Twenty-Ten – my best year ever

I don’t do resolutions, but I woke up this morning in a brand new year (I’m pretty sure everyone else did too). I haven’t been at work since the middle of December, and I’ve been able to pretty much ignore my day job since then. I’ve even managed to ignore most of the software testing stuff I don’t get paid for (blogging, the testing stackexchange, forums, etc.), and it’s been wonderful. I didn’t realize how much I needed a break from everything until I actually took the time off. The last two weeks have been a time for relaxation and a time for reflection. I have many things I’m proud of accomplishing over the last ten years, a lot of things I wish I’d done better, and a few things where I would really like a do-over. But the past is the past, and the future is what I’ve been thinking about the most lately.

I expect that 2010 will be a year of change for me. I’m going to try some new things and put other things behind me. I’m still on task for a keynote at star east, but I expect that I will be speaking at conferences less than I have over the last five years. I haven’t an opportunity to “hang out” in the worldwide testing community as much as I would like to recently, but I’m going to find a way to make this happen and keep my day job. This is also probably the year where I get my personal life back on track – the last band I was in broke up over 4 years ago, and I’ve hardly played since then. Playing music is one of the few things that keeps me sane these days (running and soccer are the obvious others). I need to be more sane this year, so getting my horns dusted off and finding a new band are high on the priority list.

Did I mention how much I enjoyed the time off recently. I’ll be taking some more time off this year – not sure when yet, but I see an extended vacation in my near future. The last two weeks have been good for my body and soul, but I know I need more. I’ll update you as I figure out how to do it all.

Stay tuned.