eddyfate

Surprisingly, this year actually worked out about the way I expected it too. If anything, it was far, far better than I anticipated. Sure, there were some bumps, but I can honestly say that overall 2008 was a good year for me. Here are my resolutions for 2008. Let's look at the scoreboard.

Learn As Much As I Can. Oh boy, did I. I read a lot, I did a lot, I talked a lot and I listened a lot. I still feel some days like I'm learning, but if I got nothing else from my experiences this past year, I learned a hell of a lot. Exceptional Success

Improve My Current Writing and Design Skills. I didn't have as many opportunities to improve my writing as I thought I would, because honestly most of my writing is filling in gaps in projects as they pop up. On the other hand, the opportunity to just sit and talk with my peers about writing, design and other elements of the job has really helped me think of things very differently, and I'm already looking at 2007 and 2006 projects and seeing where I could improve. Success

Become A Better Manager. Well, only my freelancers can tell me if I'm a good manager, but I have certainly learned a fair bit about management as a skill, and some of the roadbumps I hit early on are old hat to me now. Success

Get To Know The People I Work With. Actually, most of the people I work with are pretty fucking cool. I can't say I want to hang out with every single one of them (more because I'm pretty introverted than any comment on them as people), but I can't count the number of cool conversations and good times I've had in the lunch room, let alone at company parties. But there are certainly lots more people I could get to know, and I look forward to getting to know. Success

Play More Stuff Just To Play It. For a while I thought this wouldn't happen, but I did get to play in a few short games (including a hella fun D&D4e game with some work folks), and I did manage to get into a regular Mage game just before the year ended. Success

Read More Stuff Just To Read It. I actually get bursts of space where I can read, and I got a few books read while I was in the UK on vacation. I'm currently juggling work reading with the Night Watch trilogy, in fact. Success

Improve My Health. Eh. I am, in fact, healthier than I was in St. Louis -- my dizzy spells have gone down considerably, and I'm generally not claiming as many sick days as I was in my old job. On the other hand, I do sometimes come into work or telecommute when I'm feeling blah. Further, I have noticed that when I get into a good exercise routine, I'll come down with a short cold or my ears will ache, and I'll have to stop. So, I'm healthier, but I'm still not healthy. Minimal Success

Total: Success

This year, I actually have to come up with four New Year's Resolutions for work. Rather than coming up with two sets of resolutions, I'll just put those resolutions here.

Personal Goal: Get out more. It's weird, given that I've traveled more this year than in any other year previously, but a lot of times it's work or work-related. Spending ten days just doing whatever came to mind made me realize that I should make more attempts to get out and try things more often, with real people.

Professional Goal: Try new things. I spent the past year learning and building my skill set. I've tried a tentative experiments -- many works, a few failed. Now it's time to push myself and my craft and really try to innovate within the space I have.

Fun-Oriented Goal: Run a game. All I've really run this year was a haphazard Hunter game at lunches over the past several months. It's been fun, but I've spent far more time playing than running, and I've got the itch to run again. Nowadays, it's the constant struggle with the ancient demon Scheduling.

Overall Life Goal: Write a novel. It's weird, but I've never really had the opportunity to do it, and I've always wanted to. I'm confident that I have the collection of skills to pull it off, but I'm not in a rush to crank one out. At some point in my life, though, I'd like to do it.