Honestly, I really only have one goal, beat Mike Tyson. See, I’ve never beaten Mike Tyson in the original Punch Out. I’ve really enjoyed my 20’s, and I’ve achieved a lot of my goals, but this one thing, if I don’t do before I’m 30, I may never forgive myself.

In all seriousness, I really don’t have a lot on my 30 list. A friend gave me the best advice, and it was this: “Rather than making a list, why don’t you just make it a point to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself.” Good advice, and that is what I will do. Maybe I’ll be a little bit like Jim Carrey in Yes Man, I’ll have to force myself out of my comfort zone and say yes more. After all, this is the last year I can do something stupid and have this excuse: “Ehh, it was my 20’s!”

2009 sucked. Let’s just throw that out there. Maybe that’s harsh, and nothing really horrible happened, but really, nothing notable happened, and that was just boring. Not a lot of highlights to the year, which I am disappointed in. But for the sake of the year in review post, let’s highlight some things.

The Cubs were horrible, embarrassing even. Yet, no matter how much they suck, I still well up with excitement that I get to go to Wrigley Field whenever I want. Hey, we’re Cubs fans, we’re used to it, but no one can deny that a sunny day in the bleachers still tops most summer activities.

I only visited one new city this year, Nashville. It was ok, lots of country music! This year, I need to visit some more cities on the top of my list. Boston, San Diego, Seattle, and Portland to name a few.

Probably the saddest thing about 2009, I had 5 friends move! Five is a lot, especially if almost all of them were close, hanging out most weekends types. This was disappointing, but they are all moved on to bigger and better things. But, the silver lining, I still have a few friends around, and this is a great opportunity to meet new friends, which is also on my 2010 list.

Here’s a positive thing, I feel like I made a lot of strides in my software development, becoming more of an expert on my main language, Ruby on Rails. In the following year, I’d like to keep up that pace, and start to learn another language, maybe Python or Cocoa.

I also am happy to be more involved in Park Community Church. I’m beginning to meet a lot of great people there, including my small group of guys that meet each week. I hope to get more involved with their community projects, and the like.

Needless to say, I’m happy that 2009 is over, and ready to move on to 2010, and year 29. Here’s to taking advantage of every opportunity!

- Had my parents up for Thanksgiving and we kicked off the holiday season right. Lincoln Park Zoo Lights, the tree at Daley Plaza, a choir singing Christmas carols in Millenium Park, and oh yeah, Christmas shopping on State St! Perfect.

- Threw a Christmas party for all my friends. But this wasn’t just any holiday party, this was a classy, suit-up kind of party. It was a huge success, and everyone looked awesome in their cocktail dresses and suits. But more importantly, I had all my friends together for a night of Yuletide fun.

- I went and found the Home Alone house! Need I say more? It was literally a dream come true. We also saw the bridge he walks across to get groceries and the church that he hides in the manger scene.

- Last but not least, I am now home hanging with the family. Good food, opening gifts, Wii Rock Band with the nephews. It’s gonna be a great way to end the decade.

Merry Christmas

First, here’s my top 5. No way to order these, pairing down to 5 “top” songs was hard enough! So suffice it to say, these were all awesome to me. All of these but Jay-Z I got to see live in concert at some point this year. Enjoy!

Top Songs of 2009

1. Notion – Kings of Leon
2. Sometime Around Midnight – The Airborne Toxic Event
3. Sleepyhead – Passion Pit
4. Take Your Time (Coming Home) – fun.
5. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z

Mixtape ‘09: (No particular order)

1. The ‘59 Sound – Gaslight Anthem
2. Notion – Kings of Leon
3. Sometime Around Midnight – The Airborne Toxic Event
4. Washed By The Water – Will Hoge
5. Dive In – Dave Matthews Band
6. It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry – Glasvegas
7. Her Morning Elegance – Oren Lavie
8. Can You Discover? – Discovery
9. So Insane – Discovery
10. Innocence – The Airborne Toxic Event
11. Sleepyhead – Passion Pit
12. Daylight – Matt & Kim
13. I’d Rather Be With You – Joshua Radin
14. I’ll Fight – Wilco
15. Currently – Keaton Simons
16. Say – The Damnwells
17. Little Secrets – Passion Pit
18. Bruises – Chairlift
19. Where Have You Been? – Manchester Orchestra
20. Take Your Time (Coming Home) – fun.
21. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z
22. Pursuit of Happiness – Kid Cudi
23. Basic Space – The XX
24. Everything’s Right – Matt Wertz
25. Edge of Desire – John Mayer

- Micro machines. Also the speed talking dude from the commercials.
- Starting Lineup action figures.
- Brut cologne. Man, that stuff was manly.
- Aerosol deodorant. Smelled like locker room. Today, we call it ‘Axe’.
- Named criminals. They were the ‘Wet Bandits’ for leaving the water running everywhere. And the ‘South Bend Shovel Slayer’? Creepy. You just don’t hear cool criminal names anymore.
- VCRs. Because they don’t sell a DVD version of ‘Angels With Filthy Souls’.
- Crunch Tators potato chips. These are included in a long list of potato chips that need to make a comeback (Pizzaria chips anyone?)
- John Candy. Ok, I don’t miss his character, or really anything about him in Home Alone, but John Candy was awesome and tops off my list.

- Cliche-ish or not, I’m thankful for many friends, both old and new. Im continually amazed atthe friendships I have attained just in the last few years when I started out knowing nobody. Chicago is reffered to as the City of Big Shoulders, for embracing all types of people. And I now see why. And not to forget friends from long ago that still keep in touch, that I still get excited to see the few times a year that I do. The friends that can get together all at once one time a year, and no matter how things have changed, can still tell the same stories of yesteryear and laugh together.

- A sweet gig. I love my job. I love coming to work, and although there are still mornings where I just don’t want to get up, I don’t feel like it’s work. It’s just fun. I’m in an industry of computer geeks when being geeky is about as cool as it’s ever been. The people I work with are amazing and I get to work on and with the ever-changing Internet everyday!

- My dog, Karl. Karl keeps me busy, but he also keeps me active and social. I’m lazy, and without Karl around, I wouldn’t go outside and enjoy simple walks thru fall colored parks or snow covered streets. These simple walks, that I literally do 3-4 times a day, can be quite annoying, but honestly, the joy and time of solitude it gives me are worth it. And yes, it can be very entertaining to watch Karl interact with the city.

I have this list of cities that I want to visit. Nashville happens to be way down the list, but you can’t turn down a very cheap flight to a new city. Tops on my list currently are Boston, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, and Minneapolis, in no particular order. I’ve been to NYC, but would love to go back. I recenty had a few good friends move to Brooklyn, so that gives me a great excuse. Maybe that will be my February getaway.

I still consider myself a Ruby on Rails newbie, even though I’ve been developing in it for over a year and half now.  Still, it was quite a change in philosophy from the development I had been doing (C#, Java, even COBOL –watch out!).  So I continually read articles, both regarding the base Ruby library and cutting edge rails additions like Rack.  Recently in my office, we’re making an effort to spread the knowledge of our RoR applications, mostly so that we can have a full support staff, rather than just a few that know the language.  So here are some great reads that I recommended to the newer newbies:

• The Pickaxe Book – The standard Ruby book.  Read this first.  Period.  Here’s a free online version, although I don’t know if it is the most updated (Ruby 1.9)  Still, this is a great start
• Meta-Programming – Some sweet stuff in here.  If you can write this kind of code well, you’re on your way.
• Railscasts – This guy is a life saver.  A weekly screencast that walks you through writing some code.  After over 2 years now, he’s gotten almost everything covered at least once.  A great starting point, start at week one and go through.

Outside the Tribune Tower on a fall afternoon waiting for the bus.

This fall has been truly strange, well, along with the entire summer.  Most of us here think we didn’t get much of a summer, and now the same thing is happenign this fall.  The trees seem to be confused, and only recently changed to those nice fall colors we’re used to.  However, some were tricked and the leaves just fell right off.  Conversely, some trees are still green here at the end of October.  Strange.  Regardless, Karl and I have been out trying to enjoy what we have left before the bitter cold hits!

Karl matches the fall foliage in my neighborhood

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