2008 Year in Review

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Jumped into a job in a new programming language for me. Went to a wedding of a friend (rather than relative). Spoke at a funeral. Held a party at our house. Got a dog. Transferred to a new broker. Deployed a Rails site. Bought and switched to a Mac. Had Thanksgiving at home with us cooking. Traveled for my birthday.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Of those I had, a few were kept. I got my office setup and looking good. I organized a lot to the point where I have a lot less to do. I launched arcadefly and cloudshout, although both are still works in progress. I didn’t post much on AdamFortuna.com after a few months; so I could definitely start doing more of that. I stopped exercise altogether pretty much, so hopefully

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1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Jumped into a job in a new programming language for me. Went to a wedding of a friend (rather than relative). Spoke at a funeral. Held a party at our house. Got a dog. Transferred to a new broker. Deployed a Rails site. Bought and switched to a Mac. Had Thanksgiving at home with us cooking. Traveled for my birthday.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
<a href=”http://dyogenez.livejournal.com/314286.html”>Of those I had</a>, a few were kept. I got my office setup and looking good. I organized a lot to the point where I have a lot less to do. I launched arcadefly and cloudshout, although both are still works in progress. I didn’t post much on AdamFortuna.com after a few months; so I could definitely start doing more of that. I stopped exercise altogether pretty much, so hopefully <lj-user=’trickster_brat’> and I can start doing more kettlebells. I’ve read a lot about financials and now only pay %.50/year with the same guy, but I’m still on the lookout for alternatives. Overall most important ones were reached. I Think moving to a Mac was probably the biggest help in achieving them, surprisingly enough.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
One of Marilyns friends, Sarah did this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, my grandpa (my dads dad). Sad to see, and my last grandparent to pass away.

5. What countries did you visit?
No other countries. Started the year with a trip to TN, took trips to the keys, detroit and atlanta.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More eating out. Less TV. More time working on projects. More time outdoors. More control over our dog. More exercising (not by much though). Bringing more lunch to work. More saving, less spending. More apple stuff. Less other stuff. Less caffeine. More time with friends. Less alcohol. More new technology topics. More automatic processing of common stuff.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Valentines day: had to cancel plans and take off for grandpas funeral. My birthday: wondering around Key West and watching the sunset. Bar Camp Orlando: Great talks/met Izea people and kicked off job change.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Leaving westgate/starting at Izea. Selling car (which was actually one of the easiest things). Launching ArcadeFly.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Getting too stressed out over some of the small stuff. Watching too much TV. Not continuing as much as I could’ve on ArcadeFly. Not cleaning out the garage (but there’s still some time left!).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing big. I was sick around my birthday. I think it was last year when Marilyn and I both got really REALLY sick.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My 17″ Macbook Pro. I haven’t barely used my vista PC at all since getting it. I absolutely love it and can’t imagine ever going back to windows (but I’m sure I’ll have to when I get a job that doesn’t use macs).

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
That is a weird question. Brian helped me out a lot with adogo. Marilyn helps with everything. Some people at Izea have helped push me to learn/develop more. Greg from orug is always inspirational. Some book publishers sent me free books to review.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Don’t think anyone here. There was one guy who said he was going to speak one month but didn’t show up. No biggie; and we’re still friends but was a bit depressing.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food/electronics I guess. And taking 4 trips in a year I suppose.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
ArcadeFly! This has kept me learning and wanting to try out new things. CloudShout has me excited now, I really want to learn more about BOSH/XMPP to implement it on there for some insanely cool real-time activilty unlike anything else on the web.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2008?
Anything from Dr. Horrible, Feist, Stephen Merrit.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
A) happier or sadder? Happier, definitely
B) thinner or fatter? Fatter, not sure how much though; don’t weigh myself as much
C) richer or poorer? I haven’t saved anything more than before, and my previous savings went down (stock market), so poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Learning unrelated new technology stuff. Trying out new ideas just for fun.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Watching TV. It’s easy to get into a pattern where you watch too much. Although it’s not all bad — I programmed ArcadeFly sitting in front of my TV.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Quietly here, or maybe at Marilyns moms.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s?
Think we’re going to a friends place for a party.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Already there!

23. How many one-night stands?
Same as every other year.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Probably Dexter. Death Note, Gankutsuou, Battlestar are all up there.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
If that was anything, then Windows? 🙂 I don’t hate though.

26. What was the best book you read?
Freakonomics stands out. Was that this year or last though? Cult of the Amateur, Brain Rules,

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Stephen Merrit! I was a fan of the Magnetic Fields, but his Showtunes ended up being great as well.

28. What did you want and get?
MacBook Pro, new office.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hard to say (I really need to keep better track of these so I know). In Bruges and The Dark Knight stand out in my mind though.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
26, drove from Key Largo to Key West, went down to watch the sunset with Marilyn and drink as much as we could on the street.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being able to handle stress better I think. Spending less time on social sites/reading digg/reddit.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Jeand and tshirts. Sometimes sandals to work during summer. Nice not having a dress code!

34. What kept you sane?
Marilyn, Remember the Milk, Iphone, Mac, getting rid of stuff I don’t need.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Don’t think I gave this any thought.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Religion, the war, the awful economy and the falling dollar, how we’ve spent more in the last 2 months than during all of WW2 (adjusted for inflation).

37. Who did you miss?
Mom, dad.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
A lot of the people at Izea. It’s nice starting a new job and getting to meet a whole load of great, passionate people.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Don’t waste time thinking about what you could do or what you want to do. Just plan a time to do it, and when that times comes… do it! Maybe that and don’t stress too much. If you’re going in the right direction all is good; otherwise try to get back on course.