Another year down

I'm a firm believer in always moving forward. Every day I strive to learn something new, improve an existing skill, or otherwise advance myself in some fashion. That being said, I really enjoy New Year's as it marks the end of another year of work and another year of advancement!

This year I've made some pretty big strides forward in a number of areas, I'd like to highlight a few of my favorite areas here:

• Linux - When this year started I was still fresh in the face at Linode. I knew a little about a few things, but there is no way I could be described as anything but a beginner. This doesn't go to say I'm anything but that now, but I've learned a lot this year and I feel like I'm good enough to handle most problems and situations.
• Sysadmin foo - This kind of goes in line with the previous bullet point, but I think its worth splitting out into its own point. Not only did I learn quite a bit about general Linux things (general use, troubleshooting, design, etc.), but I also learned quite a bit about managing systems, both for myself, and others.
• Python/Flask - I started the year writing most of my web applications in PHP and I thought this was fine and dandy. I saw no reason why I should write in any other language. I'm fortunate that I was shown the light (in my opinion) and encouraged to try something else. In doing this, not only did I learn a very popular programming language (Python), a very popular web framework (Flask), but I also substantially improved my development process overall. With that being said, I'm still a terrible dev, but I'm less terrible than I was last year, so that is a victory in my book!
• Career Advancement - Always forward, always upward. I had several great opportunities to learn many things throughout the year, both at Linode, and now at DigitalOcean. I'm very grateful for these opportunities and I hope to continue learning more in 2015.

So now for 2015! I always have a laundry list of goals, so I'll touch on some of the more important ones for the coming year:

• Obtain RHCSA certification - I'm usually kind of meh on certs, but I think this might help me round out some areas I'm not well versed in currently.
• Complete Master's Program - I'm about halfway through my Master's in IT Management, I'd like to make one final push and finish this up in the coming year.
• Virtualization - It's kind of funny to think about it given my employment history, but truth be told, I'm not extremely familiar with virtualization as a whole. I know the basics, but there is a ton I don't know, this needs to change!
• Ruby - I've recently tried to make it a point to become familiar with a new programming language each year - this year I'd like to learn some Ruby. If, by some miracle I become a Ruby expert before year's end, I intend to take a second look at C.
• Projects - With several big life changes recently (primarily employment related) I've stopped working on some of my favorite projects, this needs to change!
• Move - I've lived in South Jersey all my life, from what I've observed, the most successful people seem to leave the area and return later in life. I intend to explore the possibility of moving to the midwest to be closer to my fiancée's family.

Welp, thats it. Happy New Year's everybody, I hope your 2014 has been joy-filled and productive and I hope that 2015 is the same!