Al Abut

Resolutions For 2006

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Life passes most people by when they're busy making grand plans for it.
- George Jung in Blow (2001)

For the first time ever, I'm finally writing down my resolutions and posting them online. The idea is that if I post it somewhere public, I can refer back to it throughout the year to realign priorities and gauge progress. I meant to do this last year and kept thinking back to how much of a motivator it would have been.

I Am Jack's Utter Determination

So here we go:

• Finish the Ruby self-tutorial series - it was one of the casualties of my whirlwind freelancing lifestyle all of last year and I think the combination of returning to full-time work and moving to a new city where I hardly know anyone will open up a lot of time for side projects.
• Document more learning projects after the Ruby series - I already hinted earlier that I might do something similar for Rails with the pickaxe book and other topics altogether.
• Build at least two working and public Rails apps - I've already got a short list of itches I'd like to scratch.
• Explore teaching, lecturing and writing opportunities - my lecture last July at UCSD marked 4 consecutive years that I've been presenting at Campus LISA and I have to admit that it's a lot of fun. I'm curious to see what life would be like if I gave a concerted effort to doing more of the same.
• Check out user groups in my new town - here's a hint as to where I am both geographically and interest-wise.
• Write at least one blog post a week - time to more consistently practice what I preach. Plus it'll be a good way to stay in touch with friends and family from back home.
• Go to the gym four times a week - twice a week for cardio, twice a week for weights.
• Get completely debt-free. I paid off my credit cards in 2005, this year I'm going to finish paying off educational loans, the motorcycle loan I took on in Oct and the massive one I'm about to take on from the Apple Store after I find a place.
• Go salsa dancing with my girl - we started lessons last year, taking a few more and then putting it into practice at clubs would be cool.
• Take at least one international trip, probably to Turkey to see family and tour the touristy spots with Yesi, also hopefully to Germany when my dad should be there and we can go to a World Cup game. Possible extra: motorcycle tour around Germany with some folks I met in my safety class.
• Do a weekly budget and finances review.
• Cook at home at least three times a week.
• Take either a drawing or singing class.
• Research options for grad school.

There's also a few more random tidbits on my 43things list, but not all of them are specifically for this year.

This is going to be such a fun and busy year.

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