Since Ian and Jeremy have blogged their new year's resolution, I thought it's maybe time to do the same thing. Think of this as a little bit of me-time on my blog -
First, though, 2007. I made one and only one resolution. I would not pay more than twenty pounds/Euros/dollars (delete as appropriate) for entrance into a conference or event. I succeeded. The most I paid to get into any event was fifteen pounds. The vast majority of events I went to this year were free. Although the formal requirement of last year's resolution is satisfied, I will be keeping up the principle for this year. The reason behind it is quite simple - because the more conferences cost, the less they are worth. There was an event planned earlier this year called Ajax2007 which I blogged about here - it was going to cost over two thousand pounds for a two day conference in central London on a technology that you can learn quite well from a book that won't cost you more than twenty quid or so from Amazon. Compared to BarCamp which is free (or close enough not to notice), what is the point?
That's the formal book-keeping of 2007 out the way. What else happened? Well, the one thing I'm most gratified with is fuddling my way through my degree. I've always had a rocky relationship with formal education, but getting a high 2.1 degree from London and completely acing the dissertation makes me feel vindicated. I showed the bastards. So much so that I'm going back this year - hopefully - to go further into the realms of impractical ideas, dodgy cardigans etc.
That's the first resolution then - kick arse academically and intellectually. No slouching. In the cloying and greetings card jargon of our times: be the best one can possibly be. Achieve - at least on the bookish front - some level of eudemonia. I'm thinking about how I can achieve this, and have a few ideas that are maybe too shocking for my geek friends to contemplate.
Second thing is I'm going to teach myself Java. Ian is teaching himself Python - being one of the few self-proclaimed designers I know who preaches that old time Tomcat religion! - but I'm going in the other direction. There's lots to dislike about Java - and, boy, people sure don't hold back. But for the things I'm working on in my spare time - centered, as they are, around RDF - it's something I'll have to live with.
Those are both quite academic - philosophy and Java - but crafting these New Year's Resolution things requires one to be a bit more honest and personal, something I tend to avoid in my blog. And there are a lot of things I need to fix.
I need to calm down a lot. Some might say I have anger issues. London brings that out a lot in me. I take the train and everything and everybody on the train puts me on edge. I get off the train and start walking, and people get in my way, slow me down. Grr. Irritating as hell. Then I find out the Tube's not running and I'm getting quite close to boiling point. I'm getting angry just thinking about it. I feel that I'm surrounded by people who are trying hard to irritate me at every opportunity. I don't explode, though. I just feel huffy and quietly infuriated the whole day. I try hard to control it, and not be rude or discourteous to people. This is one thing I've got to fix. I'm a bloody grumpy old man, and I'm still in my early twenties. So, fix my anger issues. Don't worry - even if I don't fix 'em, I won't be going Falling Down or Columbine on you or anything. This is Britain, after all, so I'm more likely to send an angry letter to The Times (and have a cup of tea) than I am to commit mass murder.
Furthermore, I've got to exercise every single day and stop eating crap. This is pretty self-explanatory, and I'm expecting that quite a few people will be trying to push themselves towards healthiness in the next year. Rock on.
Another thing I'm doing this year - ensuring that SemanticCamp London happens and that it rocks. I'm still in e-mail limbo at the moment trying to get sponsors on board and so on, but I hope we'll be able to start giving out tickets very soon. Watch this space.
Finally, I'm going to really knock my GTD-fu into overdrive (and mix Eastern and Western metaphors with gay abandon). Off to town it is to buy folders for paper-based reference. Or maybe I should rig up a scanner and scan all this stuff in. All my actions go into TaskPaper. All my e-mails get answered promptly (sorry to those still awaiting responses - it's all pure laziness, I guarantee). Everything borrowed goes back. Every penny accounted for. Which goes back to where I started - kicking arse. That's what all New Year's Resolutions come down to - just being a better, more kick arse human being.
Right, now I've aired my laundry, we can get back to the business at hand: unbelievably cute pictures of puppies!
