Here in the United States, it seems the 5 - 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day is mostly about excess. Excessive eating, drinking, spending, visiting, partying.... It is a great way to end a year!! But now that another year has passed, and with it the year-ending excesses, it is time for me to think about some (definitely not all) of what I want to accomplish in 2008.
This site only existed for the final 2 months of 2007. The direction at launch was to serve as a platform for releasing my own personal serendipity templates, as well as discuss and promote concepts and tools that make site design productive, somewhat innovative and maybe even fun. Looking forward, I want to spend more time focusing on new ideas and taking them to completion. I also need to make sure my non-development projects receive fair attention. These are in no particular order of priority:
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Finish the template based on my Bulletproof admin template.
I have been working on this off and on for months! Stop creating new functionality, and release the thing already! If I wait until it is perfect, no one will ever get to use it. Besides, there is no such thing as "perfect".
- Keep tweaking Bulletproof.
Early 2007 marked the beginning of the Bulletproof project with this simple thread started by YellowLed. Following countless contributions and discussions from community contributors, YellowLed, Dave Cummins, and I released Bulletproof, which now stands at v1.2. For me personally, it was quite a learning experience. It would be very easy to fix a few minor issues and consider the project "complete", but I hope we - team bulletproof - continue to improve the code and enhance the functionality. More importantly, I hope others continue their efforts to use Bulletproof as the foundation for their own serendipity templates!
- Finish bathroom project.
Early 2007 also happened to be the same time time of year I demolished an entire bathroom in my house, got about half way through putting it back together, and stopped! This site, Bulletproof, and serendipity were not the only distractions - 3 kids, a wife, summer and a host of other things just kept me from completing this project. This really needs to get finished... but first I need to find my tile saw!
- Create unique template for this site.
I would like to have a serendipity template design that gives me a unique expression and functionality without having to worry about covering every possible way someone else might use the template. Bulletproof is great, but also requires a lot of extra work for options I will personally never use.
- Return to the workforce.
I have been a "stay at home dad" for the past few years. It has been profoundly rewarding on a personal level since it allows me to spend so much time with my 3 kids and explore personal interests. It is also why I have had so much time to create serendipity templates and participate in the serendipity community. I do, however, need a professional life to be completely fulfilled and will be evaluating my options.
- Create non-blog template.
I have wanted to create a type of template that, while not entirely unseen in the blogosphere, is not common in the Serendipity community.... if it exists at all. I am so excited by this project that it will take a lot of self control not to start it until I have released what I already have in progress!
- Find more ways to contribute to the Serendipity core code and plugins
This will require as much, or likely more, assistance from others than my own efforts. While my php skills have improved over the past 12 months, those skills pale by comparison to the abilities of others. However, with the help of people like Garvin, Judebert, and Grischa, we have managed to make positive contributions to the serendipity core and a few plugins. Many times, ideas for these improvements come from using Serendipity in a manner that is a little "out of the box", so I hope to encounter new and different opportunities to really push Serendipity to the limits.
- Visit and comment on more blogs
Seems like a simple enough thing to do, but it is amazing how difficult it is to actually make the time to participate in other people's sites.
- File my tax return early
Here in the US, our federal tax returns are due on April 15th. I usually have most of the documentation necessary to prepare my tax return by mid-January, but when do I usually file my return? April 15th! This would be acceptable if I owe money, but thanks to a mortgage and 3 kids, I usually get money back - which is then sitting in the government's hands instead of earning interest in my bank account!!! I'll start with an objective of March 1st!! You never want to be the earliest (audit risk), but waiting until the absolute deadline is crazy.
- Clean the basement
My basement used to be a fun place to be! Pool/Billiard table, dart board, pinball machine, extra tv, etc. Every corner is now filled with forgotten kid's toys. Boxes of poorly filed paperwork stacked all over the pool table, the pinball machine hasn't worked correctly in years and I have no idea what happened to the darts. What used to be a fun place has been abused and avoided far too long. Time for some spring cleaning... hopefully before spring, itself, actually arrives!
So these are my ideas. How about you? Do you have any New Year objectives that you care to share? If so, please be sure to leave a comment!
Grischa
Homepage
01/05/2008 11:23AM
It was a very pleasant experience for me, working together with you on the avatar plugin and on templates. We will continue to do projects like this in 2008 for sure, I guess.
About your todo list: Topic 9 is very well known to me! I have to pay taxes and I am always too late, so I have to pay taxes and fees. It's always the same: I could do it today, but I will do it tomorrow.. or perhaps the day after tomorrow.. or..
Don Chambers
Homepage
01/05/2008 12:22PM
Should we see who can get their taxes filed first? When are your due in Germany?