2011 was a great year for me.

Seriously, I think it's been one of the best years of my life.

I changed jobs, and that transition went better than could ever be expected in a new job (I'm still at Canonical, just on another team).  From the end of May to a few weeks ago, I worked on a pretty core feature for Ubuntu One's web apps: music streaming.  I learned a lot about the web, how browsers work, and a lot about myself (including the fact that I can physically work 46 hours straight).  It's been a blast.

I started learning more about business. It started with a misfire in real estate classes, financial consulting classes, and some pretty boringtechnical business books. It continues today with some fantastic mentors, a subscription to Harvard Business Review (which I read every month like clockwork), and a few successful businesses (in a ramen-successful way).

I founded Toyceratops with Jess Smart Smiley and released Skeleton Jump. I have some bugs to fix there, and more levels to make, but we should have an update soon.

I've also created a shelter for all the quick 'n' dirty freelancing I do, as well as all the side projects I've been playing around with.  In general, I'm not just hacking anymore.  I think about what the business viability to what I'm hacking on is.  If it has some potential, I add it to the slew of Amelia properties. If it doesn't, I just stop working on it.  Expect some really great things to come out of it soon.

Amelia and Toyceratops are both *slightly* profitable (assuming Apple eventually releases the funds for the sales we've had).  That's pretty awesome, actually.

I started investing my money this year.  I've managed to do pretty well.  I'm still a bit timid about it, but I'm working on taking bigger and bigger risks.  In at least one case, I was accidentally a war profiteer, as I own some oil stocks that shot up during the conflict in Libya.

Finish off this year with a much needed kickstart to my interest in creating music.

Yes, 2011 has been good to me.

So, about that 2012...

I don't want to set stupid goals.  Every year I set some goals that make no sense 6 months down the line because they're too context specific.

In general, what I do isn't the be-all-end-all of what makes me happy. There were, however, two things that made me really happy: Skeleton Jump and writing I'll Go With You.  Both of those things are very creative.

So what I want to do is this: I'd like to release 4 more iPhone games in 2012. I'd also like to write a song a week, regardless of if the end result is terrible. I just want to "get the suck out".  Being creative makes me happy.  I want to do more of it.

That's it. That's all I want out of 2012. I'm sure I'll get more out of it, but I'd like to have some very high level goals that kind of shape what those little things are.