Since I was told Tuesday I was leaving this weekend, I haven’t really had the time to make any plans for while I’m in CA. While I’m sure most of my weekdays will be filled with studying, I do plan on going out on the weekends. I’ll have a rental car but its shared between 5 of us. My first order of business will be to get into San Francisco next weekend for WonderCon and hopefully headed to one of the iFanboy party’s at night. Other than that, I really have no plans but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

Anyone that follows this blog or my Twitter account knows I’ve been looking for a new job lately. My current job with Ann Taylor as a Help Desk Specialist is being outsourced in a few short months and I decided to get the hell out of dodge while I could. After 3 interviews, a tech screening, and some anxiety I’m happy to say I was offered a position at Apple as a Mac Genius in their Danbury, CT store last week. I happened to be on vacation last week so I didn’t put my notice in at work until this Monday. My last day at Ann Taylor was today. I’m going to miss the people I work with but I couldn’t wait to get away from that job. I hope to start with Apple next Monday and I’m very excited. I took a small pay cut but I’m going to be a million times more happy at Apple on my worst day than the best day at Ann Taylor. I should know some more details in the next few days but sometimes next month, I get to go to the Mothership (Cupertino, CA) for training.

With 2007 as nothing more than fading memory, 2008 rolls on. I thought I had one of the best years in recent memory last year. I did a lot of stuff I set out to do, and even more I didn’t expect.

I feel 2008 is going to be a slow year for me as I have some very specific goals that I plan on obtaining. The most prevalent is to become debt free. I’ve been working on this since 2005 and I hope for it to culminate this year. Unfortunately for this to happen, I have to be tight with my budget so I don’t see a lot going on this year for me.

That being said, this year is already taking a few left turns. I will be starting a new job this year as mine is currently in the processes of being outsourced. I’ve already been on a couple interviews and there is one job I’m still interviewing for that I’m very excited for. I don’t want to jinx myself but if I get it, I think its just what I need to start off the year right.

On the tech side of the coin, I’m not sure what to expect this year. One product that I would love to see with some changes this year is GrandCentral. The Google owned product has been stagnant since they purchased it and I can only hope thats due to a major overhaul going on. Some of the features I would love to see is better iPhone support, SMS support and the ability to have calls auto-answer instead of having to accept them. I was also thinking about getting another computer this year but my Macbook is still going strong and I have no real reason to upgrade. Maybe when my living situation settles down, I’ll look at a new computer. Other than that I’m just going to sit back and see what happens.

Overall I think this is going to be a year of focus for me. I’m turning 30 this year and need to start thinking about what’s ahead. The past few years I’ve taken a lot of steps to declutter my life, straighten out my finances and set some goals. I plan on focusing on tying up any and all loose ends this year and starting off my 30’s brand new.

January – Started Project 365, took my first trip anywhere to San Francisco, went to Macworld, seen Diggnation live, went to a QA with Kevin Smith, partied at the Lost Planet release party, started using Twitter, setup a Facebook account.

February – Lost Planet photos published, went to New York Comic Con.

March – Captain America is dead, quit World of Warcraft, put myself on an allowance, my Macbook now runs Vista.

April – Went to Video Games Live at Yale University, started a Tumblelog, moved to Dreamhost for webhosting, bought an AppleTV, sold my HD DVD.

May – Spiderman 3 movie, interviewed for WSJ article.

June – Fall Out Boy live, started a Faceblog, started my own comic podcast, first manga book, iPhone released.

July – Harry Potter ends, setup a GrandCentral account, converted all my MP3’s to AAC.

August – iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08 released, lived in my car, got into a car accident, my favorite album of the year released – Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight, new comic store, my favorite movie of the year Stardust, i own sunglasses.

September – Bought an iPod Touch, promptly returned it for an iPhone, 1 year at Ann Taylor, 2 years with Amy, iFanboy’s 100th episode, Wordpress 2.3.

October – Leopard released, switched from Wesebe to Mint, Gmail IMAP, Guitar Hero III.

November – Turned 29, started writing for comicspoliers.net.

December – Timbuk2 used my picture for there new website, Xbox360 Fall update with Divx support, another live iFanboy show, new Timbuk2 commute bag, switched to MarsEdit, mediatemple rocks, canceled Netflix, found out I’m being laid off.

Timbuk2 recently contacted me about using one of my photos for a redesign of their webpage. Of course I said yes as I love my Timbuk2 bag. Well today is the day they launched the new website and my picture is part of the header for the laptop section.

Check it out.

They also gave me a $125 gift card for using my picture and I made waste to that on a new Commute bag and a Monroe Wallet in a matter of minutes. I love my Blogger but hoping the Commute will be a little smaller. I do like the fact it has a place for water bottles on the outside. I’ve also given up on Jimi wallets as they keep breaking on me so I’m going to try my luck with a wallet from Timbuk2.

I’ve also applied for a promotion at work. The only other guy going for it is above me so I’m kinda in a win win situation either way. One way I get the job or if he gets it, I make a move for his. Both will require me to move to days as I work nights now but with me trying to get my financial situation under control and moving to a new place, the extra income will be nice. Its so expensive to live by yourself here in CT, I’m going to have to move in with a roommate for the next 6-12 months. By that time I will start to have rebuilt my credit and have enough money to maybe get a place of my own again. So the next couple months will be interesting and possible steps forward for me.

Alec out.

Just my luck, it happened to be probably the coldest day of the year in SF. I stopped off at one of the gift shops just so I could by a jacket. After I was comfortable, headed to Pier 39 for some lunch and eat at Bubba Gumps. Food was decent and got to sit somewhere warm and with a view. Pretty much just walked around the Wharf for abit and took the trolley back getting off at Lombard St.

After that headed back and off to the airport.San Francisco was fun, would have been better if it was alittle warmer and I know how to use the Muni but its somewhere I want to go back. i didnt get to see “Rollin’ wit” Bob Saget’s Full house or the Golden Gate Bridge and check out what I missed. Maybe next year.

Flickr Set

The taping was awesome. Kevin and Alex got a couch from god knows where somehow and snuck in beers so it felt like a real diggnation taping. They tossed out T-shirts, which I didn’t get any and lighters, which I didn’t get any.

The video of its up for members right now and should be on iTunes in a couple days. Got to see the video and you can catch me during the beginning pan of the audience.

the8thsign represent

Flight
My fight was, well, underwhelming. This was my first time flying and between everything everyone was telling me and everything I was reading, I was expecting the worst.

Two Words: Weak Sauce

Took a 1:30hr flight to Washington DC, which was delayed on the runway for 45mins then had a 1hr layover before taking the 5hr flight to San Francisco. On flight movie, The Queen, sucked so I spent most of my time listening to my iPod and near the end broke out my macbook and watched a few episodes of Veronica Mars.

Only thing that sucked was when we were descending, the cabin pressure destroyed my sinuses. I’m still feeling pretty shitty because of it.

Arrived into SFO kinda late. Took a shuttle to the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat in the hotel restaurant then just chilled for the rest of the night

Hotel
I stayed at the Ramada Plaza Hotel on Market St and it is not somewhere I will be going back too either.

• homeless people everywhere
• free internet was so slow it was useless
• maids never left any washcloths
• vending machine was busted
• shuttle from airport to hotel wasn’t free
• breakfast wasn’t free
• bathroom had empty shampoo bottles on top of the shower

And when the shuttle dropped us off, they gave me the wrong luggage. I was lucky the women who got mine caught it in time and called my cell.

Sightseeing
Since Macworld didn’t start until Tuesday, I pretty much had all day Monday to go sightseeing. Me and my buddy ended up walking all the way from the hotel to Fisherman’s Wharf. Grabbed a bite then headed to Alcatraz and took the tour. After that we walked back to the hotel and started to head for Ebisu for sushi. After walking about 15 miles all day, we took a cab to Ebisu’s. The sushi was awesome. Definitely somewhere I would go back. After we left we decided to try our luck on the Muni to get home.

Lesson #1 in SF: Learn to use public transportation.

What cost us $20 in cab fare, cost $1.50 to get back. Live and Learn.