2009 was a bad year?

You might notice that I've been posting more regularly lately. I used to keep a personal journal. Whenever I moved (I moved a lot) I'd find my old journals and read them. It was interesting to see how I've changed. Today I decided to look at my old postings and see how I've changed.

I had ONE entry for 2009. What happened? I know that work seemed to be going well. I started a new job in December 2008. A lot of my time was dealing with the new job. One day melts into the next. In September I went away on holiday. I didn't get a lot of time off work so I took all my vacation time for one trip to Europe. I'd sold my home and was unable to find a new home. I was living out of a suitcase. I really needed a vacation... or did I? At the end of September I got ill. Really ill. I'd take a day or two off work. Because I was the entire QA department, I felt I couldn't afford to take too much time off. When I got back from vacation, the person who was supposed to run my test automation couldn't get it to work. There was a bit of panic when I got back.

Just as I was recovering from one illness another would strike. Things started looking better. I felt better, found a house and the neighbours were great. Then my dog died. I'd had Dante since he was a pup. He was my heart dog. Its been two months and I still cry when I think of him.

So was 2009 a bad year? Not really. I got to see Europe. I didn't cling to the hope Dante would survive (I wanted to) and we had 3 good months at home rather than 5 really bad months in the hospital. I learned a lot about working on a start up company. I met some really interesting people. I was in a rut up until 2008. I think 2009 was just say, "Hey! Wake up. Get your priorities right." I think 2009 was the kick in the pants I needed.

Alex Aitken, one the guys I work with, started pointing out articles by some pretty interesting and bright individuals. I knew these guys and had read their work previously but like K&R's book The C Programming Language, you need to go back and read these guys again and again. I've been reading Kent Beck's blog. I highly recommend everyone read his blog.

Thanks Alex.