Burberry, Prada, you know, trendy...

The ubiquitous year-end blog. Many are doing it. More will. Lump me in with the rest of them. The big events of 2008 for me:

1. Job change. Yes, job change not career change. Because I don't know what career I want yet. If I stop being afraid of writing (and the ultimate acceptance or rejection of said writing), I might become an author. But currently, my communications-related track is going along, as the new Communications Coordinator for ACEC Washington. It stretches me everyday. At least I'm forcing it to.

2. Stopped actively working on race cars. After nearly 15 years of working on race cars, sacrificing a lot time and energy, I hung up the stopwatch, so to speak. I got to the point where the effort put in was far greater than the return, and the sport stopped being fun. I've been kicking around defining a new role I want to be challenged in, but I'm sorting out the new job and my more important aspirations.

3. Gaining expertise in social media. I'm not the most technical person, but I feel I have a great ability to understand technical issues and break them down to understandable concepts. I may not know how to do something, but I can likely understand the concepts and pathway to get there. Social media is similar. Everyone "wants" to use it, but they don't know how, or if they should. That's where I shine, I think. I can't write the explicit code, but I can find solutions that will work. The new Internet structure is fitting the skill set of others like me. For a crude illustration, I'll point you towards Office Space. "I deal with the customer so the !@#$#$%%%^ engineers don't have to! I'm a people person! I have valuable people skills!" (okay, that's a stretch on the last part)

4. Segue into... Movie "wealth" is building. I saw more movies this year (dunno if that's a good sign), but I'm a minor movie enthusiast. My DVD collection is over 400 (modest collection to my standards), but I haven't traveled to the classics aisle yet. Mainly because I can't get them for $5-$10 yet. All those DVDs and not one Jimmy Stewart.

5. Played less video games. Yeah, that was great, but the time spent playing games shifted to the Internet and a little site called Hulu.com. I don't even have an XBOX 360, so I'm behind on that front. At the beginning of 2008 I had two options: guitar or 360. Good call!

6. Spent more time with the parents, playing cards or dominoes. And they kick my butt most of the time. I enjoy playing games, like when I was little. I remember playing Uno with the family, or Monopoly, Payday, Life, Clue, or any other game.

7. Being more selective in my blogroll. Sure my b-roll has over 100 feeds, but I only read about 10-20 of them. I think if I have some spare time I'll delete the feeds I don't read. Bloglines makes organization a dreadful thing, at least it was last time I did it.