End of a year, beginning of another

And of a year, beginning of eternity

Now’s the time of year when thoughts turn to the 12 months just gone, and the future to come. It’s been ain interesting year for me, even if it has flown by seemingly in a few weeks. Here’s a recap:

1. Visiting St Gauderic again after being away for several years was a real highlight. And being able to take our youngest child there was very special. Seeing him toddle round the village reminded me of when I was a child there, climbing haystacks and riding bikes. It also made me appreciate again the joy, honour and responsibility of being a father.
2. My wife and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. It’s not much, but bearing in mind the events of the last 5/6 years it’s a real testament to our strength individually and together that we’re still here.
3. The toddler turned 2. We still call him the baby, but that’s more to do with him being the youngest in a large family rather than being an actual baby. Potty training and lots of new words has marked this year as being a big one in his development.
4. myJournal has taken up a LOT of time. I’m really pleased with how it’s working, and very proud of how far I’ve developed as a developer (intended pun) through writing such a system. I see the vast possibilities for this site, and look forward to developing some great new features in the New Year.
5. The new Wibsite.com was launched in November. The Wibsite has been a big part of my online life for over 7 years, and while I may not blog there very much now it’s still important to me. And I’m privileged to count Dave as a good friend. Long may the Wib-community thrive.
6. I’ve also had the chance to continue developing Performer, which has maintained it’s core aim of making modern JavaScript techniques easier to use. There’s also lots of exciting things planned for the future, so watch this space.
7. After too long thinking about it, I’ve finally started in earnest on the new version of projectGenie. Everyone who knows me as a developer knows my love for the WordPress platform, so it’s no surprise that I’m incorporating several philosophies from WordPress in the new projectGenie. These include themes, plugins and clean URLs. Again, next year will hopefully see the launch of the new version, named Brookmeyer.
8. And my day job has continued, with code-a-plenty.

If you get the impression from that list that my life consists of kids, wife and web development you’d be pretty near to the truth. But what about the future?

1. Mainly I want to try to spend better quality time with my family. Too often I’ve been preoccupied with work, to the detriment of the kids and my wife. That has to change. Which is a challenge, I’ll admit.
2. I feel re-inspired to make the music at my church much better than it’s been. That involves taking a greater responsibility in the band, and I’m looking forward to doing some new material – and reinventing some old stuff – in the New Year.
3. myJournal. ‘Nuff said.
4. I also want to continue to work more with the Open Source community, both with my own project and with others. It would be great to have some time to really put some work in for the Buddypress and WordPress MU projects.
5. Continue to grow my own business, and hopefully move into more consultancy-based services. Oh, and redesign my sites – but that’s always on the back burner!

So with next year breathing down our necks, it just leaves me to say have a good one.