So Long, 2009... It's Been Interesting...

It's December 30th, 2009. Tomorrow evening, we will be celebrating the close of the year, and the dawning of a new 365 days where at least 300 of them we'll fight the urge to write the date as 2009, if not actually doing so in the first place. This year's been pretty crazy, for the world, for the interwebs, even for myself. What exactly do have wave goodbye to, and what might we be looking forward to or expecting out of the year 2010?

The Past Year

Personal

I started this year out in a panic, having to move because the house my wife and I were in was being foreclosed. We moved to a larger, more expensive house. Getting used to the new house after three years at the previous house was tough.

I had also just been promoted at work the previous November, and this job was (and still is at times) not easy to get into.

I finally got a DSLR around April, a Canon 20D. This became my focus and anchor of most of my thoughts at this point. Guitar and bass rarely touched my hands, as I started seriously nerding out on photography even more than before.

We got a dog. What a spaz.

We had our ups and downs, as always.

Got close to some very awesome people both at work and through other circles. I don't know what I'd do without these people.

In October this year, I got hired on permanently, as opposed to being a contractor through a temp agency. This felt almost as huge as getting promoted from my original job role in the first place.

Shortly thereafter, around the middle of October, my wife asked me for a divorce. Instead of fighting it, as I have previously, I agreed this time. We mutually worked things out, and I moved in with a coworker that weekend. It wasn't easy, as there were plenty of emotions at play, and it tormented me, knowing that in the end I was having to lay down a hard line, and walk away from my marriage, and life companion of nearly five years. It's still tough to think about, but I know it's what we need to be able to be happy.

Christmas was actually much better than I had anticipated. I got to go back to Redding for the weekend and spend it with my whole family. It's the first time we've all been together since my wedding, almost three years ago. It was a lot of fun, although seeing my dad's current state was soul-crushing. Such a lively, happy, independent person is now reduced to barely any activity at all. He's nearly completely blind now, due to complications stemming from diabetes, and probably his heart problems as well. It's tough to see your old man slowly treading around the house by feel. I'm trying not to think about it generally, but now that I am, it's just too much to bear. Changing subjects.

So I'm closing out my year, mostly keeping to myself and my small circle of friends, reconnecting with some, and trying to pull my shit together somehow. Trying to correct things I've let get screwed up, and pull myself back onto the path of progress. We'll see how that goes for the next year.

Other Stuff

It's been a crazy year around the world as well. Celebrity deaths abound, some that I even genuinely care about and will actively miss. Celebrities being retarded. But that's normal now I guess.

Of course, one of my big passions is technology. What a frikkin' year! Of course, the iPhone has pretty much dominated the phone market, with apps being the main draw. It's amazing that now there are over 100,000 apps available. The iPhone has most certainly changed how we view a mobile phone, and also has changed how we consume data and content while away from the computer or even a TV.

Twitter and Facebook are in their epic battle of epic battles, of course. And I've found myself really hooked on Facebook's sense of community. It makes it easy to interact with others, and now that it's blown way out of proportion when it comes to a userbase, almost everyone I care about is reachable. Facebook is the closest the world has come to a global communications platform, where a structure exists to connect friends, family, and even brands, groups, and other entities to their target audience and fans. I thought it'd pick up steam this year, but had no idea it would do so much. It's pretty amazing what change has occurred over just the past two years in this respect.

2010 Predictions, Ideas, Etc

Personal

2010 is the year where I am really going to hunker down and be as productive and creative as I can. I need to post more to my blogs. I need to shoot more photos. Projects need to be completed and followed through. And most importantly, I need to get myself back on the right track in my existence. Pay off what needs to be paid off, better my lifestyle, and hopefully establish a thriving creative output. My ideal situation is to get to a point to where my photography is close to as large a part of my daily/weekly life as my day job is. If it grows from there, I don't know what I'd do (I actually love my day job), but I'll worry about that when it gets there.

I definitely need to start playing more music, as well. 2009 was almost completely devoid of serious musical efforts, and that shouldn't be the case.

Under normal circumstances (as in previous years before my marriage), I'd say I need to find someone to be with, etc etc. Not so much this go-round. I'm finding that I need to re-center myself first, not worry about dating. Focus on personal goals, projects, and friendships. That's not saying that if the perfect person comes around I'll ignore her, but in general, not my focus right now.

I guess the theme here is to just do my shit. Be less lazy, be more productive, more driven, and actually make some headway. I've been surrounded by the fake sound of progress the past year, in my head, and it's to start something good.

Other Stuff

Oh man... 2010 has got some crazy stuff ahead. It'd BETTER contain an iPhone with a damned front-facing camera, that's for sure!

Speaking of Apple though, in all seriousness. I believe that Apple is poised to take the content/media world by storm, with the long-rumored and anxiously awaited Apple tablet, currently believed to be called the iSlate. I have a feeling that this will change media consumption the way that the iPhone did, although in a much larger scale. It will involve the old media print dynasty finally pulling their heads out of their asses, and distributing content with a fresh, new format and perspective. In fact, here's what I posted on Vincent Laforet's blog earlier today in response to this post:

I agree with you on both of those points. The “Year of the Tablet” particularly holds a lot of promise and dreams made true (possibly) that I think my generation has waited for (I’m 28). The powerful, rich, media-enabled tablet will allow for powerful, rich, media-enabled content flowing right to it, from both old and new media players, but I have a feeling that we’ll see something quite astounding in this new year. Not quite PDFs, not quite websites/blogs, but a new breed of beautiful content. Content that will bring forth the beauty of the print magazine in all it’s glory, but with the speed, ease, and convenience of these here interwebs.

I can’t wait.

That pretty much sums that up.

Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, etc etc... I think that Twitter and Facebook will continue to duke it out. Twitter is the obvious blind-networking champ, and has an epic advantage when it comes to trending, sharing real-time data, and allowing people and brands to find other people/brands that are talking about what they want to hear about. Facebook, well, as far as social networking goes, they're the kings. And their API as a platform has only barely been tapped. Payment structures a la Paypal, more real-world awareness (Facebook needs to buy the SHIT out of Foursquare like whoa!), and a constantly improving method of filtering all of this data. I think we'll see more and more use of Facebook as a platform (the newly embraced "software as a service" methodology, I guess) where more and more of what we do online (and offline) will center around Facebook. As I alluded to above, Facebook should buy Foursquare, and implement that functionality deep into the heart and soul of Facebook. If they do that, then we're looking at a whole new level of networking in the real world. I'm sold.

Tiger Woods. Can't blame him. Shit's gotta' get rough when you're banging one of the hottest girls out there, and you have more money than you know what to do with. That being said, in all seriousness, just because you're a model and married to Tiger doesn't mean you probably didn't do anything to spur it on. Let Tiger be Tiger, he's sorry, and just let him live his life, play his game, and continue being freakin' awesome.

Again touched on by Vincent Laforet, HDSLRs will continue kicking ass and taking names. Good. Awesome. Maybe one day this year I'll get myself a nice shiny new Canon 7D.

I think this has really gone on long enough now... What was supposed to be a quick-ish recap droned on and on, so I'll wrap this up here. I do wish everyone a great New Year's Eve, and all the success and happiness in 2010. I'll be getting trashed in downtown/midtown/Old Sacramento tomorrow night, so I'll see you all on the other side.