Looking back at 2011...

2011 is definitely an exciting year with a few very noteworthy events. It is time to take stock now to basically sum up 2011 and herald in the new year!! So here's my top 3 personal triumphs in 2011.

1. I finally changed employer after 12+ years in NUS. Most who knew me (including myself) never expected me to ever leave NUS. In fact, I just learnt that a few of my ex-colleagues thought I was still with NUS. NUS is a great company to work for but a dozen years and being my first employer necessitated the move. I hesitate to say it's the same job because my boss embellished me brand new opportunities every 2-3 years as I moved across different domains and experimented with different things.
   
   So far, the move has been mostly good. In the half year with the new organisation, I have gained a lot of insights I will not otherwise have. I engage with many more people here (previously mostly vendors) and this has certainly extended my views since they approach the same subject with a different desired outcome in mind. The part I do miss about my old job was the fun in hunting down system bugs no less with users breathing down our necks. I kinda miss tinkering with other people's box for a paycheck.
2. I committed over 7 hours of my life to Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon. Yes, the full 42.192km and I took almost 7 hours. All my objectives for the marathon was met. I completed it in good spirit (means happy) and health. I made a slight detour towards the emcee to give him a high-five. My feet complained quite a bit towards the later part of the run and I struggle to walk after the run. However, I was walking only slightly awkwardly the day after without the marathon telltales.
   
   The commitment before the run was intense. I had to sacrifice a weekend morning to wake up earlier than for work and forgo all my weekend badminton sessions to make the training. Annetta has been super supportive and I could not have done it without her.
   
   The reward of all the training and running the marathon was immense. I made a lot of new friends and the strong sense of achievement at the finish line was just beyond words.
   
3. I published my app in the Android Market after a few failed apps ideas (and code). I just needed to get this one out before my new employment starts.
   
   I have been writing codes for different purposes and for different audiences for as long as I can recall. I had been coding in x86 assembly to C to C++ before getting to college. Then it was all the higher level languages like Jave, Scheme, and scripting languages like Perl, Ruby and bash. I have coded at different levels from bashing together a couple of commandline, to web development (Rails, PHP, Perl and Java), to writing system codes (usually C), and dipped my toes into OpenSolaris and Linux.
   
   Publishing in Android Market was a milestone because I have never published my code.
   

So those are my top 3 personal accomplishments to sum up a very fruitful 2011 indeed.