2008 in retrospect

I never did any posts looking back at a previous year, but 2008 has been such a great year that now might be a good time to start such a tradition. I already did a 2008 lookback on our company blog, so I'll stick to more personal things here.

• In 2008, I had my first book, php|architect's Guide to Enterprise PHP Development published. So far it's been quite succesful, in November it got a spin-off in the form of a monthly column in php|architect magazine.

• I never traveled so much in a single year. According to Dopplr I did 19 trips. The trips included many conferences (phpUK, InternetWorld, php|tek, DPC, ZendCon, PDC, php|works, phpNW, mswds), visits to customers throughout Europe, an Ibuildings UK/Ireland roadshow and many visits to our London office). Only one of the trips was a short vacation to Paris. Next year should have less travel and more vacation time. Drawback: I gained 12kg in weight from all the trips and conferences. This should come back off in 2009.
• In April of last year my girlfriend and I bought a house. It was supposed to be finished by December, but it's still under construction and the current estimate is April. I'm really looking forward to the moment it's finished. At the moment we're still busy trying to decide how to decorate it.
• I wrote 37 blogposts on this blog, the majority of which are in the PHP category. At an average of 3 posts per month, I think that is a good frequency to stick to in 2009. The most successful post has been the Chicken post with over 40 comments.
• I started using Twitter in January last year. After a year of using it, I can say I really like the service. Despite its many shortcomings and frequent instabilities, keeping in touch with a large number of people in efficient, short messages has a significant added value on top of all my other forms of communication. A good article on why Twitter is not a waste of time, is this one.
• Back in September, I launched the Elephpant World Tour together with Cal Evans. It's been quite a fun project and the 2008 contest is almost over. (The phpwomen are currently judging the entries.)
• Also in September, I managed to convince Cal to come work for Ibuildings and move to the Netherlands. Although I am extremely happy to have a once remote friend now close, I feel a little bit guilty for throwing his life upside down like that!

That wraps up some of my, part professional, part personal, highlights of 2008.

2009 should be an interesting year as well. If it's only half as eventful as 2008, it will still be a very good year. We'll see!