I did it last year, the year before that, and the year before that. So, here’s another post dedicated to the past year of my life:

• Publically made a list of New Year’s resolutions and even did a mid-year check-in. So, how did I finally do?
  • Finish rev 1 of Benchside: incomplete, this resolution I have no excuse for as our team had made a fair amount of progress even at the mid-year point, but unfortunately we didn’t progress far enough for me to consider this even remotely in the green.
  • Read and blog one scientific paper a month: (mostly) complete, I have one last paper left to blog for the month of December (which will be posted soon), but so far I’ve kept it up.
  • Read Pawn in Frankincense and Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett: success, I was able to finish this at the mid-year point, courtesy of audiobooks and long commutes.
  • Meet at least 3 new people per conference I attend: (mostly) complete, I didn’t quite hit this target at every conference I attended (especially the one-day events where, for work reasons, I may have showed up late), but I will consider my foray into networking a relative success. I’m no social butterfly, but I’m no longer completely petrified in social settings.

  Not too bad, if I do say so myself. There are definitely areas for improvement, but I think I did all right for 2010

• I joined a petition to bring a little Northern California lingo to the scientific community
• I began a subscription to the Economist.
• I met a cute robotic seal at the Northern California Cherry Blossom festival.
• I bought a shirt to fight for at Forever 21
• I experienced the power of combining wifi-on-a-plane with Google Voice
• I visited and “participated” in the gorgeous Grounds for Sculpture museum in New Jersey
• I started the final season of Smallville with wide-eyed optimism
• I finally watched Joss Whedon’s beloved Firefly series and Serenity movie and became a browncoat
• I did my first job change, moving from the world of consulting to the world of venture capital
• I found out about a very cute homage from an old Batman comic to Snoopy
• I was very flattered to make the acknowledgements list on my good friend Mike Lee’s policy paper on healthcare policy. Who knew blogging and chatting about healthcare when I should be doing other things at work could be so rewarding?
• I finally joined the smartphone generation and did a deep comparison of the DROID2 and Apple’s iPhone 4
• I found out I had something in common with Calvin & Hobbes
• I started listening to podcasts on my commute
• I disassembled an Apple TV just to see if I could
• I moved – into a place with internet connectivity issues which … eventually… sorted themselves out

What a year! Here’s to next year being as awesome as this past one. Happy new year everybody! And thank you for reading my little corner on the internet!

(Image credit)

I don’t usually do the New Year’s resolutions thing. But this year, since I’m now publishing everything  to benjamintseng.com, I think the perceived public scrutiny associated with having a public list of goals for the coming year on my own personal domain name might end up being a good motivator to achieve them.

So, without further ado:

• Finish a Rev 1 of Benchside – While I had a wild ride on Xhibitr and learned a ton, I’m hoping Benchside, the  project that I’m currently working on, will end much more successfully. Whereas Xhibitr was an online social network aimed at fashion, Benchside is a software application designed to run on your computer (not the web) which aims to help you change the way you organize the information on your hard drive. While Benchside officially started about half a year after work on Xhibitr went underway, its progress has suffered from a lack of focus on my part. Despite this, I still have strong faith in the team and the project, and I definitely want to see this through. So, by December 31, 2010, I will have a working version (even if its only barely working and cobbled together with voodoo magic and duct tape) of the core Benchside software working on my computer.
• Read Pawn in Frankincense and Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett – My girlfriend adores Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles. They were an integral part of her identity growing up, and she continues to re-read them today whenever she has extra time (and no new reading or knitting material ). They are also very meaty books full of well-researched 16th century European history and cultural idiosyncrasies. I’ve already read two (Game of Kings and Disorderly Knights – yes, there’s a chess theme in the titles) and despite priding myself in being well-educated, I found them very difficult to follow (I guess that’s why I read comic books?) So why read two more? In addition to my girlfriend wanting me to read them, she’s raved about the conclusion to this series (Checkmate) for years, and given her refined, educated taste in books (although apparently not in men ), I can’t help but want to stretch my own reading ability especially if the payoff is as grand as she has made it seem. Consequently, by December 31, 2010, I will have read both Pawn in Frankincense and Checkmate.
• Meet at least 3 new people per conference I attend – If I have one great weakness, it is that I find it painfully difficult to talk to people I’m not familiar with. On the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, I rank extremely “I” (as in introvert). But, given my upcoming job in venture capital and my desire to pursue opportunities which won’t be so forgiving of my extreme shyness, I’m going to set a goal for myself to help break that habit. At every conference/industry event I attend in 2010, I will meet and have meaningful conversation with at least 3 new people.
• Read at least 1 academic scientific paper per month – I pride myself on being a science person. In fact, with the notable exception of Xhibitr, my portfolio is full of my old scientific “adventures”.  But, as I’ve dug deeper into the technology and business world, I have unfortunately lost touch with that part of my life. Part of the reason that I still blog about science here and over at Bench Press is a desire to stay connected to those under-exercised scientific interests. This year, to help keep that connection going, and also to help me keep pace with the tech-and-science related news and innovations which give me fodder for more blog posts, in 2010, I will read at least 1 academic (as in journal) scientific paper per month.

I’m sure some of the people reading this list will think that my bar for success is set too low. And, maybe they’re right. But, hey, this is the first time I’ve done something like this, and I’m not about to set myself up for public failure .

Happy New Year to everyone! And best of luck with those resolutions!

(Image credit)