ok 2010, lets do this
After a particularly heavy going 2009, I’ve taken stock of my professional and personal life and have made some aims and ambitions for the year ahead. 2009 held some big challenges and some fairly heavy duty decisions had to be made, the fruits of those decisions will start to come this year I hope. Like every year for the past 4, I’ve made a decision to learn a new programing language but unlike other years, this time around I’ll be sticking with my choice beyond the year in question. I’ve learned a hell of a lot over the past few years and now is the time to consolidate that learning and push on. I’ve also made a fairly big decision about returning some focus to design which may surprise some people but I hope to expand on this a bit in this post. I set out to become a generalist and that’s what I now call myself. Personally, there are a few new things I’ll be doing to improve my health.
A new language
2006 was PHP, 2007 was CFML, 2008 was jQuery/CFML and last year I set about Ruby on Rails. In 2010, I’m taking everything I’ve learned and moving to Python/Django. There are no solid reasons for this, I wish I was experienced enough to write some kind of “here are 10 reasons why” post but truth be told, I’m not that knowledgeable yet and what I’ve discovered is that regardless of language, certain fundamentals and similarities exist across the board. I now feel that the time is right to settle down and focus on one language to really learn my stuff and start building some of the ideas I’ve come up with over the years. I love the way that I’ve taken to Django and although I’ve only done a few tutorials on it so far, I really have a feel for it and I get that buzz about using it that I’ve only really had with CFML up until now. Of course, learning Django without learning Python would be a bit short sighted so a Python book has already been dispatched from amazon and is on its way to me as I type.
A return to my roots
Between 1998 and 2005, I was a designer with only a little interest in code outside of html/css, I made a big decision to move away from design and concentrate on development. This decision was made largely because of the rift i’d experienced between designer and developer in my career. I still see this going on and I have some pretty strong opinions on why there’s no need for it (This is a topic for another post I think as it will be lengthy!). Anyway, I am now returning to the design field and will be starting off by brushing up on my basic graphic design, typography and colour theory. It’s not as if I actually moved away entirely, I handle much of the web design at work but in terms of my personal development and what I spend my own time doing, I’d not done much to keep up to speed with things. I’m sure most of it will come back to me quite easily but being the thorough person I am, this will get all the time it needs to be done properly and I’m particularly interested in doing some collaboration work with the designers I know. Truth be told, I’m really looking forward to it. Expect to see some (collaborative?)print work from me this year too (yeah…on paper and stuff!)
Personal goals
The first thing I have to do is to lose weight (i’m sure you’ve heard this before at this particular time of year). My weight has gone up significantly to 15stone (210lbs) and I need to be back down at 12.5stone (175lbs) before I slip into obesity, so I have a lot of work to do. This weight gain I attribute directly to stopping smoking nearly 8 months ago (one less resolution I need to make this year). As of the 1st Jan, I’ve started my diet of sticking to a max calorie intake of 1690 calories a day and will be much more careful about the types of food I’m stuffing into my face. Careful eating without doing some exercise is pretty pointless so I’m embarking on the c25k program as well as doing a bit more swimming. I hope to do some kind of proper run later in the year so this post will act as a kick up the arse in case my eagerness fades in any form. On top of these things I’ve made a decision to stop drinking alcohol for a little while at least. I’m not sure how long for but as of the 1st Jan, I’m “aff it” for at the very least, the month of January. This will be a huge factor in losing weight and it’ll also let me save some money and get my pension on track which is another must do for this year.
The “If I have time” goals
I think I said this last year too but I really want to get into Processing. If I can find the opportunity to do so this year, I will.
Getting back into video and motion graphics remains an ambition but may have to wait a little while yet as I plow yet further on with my web design/development.
So these are my goals for 2010 which I hope will be a fantastic year all round. I would love to hear your thoughts/recommendations etc for any of my undertakings and if you fancy doing some collaborative work, leave me a comment here or find me on twitter. Happy new year to you all.
