The year 2010 will go down in my life’s history as one of change, definition and epiphanies. I have learned more in this one year than any other that I can recall.

Things that happened to me in 2010

I resigned from Vodacom SA.

I almost destroyed the best thing in my life. Fortunately I learn fast and she took me back.

Vincent Maher and I received Venture Capital from 4Di Capital and started our own company, Motribe.

I moved to Cape Town.

I’m doing long distance, again, with the same woman.

I was nominated as a Game Changer in the 2010 Men’s Health Man of the year awards (I didn’t win but a deserved Jon Cherry did!)

Here’s a little quote from my end of year blog post from last year:

“Next year is going to be about consolidation, establishing a platform and working off of that platform in my personal life and in my career. The killer concept next year is going to be mobile. There is no doubt about that in my mind. We are going to see some amazing mobile developments emerging out of Africa (I say Africa because the developed world still believes that mobile = iPhone).”

This year has definitely NOT been about consolidation at all. It’s been manic, hectic, insane and another cracking year for me. I was right about one thing though; this year has been about mobile and we did build a platform that we now work off of.

Continuing from last years list, here’s a my list of things for 2010:

Some of my favourite things from 2010

The rediscovery of 2010
Jen.

My favourite achievement this year

I STOPPED SMOKING!

Game
Bejeweled (iPod Touch)

Album
Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More

Song
Bon Iver – Skinny Love

TV series
How I Met Your Mother
Mad Men
Boardwalk Empire

Movie
Kick Ass

Book
SnowCrash – Neal Stephenson

Take out
Chef Pons Asian Cuisine

Restaurant
Fat Cactus

Airline
Kulula.com (2 years in a row)

Day of the week
Monday (Now that I run my own company)

Thing about Cape Town
Sunset arrives at ±8pm

Web application/Service
8tracks

Mobile application
miCoach (running application)

Website
damnyouautocorrect

Blog/lifestream
Blacknotes (2 years in a row)

Webisode
Jake and Amir (2 years in a row)

Online comic
Channelate

Tech Blog
ReadWriteWeb

Twitter personality
@JustinSpratt – Most interesting & relevant content of 2010.

Twitter stream
The Big Picture

Hobbies
Reading – New retro entry for 2010 with thanks to the next item on my list.
Acoustic guitar
Running

Gadget
Amazon Kindle

Night club
Movida

Drink
Lipton’s Peach Ice Tea

Alcoholic drink
Southern Comfort & Lime on the rocks in a tall glass

Coffee
Nespresso espresso

Event
The first African Football World Cup, held in South Africa. What a proud experience for us all.

_____

I’m not going to be making any predictions for next year. I’m pretty bad at being a “futurist” so I’ll stick to what I do know:

Mobile is the next big thing that is happening right now.
Music can cure any headache if you choose the right song.
Life will happen.

And finally some advice that I think we all can learn from 2010:

Write a diary (your chronicles) because you never who might want to make a movie about you someday.

It’s a new year. And?

And I’m really bored of hearing people’s resolutions. You resolve what, exactly, that you didn’t resolve last year? And that phrase, it also bugs me, “Last year”. You mean 5 days ago right? That’s all it’s been, there is no big revolutionary change that all of sudden will make you able to go to gym more, lose that backstreet boy you ate in 2009, quit smoking or whatever other “bad” habit you want to rid yourselves of.

2010 is a mere 4 days in and already I’m irritated by petulant people talking bullshit and singing the praises of the new year. Pah. Idiots.

I’m not going to set any new year resolutions as I did not last year. I am going to set myself some goals.

Some of these are listed below. Some are new and some (a fair amount are carried over from last year):

1. Reacquaint myself with the Greek language.

2. Skydive

3. Bungee Jump

4. Learn a 4th language

5. Go for cooking lessons – My preferance is Thai food and Wok cooking.

6. Learn how to make sushi.

7. Go overseas – Preferably to somewhere I’ve never been. I hear Thailand is beautiful.

That’s it. Seven attainable goals for 2010 (some actually carried over from 2008. Wow, that’s depressing.

2010 spam emails are coming. I have just received my first one with thanks to SA Rocks. This is what 2010 Spam looks like:

My name is Mr Ray Edward, I got your website in the internet, when i was searching for a good business partner interconnection to 2010 Fifa world cup that will be hold in your country south africa nest year,
Do you know a good profitable business that we can invest? I did it in Germany 2006 and i was favored so much, Get back to me with your kind of investment proposal so that we can proceed now,

Yours truely

Mr. Ray Edward.

Well Mr. Ray Edward, I have great ideas. Why would I give them to you? And if you are going to pitch me spam, at least try to get the spelling and grammar half-decent, not even all the way decent, just half.