New Years resolutions 2010
As I did back in 2009, I'm creating 10 New Years resolutions that I'll hopefully stick to during 2010. The first 5 are a continuation of 2009's resolutions:
- Lose some weight - I'll set a target weight in the coming weeks and will blog about my progress throughout the coming months.
- Release SlickCMS - I'm finishing off a few features to complete Version 2, which will then be released to the public as an Open Source application. Version 3 is already in planning and 4 will be a port to .NET
- Build up plenty of savings - As the recession is coming to an end, our savings should reflect this.
- Complete an XBOX 360 game - My gamer points are poor for someone who has had an Xbox for nearly 3 years (2007-05). Completing a game should help this.
- Release a new web project - In addition to SlickCMS which will ideally be coded in .NET
- Tweet more - I've started to use twitter a lot more over the Christmas holidays, so will continue to during 2010, hopefully gaining many more followers.
- Design refresh for Slickhouse - The current design you see before you is nearing a year in age and could do with a refresh to coincide with the switch to SlickCMS (from WordPress).
- Blog more - The amount of posts I've written over the past year compares very badly to previous years. December 2009 only saw 2 posts for you to read. So for 2010 I'll make more time to blog and will write some meaningful articles as well as random thoughts.
- Take more holiday - During 2009 I barely took the 20+ days of holiday I'm entitled to off, so for 2010 I plan to utilise the full amount spread over the 365 days.
- Increase reader base - Slickhouse and my other sites receive fairly low traffic volumes. A combination of Tweeting more, blogging more and releasing SlickCMS/other projects should help to increase the number of people visiting and reading Slickhouse and its related sites. Perhaps I could even make some money from the time spent blogging/developing in my own time?
That should do it. Once 2010 comes to an end, I'll reflect on the New Years resolutions as per yesterday, hopefully stating that all 10 were stuck to. What have you got planned for 2010?
Posted: Friday 1st January 2010, 07:05pm
Categories: General, SlickCMS
Tags: new-years-resolutions
Reflecting on 2009
Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post detailing my New Years Resolutions for 2009. Some I've managed to stick to, others I've either failed slightly or considerably. So, keeping the same numerical order:
- Get Married - we've officially been married for 7 months and 15 days. Our Wedding website is live with pictures from the big day and our honeymoon that followed.
- Lose the Christmas excess - I've not attempted to lose any weight this year, but the good news is I don't weight any more since I did at the end of 2008. Hopefully next year I'll make a better go at this.
- Learn ASP.NET - the fact that I code in VBScript/C# using the .NET framework each day suggests I've got the basics covered. Each new project or application I develop using .NET allows me to further improve my skillset. I'm planning a few .NET personal projects for 2010, so stay tuned.
- Stick to no magazines - I don't recall purchasing a single magazine this year and have only read a couple from friends/family. The only downside is that I've not read as many books as I had hoped to during 2009.
- Get to grips with IIS7 - complete. The main web server at slickhouse is using Server 2008 and we're also migrating to it at work. IIS7 is a great improvement over 6 and the additional modules allow for even more functionality.
- Finish my own CMS - not quite there. I'm currently completing version 2 which should be ready for public release mid-January 2010. There's a few major features still to implement, such as Tags and Categories - to make it a worthwhile WordPress alternative. See SlickCMS in action.
- Build up plenty of savings - not complete, but other things have taken priority financially and I've felt the affects of the recession. Hopefully 2010 will be a better year.
- Complete an XBOX 360 game - again, not complete. However, on 2009-01-07 I had only 730 gamer points; today I have 1900. Not a substantial amount, but it's more than doubled.
- Release a new web project - I have a few planned projects, but these are all on hold until SlickCMS has been released to the public.
- Eat breakfast - complete! Each day we've got up with Lily at about 7am and sat down to eat breakfast with her. This will continue into 2010 as Baby #2 arrives and is a permanent lifestyle change.
That's 2009's resolutions summarised. As you can see, there's a few to be carried over to 2010 - I'll be posting the next set in the New Year. Whatever you're up to this evening, have a Happy New Year!
Posted: Thursday 31st December 2009, 07:05pm
Categories: General, SlickCMS
Tags: new-years-resolutions
Wedding, Naming and Honeymoon photos!
Finally, I've got around to uploading the photographs from our Wedding, Lily's Naming Ceremony and our Honeymoon - all of which can be found at ourwedding2009.co.uk
Thanks to our photographer Rachel, who put together the album. We've ordered prints of the best pictures, ready to frame and mount.
If you'd like a full-sized original copy of any of the images, then contact us.
Posted: Wednesday 1st July 2009, 07:05pm
Categories: General, Web
Tags: honeymoon, naming, ourwedding2009, wedding
The Big Day
It's the 14th May, which means I'm 25 today - but also it is only 2 days until Anneka and I are getting married.
We've been planning it for over a year now and everything is finally coming together. I've been writing my speech over the past few nights and picked up the suits today. In fact, all that's left is for us to pick up the cup-cakes tomorrow morning, then to check-in to the hotel.
After we're married/named, Anneka, Lily and I are heading to Heathrow early Sunday morning to fly out to Barcelona. From there, we're catching a cruise around the Mediterranean, stopping at Malta, Italy (various) and then Cannes, France. We've realised that we'll hit Cannes during the festival - but whether we'll see anything or not is another question.
We'll be posting pictures from the following days once we return. In the meantime, this place will be quiet. I'm hoping once the Wedding has passed and we've settled into our married life together, that I'll be posting here more and continuing with several projects.
See you all soon!
New Years resolutions 2009
Traditionally, the beginning of a New Year involves making a few resolutions that you'll stick to throughout the coming 12 months. Although I don't usually make any, or indeed, stick to New Years resolutions - this time around, I'm coming up with the following:
- Get Married - this is 99% on track, as the venue is booked and plans are well under-way
- Lose the Christmas excess - I tried the gym last year (or was it 2007?), but soon gave up, so I plan to lose weight but without spending money on a membership I won't utilise
- Learn ASP.NET - this is more work related, as we're moving to .NET - but I'm still on the 1st of many chapters
- Stick to no magazines - so far so good, but I did slip up a few months back when Anneka bought me a copy of Top Gear
- Get to grips with IIS7 - I've got a virtual Server 2008 machine up and running, and I use IIS7 at work on Vista, but there's so many new features (compared to 6) to master
- Finish my own CMS - I've completed the framework (in Classic ASP/MS SQL), but have much more to implement - who knows, I may even release it by the end of 2009 as Open Source!
- Build up plenty of savings - even during the current credit crunch, this should be possible
- Complete an XBOX 360 game - as odd as it may sound, I'm yet to play a 360 game from start to finish - as my measly 730 gamer points show
- Release a new web project - not as per my usual (blogs, static sites), but a full on public affair, that others can use in their day-to-day Internet browsing - I have some ideas up my sleeve...
- Eat breakfast - over the Christmas break we had a few, but getting up at 7am and sitting down to breakfast every day, with Anneka and Lily is my aim
Let me know if you've got any resolutions!
Posted: Wednesday 7th January 2009, 07:05pm
Categories: General
Tags: new-years-resolutions
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