What’s Going On?

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. In fact, this is the longest time I’ve gone without posting in the last 2 years! For all my regular readers, fret not, Eric has been busy and is doing well. I’ve been focused on work as of late, and my work/life balance has well…. been a bit unbalanced 😉 My creative side has been taking a little snooze and is getting ready to wake up from a well-deserved cat nap. In fact, on a side note, I think I’ll write a future post on the value of staying consistent with weekly GTD reviews and closing open loops. Sometimes you can wait for your creative side to kick in (ebb/flow), but more often than not, there is real value is priming your environment for fun, creative, and stress-free productivity.
Well, what’s been going on lately? Aside from my 9-5 gig(I wish it was only 9-5), I’ve been catching up on some (non-techy) reading, traveling, and spending time outside hiking and getting back in touch with good ole’ mother nature. As I’m writing this post, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Palm Springs. My wife is attending a veterinary conference at the Hilton Palm Springs Resort (Sun-Tue), and I decided to tag along, get some R &R, and refocus on my plans for 2008.
In retrospect, last year was a great year for self-reflection and setting direction for the next 5-10 years. In Sep ’06 I blogged about the nature of change, plateauing, and the Ebb and Flow of Goals and Personal Growth. For the following 6 months, I spent a significant amount of time focusing on my purpose and long-term goals. Last Feb. I posted my Vision Statement
(Vision statements are a *fantastic* tool for finding your purpose and staying motivated to reach your goals). And, in March I posted about a technique for Using MindMaps to Achieve Your Goals. After completing these two exercises, I feel that I achieved a fairly high degree of clarity and sense of direction.
What’s in store for 2008? Well, my key take away from last year was the need to focus my wide array of interests and blend my passion for technology, philosophy, and learning. On the non-techy side of things, my plan is to continue to focus on consciousness research. In particular, the Mayan calendar (2012), Integral Philosophy, and consciousness exploration (brainwave entrainment, meditation, and lucid dreaming).
For my technical pursuits, I have a number of pet projects lined up that focus on information visualization (mindmap viewer), video production, and music & social networking (Last.fm Java scrobbler). And, I do plan on featuring some posts that pertain to open source knowledge management and the semantic web. Stay tuned for a fun-packed 2008!