2008 has been an amazing year of change.
Personally
I stepped into Social Networking this year by joining Facebook and Twitter, quitting Myspace, posting to Flickr, and beginning to blog. I'm still not sure what to make of Twitter, but Facebook has been a real trip. I've reconnected with a number of people and can now remain in semi-real-time touch with everyone there. The cross section of friends ranges from family to past and present co-workers, neighbors, and schoolmates going back as far as elementary school. Some of my connections are people I’d never have found otherwise. My wife joined Facebook soon after I did. As an example of how it's permeated our lives and vernacular, my son was eating dinner one night and said, "Mom, I like this dinner so much I'm putting it on my friends list!" A few other quotes this year from both kids can be found here and here.
Family
At home, the year's biggest news is we signed a contract to build a new house in Tampa, FL. They're pulling the permits now and will hopefully pour the slab in January. If all goes well, we'll be moving this summer. Early in 2008 we dumped DirecTV and switched to Tivo HDs. This was a significant move because it meant not having to re-hack and update the DirecTV Tivos each time DirecTV issued a software update. The hacks were necessary to attempt to maintain feature parity with non-DirecTV Tivos. By switching, it meant everything would work the way it was supposed to and I didn't have to risk bricking a DVR. Ironically, a primary reason for starting to blog was to document and share hacks and tricks for Tivos and other hobbies, and about the same time I finally started blogging, the software builds of the products I’d been hacking stabilized enough to the point where I no longer needed to tinker.
This summer we took the kids to their first concert: REM's final US tour date in the US - or at least it was the final date when we saw them. I don't know why, but REM returned in the fall to play a few cities and I was able to see the concert in Dallas with my sister, her husband, and some of my friends.
Earlier this month, my son lost his first tooth. I played a joke on him with a molar of mine. I told him the Tooth Fairy brings a cash reward or a new tooth to replace the old one. Without him seeing, I swapped his tiny tooth in the box with my wisdom tooth (I have no idea why I kept it, or even how I knew where it was when I suddenly wanted it), and when he went to look under his pillow for his score, he just stared it in disbelief. My daughter's reaction was priceless, "How is THAT going to fit in your mouth?" she asked him, eyes as wide as his. The laughter waned quickly, so we gave him his real reward, a Bakugan toy. Both kids went to the dentist today and continue to be cavity-free.
Career
In August, I helped lead some changes two years in the making (some of the ideas I actually had since 2001, long before I started this role). I'm helping pick up the pace, too, so we don't have to wait two-plus years between innovations. It's sometimes frustrating being an agent of change, but I believe it's all for the right reasons. I have a fantastic boss, grand-boss, and great-grand-boss, so I'm empowered to accomplish as much as I can, providing I can convince everyone else it needs to happen.
In 2007 I traveled quite a bit. We have corporate goals to reduce our travel spend, and I slashed my trips considerably. On the road in 2008, I cut my actual air miles flown by more than half what I flew in 2007. Still, I was fortunate to get to visit three countries outside the US (England, Japan, and United Arab Emirates), one of them previously unvisited (UAE). I blogged both about traveling to Dubai and what it was like while I was there. In the US, I flew once on Delta SkyMiles to Dallas (for REM), and we took a road trip in April to see family and friends in the mid-West and mid-Atlantic. I had the opportunity to visit three Gordon Ramsay restaurants outside the US (York & Albany, Maze Grill, and Verre), spend time with work-friends around the world, and even made some new ones. We're collaborating more and more with video-enabled technologies, so I expect 2009 to see less travel, and more face-to-face, or at least monitor-to-monitor. I'm even planning to build an unique (and hopefully aesthetic) background in my new home office just for video meetings.
Fast-Forward
I'm really, really looking forward to 2009. Thanks for reading!
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