Did and did not do 2008

At the end of last year I wrote a blog post of To Do's for 2008.It has been absolutely incredible year for me. It hasn't been an easy year or one filled with much certainty other than that of my own gut feel and decisions. Those I have learned to never doubt. Ever.

Here is the list:

1. Play more golf - at least once a month, the goal is twice a month.1.2 Get a golf membership at a club - I’ve chosen JCC.2. Skydive3. Bungee Jump4. Get my deep see diving license (or is it an open water license?).5. Travel to an African country - This I have never done before. Embarrassing, I know.6. Organise a boys weekend away over a long weekend - This can involve golf or not, it’s really up to you and circumstance.7. Have more fun in general - Yes work is hard and yes I love my sleep. But this is not an excuse not to have fun. I want to go dancing, go clubbing, have sundowners, cocktails, dinner parties and more. All with Jen, my friends and people who I appreciate.8. Organise a dinner party and cook the meal myself.9. Go for cooking lessons - My preferance is Thai food and Wok cooking.10. Learn how to make sushi.11. Cook dinner at home, myself, for family and friends at least once a week.12. Learn how to relax - In other words, get offline more often.13. Make use of weekends more effectively - This involves going away for weekends, getting out of the house, not sleeping in late for no reason.14. Invest my money - I am on the road to that one already.15. Buy my first property.16. Learn how to code php.17. Go fishing.18. Reconnect with one friend who I’ve lost touch with.19. Go overseas - Preferably to somewhere I’ve never been. I hear Thailand is beautiful.20. Start another blog - I have already put this one in motion with a friend of mine. More on this in the new year I think.

What I did:

1. Play more golf - at least once a month, the goal is twice a month.5. Travel to an African country - This I have never done before. Embarrassing, I know.6. Organise a boys weekend away over a long weekend - This can involve golf or not, it’s really up to you and circumstance.7. Have more fun in general - Yes work is hard and yes I love my sleep. But this is not an excuse not to have fun. I want to go dancing, go clubbing, have sundowners, cocktails, dinner parties and more. All with Jen, my friends and people who I appreciate.8. Organise a dinner party and cook the meal myself.11. Cook dinner at home, myself, for family and friends at least once a week.12. Learn how to relax - In other words, get offline more often.13. Make use of weekends more effectively - This involves going away for weekends, getting out of the house, not sleeping in late for no reason.14. Invest my money - I am on the road to that one already.15. Buy my first property.20. Start another blog - I have already put this one in motion with a friend of mine. More on this in the new year I think.

The Explanations

1. I managed to successfully play more golf than I ever have. I've been playing for ± ten years. This year was the first out of all of those that I took it more seriously. I played over 50 rounds of gold this year and managed to take my scores down from 100 - 104 (yes, I know, VERY bad) to a consistent 91 - 92.5. I am heading to Kenya on the 26th. Fantastic.6. We went away for a long weekend to the Vaal. Stayed with my brother and 7 best mates. Played two rounds of golf, braaied and had an absolute riot. Golf scores were crap! Thank to the Brandy.7. This year was definitely the year of balance, enjoyment and lessons. Matt and Vince taught me some very good lessons while I worked with them. If you can't get your work done between 9 and 5 then you are either not planning your day well enough or your priorities are all screwed up. I learned, with the help of my girlfriend that being offline can often help your online profile and life.8. This was done in conjunction with various other parties on varying scales. But I most definitely reacquainted myself with my love for food, wine and great conversation.11. Surprisingly this was one of the more difficult consistent goals to achieve. We all know how busy life can be, but this has to have been one of the most rewarding things I did all year.12. A quote: "If you take your laptop with you to Kenya you can go alone." Needless to say the laptop is staying at home.13. Taking up a job with a Cape Town head office has been a surprisingly pleasant experience. I've learned that hopping on a plane, heading off to Cape Town, DBN or wherever involves nothing more than a maximum of two hours in a plane. That's it. It's done.14. The investment of money is probably the thing I am most proud of myself for doing. My mother (wise lady that one) pushed me to plug away much of my monthly earnings in to an RMB money market account. This was undoubtedly the best thing that I have done for myself, ever. It leads me to point 15.15. Buy my first property - I've been holding off blogging about this for various reasons. It's always tricky announcing something this large in ones life for reasons that you can understand if you apply yourself. Nothing more to say other than I am moving in on February 1st 2009. This will become my project for 2009.20. Number 20 was completed with the launch of Nudjit. Thanks to Justin and Gregor for helping to make this one a reality. I also launched another blog with a little HELP, Why Vote that will yield much more action in the coming months.

So Long 2008

All in all, out of the 20 goals I set for myself I achieved 11 of them almost down to the word. The nine that I did not manage to get around to matter not. Why? Because I can assure that the nine I did not achieve were almost certainly replaced with an infinite amount of lessons and smaller victories for me personally and professionally this year.Oh yes - something that wasn't formally on my list but will be on every list of to do's that I put together, my newest addition:Photo courtesy of Renee.

Customise your Facebook Fan Page with FBML Application

I am not a serious programmer at all. I have never claimed to be. But I made the effort to learn the basics and can manipulate CSS. So it frustrates me that all of my Facebook Fan Pages look the same and look like everyone else's.Not anymore apparently. I discovered an application that you can add to your FB Fan Page that will allow you to create boxes on your Fan Page that you can code in to. It's called FBML. If you do a Facebook search for FBML you'll find a host of other apps and groups that can help you with the application and your skills.I was somewhat sceptical but decided to give it a go with my South Africa Rocks! Fan Page. It worked.Now I haven't spent much time on the two boxes that I have added so they are suffering from lack of attention but the proof that the FBML application works is there.Have a look:If you have used this app and have a great example (I know mine isn't so hot) of what FBML can do, let me know. If you are interested in messing around with it drop me an email or comment and I'll let you try some stuff out on the SA Rocks Fan Page for some experimentation.