, I've fallen completely behind on that since leaving college.  With reading, I'd like to re-study some math, and possibly go through some of my college textbooks in various subjects.

Perhaps most importantly, I want to be making more money by year end, and begin to pay my parents back the debt I accrued over my months of unemployment.  Just got a raise at the start of this month with BetterOffLine getting a round of financing, but there is a lot of room for improvement.  This Great Recession isn't exactly fun, but we'll see what the company can do with financing.  Or elsewhere, if need be.

Then of course there are the goals involving beautiful women, but that pretty much goes without saying.

So, that's the summary.  We'll see if I can churn out my other thoughts on the turning year shortly, and I'll return to writing about society, politics, science and technology.