The New Start

First things, first. I hope everyone will take a moment or two and update their footer.html documents to reflect the new year for copyright dates (and no, I still haven't done all of mine).

It happens every year.

I spend the first week of every year steeped in awe and wonder and just full of the sheer possibilities every new year affords. It's like being a school kid and heading off for that first day with all of those clean, empty pages in my notebooks. I could write stories in those pages. I could do homework. I could sketch out some new idea for a submarine or a jet fighter. I could write a tentative love letter to The Little Red-Haired Girl. I could do anything.

Of course, the reality is a little less lofty. But here at the beginning of the twenty-first century, version 1.1, I think it's still a Good Idea to spend a few calories at the beginning and ending of any arbitrary period of time and decide what you expect out of it. Think about what actually got done. Think about the difference between the expectation and the reality. And to wonder a little about how to improve the situation in the next arbitrary time period, whether it's a day, a week, a month or a year.

Years ago, I learned HTML. And when HTML v3.2 gelled, I picked up on the changes, there. HTML v4.01 was a snap for me. And I remember thinking I could spend a few dollars and a few calories working-up JavaScript or I could work on Cascading StyleSheets and choosing CSS, because it seemed like everyone was saying JavaScript was on the way out. And for years, I was right. JavaScript was on its way to becoming Web Latin, our first popular "dead" language. And then AJAX happened. And then JQuery happened. And now I'm behind the curve, again. For the last several years, I have vowed that this next one would be the one where I, finally, learned JavaScript. I wouldn't put any money on a bet like that for 2011, though. It may happen, but I think my focus will be more on HTML5 and Adobe's CS5 suite and Drupal, with a smattering of iPad thrown in there, too.

Folks made fun of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when he said "…as we know, there are known knowns; there are some things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know." But if you parse it out, he was right.

And so this year, I want to focus on the things I know I do not know. Drupal and HTML5 both have a beginning and an end. You can start at <a> and learn all of the tags and how to use them and when you get done, you will have learned all of the unknowns in HTML5. Same with Drupal. That's not to say you'll know everything about how the pieces work together, or all of the best practices and theories behind the best deployment—everyone knows the alphabet, but not everyone can write like Stephen King or Tom Clancy. But you will have a good, complete foundation and you can work from there.

So what about you? What are you working on, this year?