2007 retrospective, 2008 goals

Well here we are again at the end of another year, and the start of yet another. Time to look at what I’ve accomplished in the last trip around the sun, and think about what I might do in the next round.

2007 was a pretty good year, overall. I did a fair bit of traveling, speaking at FiTC Toronto, Flash Forward in Boston, MAX in Chicago, and Flash on the Beach in the UK (as well as a few workshops at Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts and New England Institute of Art). Then there was a trip to Japan to visit my wife’s family, and trips to San Francisco for an Adobe video shoot, and to Seattle to meet Bill Gates at Microsoft. Wow.

Making Things Move for AS3 was released and is doing great, and I started contributing to a new book on AIR. I won an Emmy for work on a PBS site. I started Wicked Pissah Games, and had some phenomenal success with my first full game, Gravity Pods. I got a Mac Book Pro and fully switched over to Mac. I finished courses in C++, American Literature, and Calculus I. I also moved to a new apartment, celebrated my 6th anniversary with my wife, and my daughter’s 5th birthday.

And last but not least, I left my job at Brightcove to join Infrared5, which is one of the best moves I’ve made in a while. Having a blast working with great people on great projects.

As for what’s in store for 2008…

Probably a similar amount of traveling as last year. I imagine I’ll speak at FiTC Toronto and Flash on the Beach. And another trip to Japan and possibly to Adobe. I think I may try my hand at teaching. I have a couple of possible opportunities to teach at some of the local universities here. I’ll see where that leads. In the meantime, I’ll continue my own education. I plan to create some more games for Wicked Pissah. Last year got so busy with conferences and traveling and studying and changing jobs, my games fell to the side, but I’ve been delving back into them lately. Might buy a house / condo this year.

And hopefully I’ll get an even better job! (Just kidding, Chris!)

Of course, no New Year’s resolution list would be complete with the item, “get in shape”. This time for real! I got a bike for Christmas – actually, got it early so got to ride it a few times before the multiple blizzards hit. As soon as some of this snow melts, I plan to ride on a regular basis. Great exercise.

All in all, I’m in a pretty good place right now, and I’m pretty optimistic about the near future. Still kind of vague on the long term future. I’m 43 now. Do I still want to be churning out code when I’m 50? 60? If not, then what? Teaching? Architecting? Research? Business? For now, keeping an open mind and seeing what presents itself over the next few years.