Jason Austin's Blog Life and times of a PHP Developer in Raleigh, NC

Looking ahead to 2010

I typically suck at making and keeping new years resolutions.  I've never felt that making resolutions really changed anything, except for the first month or so of the year.  As a perfect example, check out your local gym during the month of January...then go back in March.  There will maybe be a quarter of the people there.

While I don't like resolutions, I do find that with a new year, it is good to reflect back on the previous one and evaluate where you are and what you want to accomplish in the new one.  In an effort to keep myself honest, I figured I would record my goals for the new year here, in no particular order.

Grow My Business

2009 was an interesting year for AmberCube.  We had a few clients, made a little money (enough to buy Garrison and I new computers), and joined some new ventures.  The economy certainly affected our profitability, but I believe our focus wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be.  My hope for the new year is that we can increase our client base and grow the business.  Hopefully that means additional income too.

Advance Professionally

I accomplished a good bit at NC State in 2009.  I lead the initiative to get the NC State Mobile Web up and going, helped a lot with the social media identity of the university, and started managing some part-time employees.  I got more involved with the tech and social media communities in the Raleigh-Durham area, participated in BarCampRDU, and met a lot of great people.  While all that is great, it's not enough for me.  I'd like to establish myself more at the University and get to a level where I can feel like I make an impact.  I'm not sure I can do that in my current position, but that doesn't keep me from trying.  I already know that 2010 will bring an increased responsibility for me as I will be participating on the Campus Communication Committee, focusing on web and social media communications.  And we are working on some really exciting projects for the mobile web presence.  2010 will certainly be busy, but my goal is to make it pay off professionally.

Travel More

Erin and I have talked about it a lot, but this year is the year.  We have gone a few places since we got married (San Francisco, Memphis, Jamaica for our Honeymoon), but we have always wanted to go bigger.  Our plan is to try to make it to Europe this year.  I really want to go to Italy and Paris, so we are going to make it happen.  We have been saving up money for 2+ years to go, so this is the year we are going to do it.  Planning has already started   Oh yeah, and on the back of traveling, I am planning on buying a Digital SLR camera before making any big trips.  That means I'll need to learn how to use the thing properly too.

Lose some bad habits

This is the obligatory "I want to eat out less, work out more, be healthier" one, but I need to add it to the list.  We got into a bad habit of eating out several times a week, which is not only expensive, but un-healthy too.  I worked really hard a few years ago to lose a lot of weight, and I don't want all that hard work to go to waste.  To help me, I found a great website/iPhone app to help me called dailyburn.  It will help me track my food and workouts, set goals for myself, and accomplish what I want to in 2010.

Explore more

Erin and I love to try new things, so 2010 will hopefully be a year to explore new things.  Food, wine, beer, places, things to do.  I want us to live while the living is good.  Part of this is travel, but a lot of it has to do with what we typically do on the weekends.  Lately, it has been sitting around in front of a computer, which is pretty lame.  I hope the new year provides us with a kick in the butt to get out, experience all the great things Raleigh has to offer, and spend more quality time together.

Get more involved with the PHP Community

Warning...Geek speak to follow!  I really love the PHP community.  I swear, it is the greatest thing since sliced bread for a developer like me who has to operate on no budget and a tiny staff.  I have recently joined the Zend Framework project, finally signing my contributor license agreement!  That means I can start helping with documentation and the monthly bug fixes.  I have also been invited to speak at TEK-X in Chicago in May.  I am really excited about the opportunity to speak at my first professional PHP conference as an on-the-agenda speaker.  I have done un-conference sessions before, but this is the first for-real one.  I am nervous and excited, all at the same time.  There are a few more conferences that I will be submitting papers to as well, so we'll see where that takes me...

I think that is enough stuff for the new year.  Hope everyone has a wonderful, productive and exciting 2010.