A look back at the plans for 2009 – and a few for 2010

A couple of days ago I remember that right after the year started back in january, I made a small post to the blog where I summed up a couple of plans for 2009. The year has passed, so let’s have a look at how everything went..

Listen to more amazing music

I’ve spent a lot more time listening to music I didn’t have a prior relationship to – but actually the increase in new “old” music came through the release of Spotify. I’ve discovered loads of new music through their most excellent service, and got myself an upgraded account just after the summer. Probably the best 99 NOK I spend each month.

Attempt to keep up on my reading habits, which has dwindled a bit in the last months of 2008.

This has also mostly worked out – but my reading habits are quite on/off. I’ve travelled less to Oslo during the last year, which means less reading on the train. There’s still quite a stack of books in my office waiting for a bookshelf – both read and to be read.

Grenserittet and Birkebeinerrittet

I did both and got to the finish in both. In Birkebeinerrittet I actually managed to finish 24 minutes better than last year, even when the weather was completly awful. I still have nightmares about it – but this year the weather’s going to be just average with the temperature just right! For Grenserittet I finished in about the same time as last year, it seems mainly because I were way too defensive at the beginning of the race. Just seven months until we’re good to go again!

Keep the updates of my blog running, but attempt to start a more focused blog together with Christer.

The updates on the blog took a more technical turn during the year, and the trickle of new posts slowed down a bit. We did not launch a separate blog, and currently it isn’t one of the plans for 2010.

Take more responsibility.

I’ll leave that up for this year too, as that’s something I’ll always have to be better at. Not sure if I did any better this year, though.

Launch at least one new product concept and idea.

While I didn’t launch a separate product, 2009 brought with it a publishing platform written for the relaunch of Gamer.no. The product has been developed and suited for Gamer.no’s operations, but I maintain ownership of parts of the platform I’ve written myself. Hopefully 2010 will be the year were I’m able to get another customer up on the same platform and maybe launch a public service based on the platform. We lost the old Gamer-platform on friday morning and had the new platform running and handling requests at monday evening. It’s still the same – just vastly expanded – platform, which I’m quite proud of today.

Launch three new areas of content on pwned.no.

Didn’t happen, although I released a large update for pwned.no yesterday. The update attempts to increase the social aspect of the site, as gaming is an inherently social activity. This does not mean it’s going to be a social network – just that it’s going to be easier to keep track of who’s doing a good job.

Still have the three new areas of content on my todo-list.

Finish more games. I’m really good a starting games, but not really good at finishing them.

This actually changed during 2009. I’ve picked up several old games that I never finished back in 2006 – 2008, and managed to play them all the way through. The worst experience was trying to finish Rainbow Six: Vegas on Realism Mode (.. which I had started a couple of years back).

During the christmas holidays I’ve been playing a lot of Assassin’s Creed 2 – hopefully finishing it before going back to work in three days. A good way to start the new year!

And with that – a happy new year to all of you!