Year end perspective

Well it’s that time of year again when people look at what they’ve accomplished over the last 365 days, and make plans for the next. I’ve been kind of in “drift” mode. I started out the year not knowing exactly where my future was taking me, and I’m ending the year in pretty much the same state. Not to say things aren’t good, but over the last 5-6 years I have accomplished everything I set out to do, and far beyond. So for the last year or so I’ve been kind of saying, “what next?”

What’s the next big thing for me? I don’t know. Job-wise, I started working at Brightcove this year, which is a pretty incredible environment for any developer. I couldn’t imagine leaving there to go to another company. The only way I’d probably leave is to start something on my own, something I’m definitely not ready for at this point.

As an author, I watched Foundation ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move! become the best-selling ActionScript book of the year, pretty much finished the next version of it for AS 3, and contributed to the AS 3 Cookbook, the first AS 3 book on the market, which is also getting great reviews. I’m set to contribute a small amount to an Apollo book in 2007, and will probably get roped into some other stuff, but no full books on the horizon.

In terms of education, I started on the path to a real, honest to goodness computer science degree (though that $39.95 diploma offer was tempting). I start my C++ course next month. Hopefully it will be better than my Intro to Computer Programming Course. At the rate I’m going, I won’t have a degree til 2009, but maybe I can speed that up.

As far as BIT-101, hmmm…. the idea of the new lab fizzled out quickly. Realistically, I don’t think I’m going to get back into a lab with regular experiments any time soon, but I hope to do more pure playing with AS 3 and post experiments here on the main blog, with source.

Then there is Brevity. No, I haven’t given up on it. I’m hoping to turn it into an Apollo application sometime soon. Just waiting to see if certain features will be put into Apollo that will make this possible.

Personally, things have been going pretty well. Health was definitely much better in 2006 than 2005. Still getting some fatigue, aching, and random symptoms from the Sarcoidosis, but it’s definitely on its way out. I’m pretty confident that it will be gone in 2007. And this year, I swear I am going to get in shape. In 2006 I managed to lose 20 pounds before gaining it all back. I’m ending 2006 at almost the exact same weight I started it with. 🙁 Gotta end that cycle. Family is good. Wife got accepted to nursing school, something she’s been working on for a couple years. Daughter (turned 4 last week) is getting a big head from everyone telling her how beautiful she is.

I think I did reach a point of burnout this year, in terms of too many ongoing projects at once. Around late summer, I was working full time, doing a couple big side jobs, taking a college course, writing for two books, and tech reviewing another. In September and October I was really stressed out with side work. I determined to cut that waaay back. What the hell, I started doing Flash because I loved it. When it gets to the point where I don’t even want to look at it, something is very wrong. So one resolution for 2007 is to start having fun with the technology again. It’s kind of vague exactly what that means in concrete activities right now, but more than likely means more experimenting and maybe even some collaboration projects, doing stuff just for the hell of it. At least that’s the plan.

So, in summary, things are good. Drifting, but good. Going to get back to basics and see if I can come up with the next big idea.