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 13th, 2008 in
life | tags:
debt,
grandcentral,
job |
1 Comment
2007 was the first year I used Twitter extensively. I started off heavy, lost interest then picked it back up in the middle of the year thanks to programs like Twitterrific and Twitterberry. Now thanks to Damon Cortesi, who hacked up a quick and dirt script, you can see a visualization of my Twitter activity for 2007 above.
Feel free to add me on Twitter – http://twitter.com/the8thsign
January 7th, 2008 in
tech,
web | tags:
2007,
twitter |
No Comments
Created with flickrSLiDR.
With the end of 2007 comes the end of my Project 365 photography experiment. One picture a day for one year. While it doesn’t sound hard, it really became a challenge to find something new to photograph each day. As much fun as it was, I’m glad its over. I learned a lot about my Fuji V10 and when I finally switch to a DSLR, I may do another Project 365. Overall it was a great way to learn about my camera capabilities and also keep a daily photolog of my day to day life. I will almost definitely do another one when I purchase a DSLR but this year, I’m going to enjoy the time off.
January 6th, 2008 in
photos | tags:
2007,
project365 |
No Comments
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.
January 6th, 2008 in
life | tags:
2007 |
2 Comments
01: Blogging Software
The most important piece of software bloggers use is the software they write in. A lot of people use their blogging platforms built-in tools but that doesn’t allow for offline writing. Any word processor will do, but software like MarsEdit (Mac) or Ecto (Mac/Windows) is specifically designed to integrate with all the major blogging platforms to allow offline editing, direct posting and uploading pictures and files.
02: Digital camera
No fancy DSLR here, a Point and Shoot is what you want. Something small and light they can carry at all times. I current use a dated FujiFilm V10 but newer cameras like the Canon SD850 are a great choice.
03: Flickr Pro account
A blogger will store a lot of photo’s over the life of a blog. Where better to store and share them than Flick. A Pro account will set you back $24.95 for a full year but allow for unlimited uploads, storage, bandwidth and photosets.
04: 1 Year of Webhosting
This can work two ways. First, if the Blogger in your life is using a hosted service like Wordpress.com or Blogger for their blog, then give then the gift of their own server and URL. Two of the most popular webhosts are Dreamhost and Media Temple. Both provide an auto install of different blogging platforms for quick setup. If they already have their own server, then purchasing an addition year from their webhost is a great gift.
05: I’m Blogging This T-Shirt
The “I’m Blogging This” T-shirt (men/women) from Thinkgeek lets the world know they are next to be blogged.
06: Blogging Heroes: Interview with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers Hardcover
Blogging Heroes is a new book by Micheal A. Banks featuring interviews with some of today;s top bloggers on what sets them apart in the blogging world. Interviews with bloggers from Lifehacker, BoingBoing, Joystiq and many more.
07: ASUS Eee PC
Sometimes you just don’t want to carry your laptop everywhere you go and forget about typing out a blog post on the iPhone. Enter the ASUS Eee PC. A 7″ ultraportable laptop weighing just under two pounds. Its comes with Linux installed but includes drivers for Windows XP. If your adventous enough, you can try installing Mac OS X on it also.
08: Timbuk2 blogger bag
The on-the-go blogger is going need something to carry their laptop and other goodies in. What better bag than the Timbuk2 Blogger. Its a vertical computer bag with a padded compartment for a laptop. Its waterproof and quite roomy.
09: Blub to turn blog into a book
Blurb allows you to transform blog entries into either a 22 page softcover book for $12.95 or a 40 page hardcover book for $22.95. It supports all the major blogging platforms including Blogger, Tylepad, Wordpress and Livejournal.
10: 3G Card USBConnect 881
Having always on, everywhere access is still a few years away but for now AT&T’s USBConect 881 3G card hits the spot. Its fast and portable so no matter if your lugging your Macbook Pro around or just decided to toss the Asus Eee PC in your pocket, you will always have a fast internet connection with you wherever you go.
11: RSS reader
While there are some great online RSS readers, the ability to read RSS feeds offline plus OS and application integration is perfect for productivity. My two favorite standalone programs are from Newsgator, FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for Mac both which sync to Newsgator’s free online RSS reader.
December 11th, 2007 in
tech | tags:
christmas,
gifts |
1 Comment
Jott is one of my favorite new services this year. Dial a 1-800 number, say who I want to Jott to and speak. In a few minutes my voice is translated into any number of web services Jott supports. Today they added support for Google Calendar so now I can create appointments when I’m on the run by just dialing a number and speaking. Saying “Steve Job’s Macworld Keynote at 9 am on January 15th” is a lot easier than logging into Google Calendar and typing that all out on my iPhone. Thanks to Jott I can now blog, tweet, add a todo and create an appointment without typing a word. Best of all Jott is free.
December 6th, 2007 in
lifehacks | tags:
google,
jott |
1 Comment
Simple Comic 1.7 build 0167 beta now has a bundled Quicklook plugin for both digital comic CBZ and CBR files built in. Simple Comic is currently at version 1.6.1 on their webpage but if you go into the Preferences and click on the Beta Update Feed option under Advanced > Updates, you will be presented with the option to update to 1.7 the next time you launch the app. Once you install Simple Comic 1.7 beta, restart you Mac and you will now notice all CBZ/CBR files now have thumbnails and you can view them using Quicklook. While in Coverflow view, you will now be able to flip through pages without opening up the file too.
