2010 began with us standing in the middle of Times Square in New York, along with millions of others, celebrating the opening of the year. I knew from this point that 2010 would be epic.

In this year, I moved to Toronto, began a new job after 5 years at my previous one, travelled to New York & Boston, developed new hobbies, became a much better cook, and learned more about who I am and where I want to be headed.

We moved to Toronto in the summer, after Miranda had been accepted into George Brown College. The moving day was a perfect sunny day, minus the fact that we had been in Toronto (we were moving from Cambridge) the night prior to see Thee Silver Mt. Zion, who decided to come on really late, then we got lost on the way home to our car. Add this all up, and we went to bed at about 3AM, with a U-Haul pickup of 6:30am. What can I say? Taking advantage of that spontaneous youth while I still have it.

Thankfully, the move went very well with the help of our family back in Cambridge, and then the help of a new friend; Ivan. I had known Ivan online for many years, but he was kind enough to help us move in, despite this being our first ever in-person encounter. Turns out he’s a great guy and we’re now pretty good friends!

With the move to Toronto, came the need for a new job. Initially, I was still with WeSellit after they offered me a telecommuting position. I was lucky enough to discover camaraderie, a co-working space in Toronto. There, I met Rachel and Wayne, the co-founders who are truly great people as well as a great assortment of entrepreneurs and freelancers. camaraderie was a great way to get used to working in downtown Toronto, but eventually I realized I could not stay with WeSellit much longer.

Enter Gap Adventures. I applied, went through two in-person interviews, and my first day was the company’s yearly party and development conference, “Gapstock”. Needless to say, it was probably the best way I could get introduced to Gap Adventures. Full of culture, vibrant, amazingly skilled & hard working people, and killing it in the Adventure Travel industry. I’m just about to wrap up my second full month there, and I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings.

But of course, 2010 is now a thing of the past, as great as it was. It’s time to kick some ass in 2011. So what do I want to accomplish, or am looking forward to?

• I spend a lot of time reading on topics of economics, opinion, world news, and of course technical material every day. But I’ve always struggled on relaxing with a good piece of fiction. In 2011, I plan to change that. Taking advantage of the fact that I’m riding on a subway, I have been able to get in a good 30 minutes of reading each day in the last week of 2010. My goal is simple: Read a full fictional novel once a month, at the very least. I’ve already started the habit and I’m almost through my first book. Now, when the summer comes and I’m back biking? That’ll be the challenge.

• I want to continue learning in 2011, but really push it. The web is evolving in a big way and it’s time to learn a lot. HTML5, Javascript’s evolution and huge client-side development changes, the real-time web, CSS3 and taking advantage of the latest browsers, and of course the mobile web.

• Miranda and I are doing our first ever cross-continent trip. We will be visiting London (Where my good friend Corey is residing currently), as well as a stint through Paris, because we love food too much. This will ideally happen sometime in August so I won’t say much more about this, other than the fact that I’m super stoked .. and I need to update my passport!

• Explore the taste buds even more this year. Since moving to Toronto, I’ve been introduced to Lebanese, Indian, Korean, Caribbean and just recently Creole cuisine. Along with this, I want to branch out more in the kitchen. I have plenty of choice for groceries here, so it’s time to kick it up a notch in the kitchen as well.

• Hack some hardware. I bought an Ardunio kit in 2010 but never had the time to really work with it. I’m going to find an excuse to use this thing this year, dammnit.

• Write more. I was doing pretty well in 2010, then my world flipped around with the move and I kind of slowed down. Time to get back on track.

• Take more pictures. There’s been so many events in the past year that are simply a memory in my head. This is fine, but pictures are great. I’ve always been bad at taking them, and maybe I always will but I’d like to at least try.

• Be a better friend, brother, and son. I try to care for everyone around me, but sometimes I forget about the great people in my life who I don’t get to see too often.

I’ll end it there. There’s of course, many small things one always wants to achieve each year, and those will come. If you’ve gone this far into this post, you obviously care about me, so thank you for reading and I hope you have a safe, prosperous, and healthy 2011.

All the best,
- Bartek