Approaching New Year 2010

Well time again to wish everyone the very happiest of years in 2010 – in fact as we enter a new decade best wishes for the whole ten years!!

So – how has this year been for you? Looking back over 2009 it has been an interesting year for me – a few highlights and lowlights…

• Immediately after Christmas I ran the first e-safety course in Second Life with colleague Nick. This was the realisation of a year-long dream so I was very pleased!

• I enjoyed a sneaky visit to IATEFL in spring to meet Daf and Cristina with whom I had Spanish lessons in Second Life – at least that was the plan, but in reality I met many more Second Lifers including Graham, Kyle, Shiv, Dennis, Nicky, Nik, Iffaf and more but I can’t remember who they were now.

• May brought new girlfriend for Andy, she is French, delightful and he is over there visiting now until into the New Year.

• May also brought the SLanguages conference where I ran a workshop. That was among the first I did in Second Life and I learned a lot. I then set up a plot of land where I hoped to continue to run similar workshops but realised on the first one that none group members can’t create on the land. Oops – fail :-(

• In July we had a family wedding, Phill and Vicky got married and Woody spent a month telling everyone he was getting married, when questioned he said “Yes, Mummy, daddy and me!” It was a very happy day all round, spoiled a little by the episode of swine flu that broke out in the local school meaning several local families were not able to attend. The firework display that should have been did not happen because even though the insurance was quite expensive the estate still did not want it to take place, they had too many ripening crops.

• A bit of a sad July – a court case – it took its toll on the family but we are glad it is over now. The wedding, half way through was a welcome interlude even though we hoped the case would be over the week before.

• After the court case we had a lovely five day holiday in Ibiza – totally unexpected but it seemed a good idea at the time and it was raining nonstop here :-)
  

• On the work front most of the team’s time is still devoted to the roll out of the Learning Platform leaving little space for other more usual work. A colleague retired in the summer leaving the smaller team struggling to keep up.

• Autumn brought disastrous planned holiday in Tunisia where I got bitten, infected and ended up in hospital until the night before I was due to fly home but even then had a bag full of injections to get me home and two further weeks off work :-( Previously unheard of!

• In Tunisia I read on Facebook that we have a new baby arriving in the family next June :-) that is something to look forwards to.

• Throughout the whole year I have run, with a colleague, five e-safety courses in Second Life. After a doubtful start part of my performance management for the coming six months to increase take up ;-) strange how the world works! Having just read last Christmas’ blog posting where I had just started doing my first bit of teaching in SL I now feel like an old hand.

• Autumn brought the slightly sad news that EduNation is being split up – as I have been based there more or less since I joined Second Life that means the end of an era for me.

• On the back of the e-safety work in Second Life I was asked to do presentations at several conferences. Having been off the conference circuit for a while that was an interesting development and very enjoyable
  

• We have had a couple of funerals – I think this is an age thing – there seem to come a time when funerals are more common that weddings and christenings…

•  I have made lovely new friends in Second Life who are now nagging me to pay a flying, sneaky visit to IATEFL again – this one is not really likely to happen, at least not so easily if at all.

• It is now just after Christmas and the firework display that did not get let off at the wedding made an entertaining Christmas day evening display for our whole family and large group of house guests!

So – did I keep my new year’s resolutions from 2008 :-) I don’t think so – I did different things, technology changes too quickly! Looking back I kept two and failed on two.

I did get hooked on my Samsung N10 – a netbook which I can use to access the web anywhere with a dongle and so tiny and light it is easy to carry around in my handbag :-)

I have recently played with Chroma Key a video technique, I enjoyed that but have stripped the necessary “bits” from my computer as they argue too much with other things that I use all of the time.

I was fairly happy with my Burning Life and SL Birthday builds in Second Life and involvement with the Education Faire but plan to do none of them next year – I think I need to do something different.

I was pleased with my Christmas Carousel – a new SL build for Christmas that was quite complicated for something that looks so simple.

What do I want to achieve next year?

Who knows… but I will when I see it :-)

•  First off I need to learn how to use my new car radio system that plays the iPod through it and has blue tooth built in.

•   Next I want to get used to my new iPhone, that is due on the 14th January - Yay :-)
  

•  Improve worklife balance – I have been doing that for three years and it is much improved.

• Continue to improve my building skills in Second Life.

So that takes me up to half way through January – beyond that it could be anything … ;-)

Finally – thanks for reading, Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR :-)