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2009 Resolutions

As usual I'm posting my New Year's resolutions to motivate myself. Happy New Year everybody!!!

Attain and then sustain a high level of fitness.

I'm on the right path again with fitness and nutrition but I still have a long way to go. This year I'd like to stick to my nutrition plan, and increase my workouts in a periodized fitness plan. My goals are to finish a century and to ride 150+ miles per week by the end of the year. 

Rein in finances & savings.

I need to cut some of my superfluous spending and to regulate my savings. 

Grow Annunciation and increase our efficiency.

We're already on the right track with this goal and I think 2009 is going to be a good year for us again.

Pursue more personal and creative projects.

This year I will launch some projects that I've been planning for a while and start planning some new ones.

2008 Resolutions: How I Did

My annual tally of how I did with this year's resolutions:

Get Healthy Again. I'm going to close out this year much stronger than I started it. My initial goal was to quit drinking & smoking, eat 5 small healthy meals per day, and workout 5 days per week.

I succeeded in quitting smoking and I'm drinking MUCH less than I used to. It took me 9 months or so to finally get back into working out as a habit but I finally did it. I have lost many pounds and I gained the strength to ride up to 100 miles per week. I'm also doing regular strength training again and feel good about my fitness and nutrition  in general. My overall goal to become a fit person is at the top of the list for 2009 again.

Grow the Business. Major success on this goal! We grew Annunciation's revenue by 35%, a major accomplishment that I really didn't anticipate. Here's hoping for more growth in 2009. 

Fix my Life / Work Balance. I did pretty good with this objective but there's still a ton of work I can do to improve my life/work balance. I'm not going to make it a major priority in 2009, but it's something I will always be working to improve.

Save More. I didn't do as well here as on the others, in fact it was my worst area of performance. I still need to figure out how to save and invest more. Major area of focus for 2009, especially in our current financial climate.

2008 in Review; My Favorite Cinema and Television

The U.S. Presidential Election

No other spectacle matched this year’s election cycle for pure drama, intensity, and a satisfying ending.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

David Fincher’s lovepoem to New Orleans, hidden within a fantasy about transience and loss, was my favorite film of the year. The final scene is among the saddest and most beautiful images in all of cinema.

Slumdog Millionaire

A highly inventive film with a big heart.

Mad Men

I love this show. I’d give anything to be able to pitch clients like Don Draper does.

Lost

My interest in this show grows in relation to its advancing complexity.

Milk

This gripping biopic seems couldn't be more relevant and important in light of Proposition 8 and the continued prejudices and bigotry lobbied against homosexuals by the right.

True Blood

Hot, sexy, redneck vampire serial - what’s not to like?

Generation Kill

No one does realism like David Simon. Shows the dysfunction of the Iraq war from the bottom up. 

Californication

The Moody’s are the most interesting TV family, ever.

Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. gave birth to the ultimate entrepreneurial superhero. Gwyneth Paltrow was also a pure delight in this one.

2008 in Review; 4 Albums I Rediscovered

This year I rediscovered the best music of my youth - hardcore punk from the 80's and 90's. These 4 albums in particular drove me in both my work and my personal life. They are intense, unforgiving masterpieces that perfectly encapsulate the unfocused rage of my youth. Now that I'm older they help me to put that period to rest by refocusing my anger about some of the things that happened then into what I can do to improve my life now.

Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing

Bad Brains - Bad Brains

Black Flag -  Damaged

Minor Threat - Complete Discography

2008 in Review; our year in Work

Every year I make a ton of lists to try to summarize what I most enjoyed throughout the year. Typically I've arranged them in "top 10" format but this year I'm going to steer clear of that and just list the things that I really loved, by category.

Today I'm focusing on the work that my company Annunciation Interactive did this year. It was a crazy year of growth and expansion, and sometimes I thought we would burst at the seams, but somehow we made it through alive. We also have some great websites and work to show for it. Here are my favorites:

Global Green USA

We redesigned the website of this leading national environmental non-profit and put it on a bespoke CMS. 

Sucré

This is probably the best design that's come out of our studio yet, in collaboration with the amazingly talented Erik Kiesewetter. We built this site on a Magento e-commerce platform and so far the results have been astonishing. We're very proud of it. 

Greater New Orleans Foundation

A site that I wish I could say I had more of a part in. Our team redesigned this and built it up on an Expression Engine CMS. I think it's simple, accessible and really usable.

NOLA180

We were really lucky to work with John and Mary over at NOLA180 in 2007-2008. They are a great team with an amazing vision of what education in New Orleans can become.

Langston Hughes Academy

LHA is Nola180's first school. The program is really innovative but also embodies the spirit of Langston Hughes. The design recalls classic typography with lots of new school interactive features.

Tulane University Freeman School of Business MBA Promo

We did this neat little microsite with our good friend Will Donaldson. I like the way the typography, transitions, and photography interact.

Unabridged Architecture

Our Flash wunderkind Ben Seyna did an amazing job programming this site.

ES&H

In collaboration with Tom Varisco's studio.

Eskew + Dumez + Ripple

We made all kinds of cool little Flash extensions on this award winning architecture firm's site.

I'm really proud of our team for everything we accomplished this year. I also can't wait for all of the big things coming in 2009!

2008 in Review; my year in Reading

Every year I make a ton of lists to try to summarize what I most enjoyed throughout the year. Typically I've arranged them in "top 10" format but this year I'm going to steer clear of that and just list the things that I really loved, by category.

I'm starting off with the best printed matter that I read in 2008. Not all of this was published this year, but they are all things I thoroughly enjoyed reading or things that added value to my life.

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

A gripping tale of midlife crisis, postmodern angst, and cultural interoperability & contrast. The New York of immigrants Hans van der Broek and Chuck Ramkissoon, the fascinating world of cricket and its post-colonial importance, and our collective feelings of isolation and intense paranoia after 9/11 are all painted with such precision and skill that moving seamlessly between them is a pleasure.

The comparisons to Fitzgerald made by many in the press are obvious and well deserved. This is a great American novel.

 

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

An excellent, masterful work that constructs one of the most original and thought provoking universes (or in this case, polycosms) in all of SF.

My only criticism is that Stephenson sometimes sacrifices too much plot in pursuit of the minute, albeit delightful details of his invented polycosm of Arbre and worlds beyond. I was surprised when the abrupt ending came, but was still mostly satisfied at the finish.

 

The Rider by Tim Krabbé

I reread this novel as part of an overall strategy to reignite my cycling habit and it worked. No other work has ever captured the beauty, agony, and pure grueling effort that makes the sport of cycling what it is. Pure inspiration. 

 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

This is an at turns beautiful, atmospheric, spooky, and heartbreaking novel. There are many things to like here but the minimal nature of the prose and the in-depth descriptions of the anxiety laden relationships between the main characters stood out the most for me.

 

Kiss or Kill by Mark Twight

This is an excellent collection of essays by former alpinist and current Gym Jones guru Mark Twight, also known as Dr. Doom. Twight perfectly combines gripping tales of monster alpine mountaineering efforts with appropriated punk lyrics and attitude. Another great source of inspiration in my quest for fitness this year.

 

Rouleur

This magazine, published by cycling apparel manufacturer Rapha, features the best cycling writing and photography around. The emphasis is on classic European races, steel frames, and the pure poetic beauty involved in men racing each other up mountains and over cobblestones. Epic, beautiful, inspirational.

On Writing Well by William Zenser and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I’m trying to improve my writing form and both of these books provided great insight into what I’ve been doing wrong, and how I can improve. Unsurprisingly, like almost every book on this list about improvement or inspiration of any sort, the authors' most important pieces of advice are centered on daily practice and improvement built on good habits developed over long spans of time.

 

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

I’m not usually into reading books on how to drive creativity but Twyla Tharp is an amazing artist and everything I had read about this book sounded great. I’m glad I took a chance on it because there are a ton of great nuggets of wisdom and advice here that were all new to me.

Getting Things Done by David Allen and The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

I must have read 25 books this year to learn how to better manage myself and my business. Most were bland and rehashed biz speak garbage but these two classics stand out. Allen’s system is still the best way to manage productivity day to day. Drucker is probably the best voice of organizational and management wisdom, ever. Both offer serious advice on how to manage time, make the right decisions, and be a great knowledge worker.

Mastery by George Leonard

Timeless advice on how to learn something and practice it over and over and over again until you become a master. Leonard’s lessons are written in the context of athletics and martial arts but they also extend to work, art, and life.

Annual Holiday Movie Marathon

Films I intend to watch in the next 2 weeks:

Milk

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Slumdog Millionaire

Doubt

The Visitor

The Fall