You know life has gone by quick when the last blog post you’ve written is your previous “New Years Summary”. Oops.

Although New Years resolutions are mostly mocked by the general populous, I’ve always been a fan of it, plus I did a pretty good job at what I proposed last year

It’s been a pretty amazing year.

• I got engaged to Miranda while we were on our trip to London & Paris. Doing that act is as cliche as proposing during a Baseball game but she really loved it, and the trip was a great time. London is a fast-paced and smoothly run city with a vibrant and historic culture, while Paris was a lot more relaxed, grungy, yet beautiful. It was an experience in so many ways, and my first time travelling across continents since I came to Canada as a young lad.

• I’m still working (and loving it!) at G Adventures. We lost two letters in our name, because Gap Clothing thought people were confusing adventure travel with poorly made clothing, but such is life. We lost some good staff, gained a new leader, and pushed out some really cool projects that involved some heavy front-end work. We started optimizing our deployment and servers. This year looks like we’re really going to push it and break through more-so as a technology company.

• I’ve embraced Toronto and it’s been there with open arms every step of the way. The people of Toronto are strong-willed, full of culture and creativity. I’ve learned so much about food, cities, people, transportation and social issues. Despite having what is probably the worst mayor in this part of the hemisphere, this city and its people seem like they won’t let that put them down, and keep innovating and creating beauty.

• I let go of my car and am planning to sell it after winter as it currently sits in my parents garage. Living in the more dense city has allowed me to get around with my bike, public transit, or simply just walking. The realization of not only how much money I’m saving, but also how much less stress I have is very rewarding. I no longer subconciously think if my car doors are locked, if my parking ticket is not expired, if my gas tank is full enough; Instead, I just enjoy my latest read on the subway.

• For the record, I did create a small hack with my Arduino kit. It was a simple moving robot. Maybe this year I’ll add more to it :-)

So what’s happening this year?

• I started the Machine Learning class that was provided by Stanford, but dropped out early due to time constraints. Poor excuse, but I want to try again this year. Stanford is continuing the classes, and MIT is doing their own as well. I also want to start hacking on some Interview Problems to keep my mind fresh.

• Reduce lifes clutter. When we moved to Toronto we got a 2 bedroom apartment, mostly because it was a good deal, but we also had a lot of stuff from our previous life. We’ve been reducing in the past few months but there’s so much clutter. Life has been much better with less (essentially, useless) stuff thus far, so it feels right to continue that act.

• Create and ship at least one large project that is created outside of work this year. I have the usual “Too many ideas” syndrome, coupled with not actually finishing those ideas. I’ve picked out a few ideas earlier in December and think I’ve found the one that is going to work. Hopefully I can make an update about this project in a couple of months.

• Write more. I failed this immensely last year. Just do it.

• I’m travelling! Again! If you’re a frequent flyer this may not seem exciting but it will be my first time going to PyCon in beautiful Santa Clara, California. I’ll also be taking my first trip with G Adventures in April. I’m really, really excited to see more of the world.

I wish you the best in 2012 and hope you achieve your own goals. Here’s to a great year ahead.