The year that was, and the future

The year of the Rooster is soon up and we’re going into the year of the Dog (is that a good sign?). I just wanted to collect my impressions from 2005 and also tell you about the future of this web site.

Still reading? Good! I was hoping the future-thing would catch your attention; I’ll get to that in a couple of minutes. This will not be a list of the posts on the Internet I found to be the best nor about how people have mentioned me in various contexts and linked to me. A post such as that would be so boring. So, gone is the list of praise and the one of narcissism.

The thanks

I do, however, have a list of people that have meant a lot for me during my web life of 2005. Sure, there will be names you will recognize there, but they’re not there for being well-known but for the fact that they’re great persons. The people listed here are, to me at least, extraordinary and their kindness and humble attitude have meant the world to me.

Without a doubt, there are a lot of persons I’d like to list, so if you’re not in this particular list please accept my apologies for leaving you out. I decided to only pick persons who have been there throughout the whole time since I started to write here in March of 2005. Some of them I still haven’t met in real life, but I do sincerely hope that will change soon.

So, without further ado:

Fredrika & Emilia
You are my everything and your support and you putting up with me are things beyond what I can grasp.
Henrik Box
Henrik, I don’t always treat you fair or nice, and we can usually be pretty harsh to each other, but in the end you are my closest friend and I’m extremely glad that we have gotten to be friends! I love you, man.
Jeroen Mulder
I got to know Jeroen around the beginning of April, and I just love his laid back look on life, his wits and him always being happy. He has also been very supportive of my writings; be it here, articles or from a code-point of view. And am I the only one hearing the X-Files theme from a faint distance when I read his last name out aloud? ๐Ÿ™‚
Roger Johansson
Roger (or R-man, as everyone here in Sweden calls him ;-)) was one of the first to support my writings, and him giving me attention and support has been invaluable for me. I truly think that a lot of you reading this wouldn’t if there hadn’t been for Roger.
Faruk Ates
One of my first posts was about XHTML, Faruk’s favorite topic, at least back then, and after commenting on my post he got in touch with me over IM and we’ve been friends ever since and speak fairly often. Don’t let his web site fool you that he’s got a big ego (nudge ;-)), he’s got a heart of gold and is more down-to-earth than most people.
Tommy Olsson
I got to know Tommy during April, and his style and tone in a post on his now resting web site and his humble approach in a reply to an e-mail I sent to him, immediately gave me the impression that this is really a genuine and honest guy. I miss Tommy’s writings, but I hope we can maybe come up with something else together.

I would also like to direct a big thank you to everyone reading and commenting, you are my muses and motivation to write every single post I publish!

The future

Ok… (deep inhale).
I’ve decided something about the future of this web site that might or might not become a major change. This is actually my 202nd post since March (not bad, eh?) and lately, I’ve felt that I’m not going anywhere with what I write and read; I’m not evolving. I love writing, so don’t worry, I won’t stop writing here. What will change, though, are the topics. I will continue to write about web developing but probably not to such an extent as before.

I want to write about things that motivate and interest me, not because I have to choose a certain topic for the sole reason to increase my rating at Technorati, get me more linking in general or that I have to do it because people thinks it’s my obligation (Bryan Veloso touches on this phenomenon in Being Liked is an Obligation?).

This will probably result in that 50% of the posts will still be about web developing in some sorts, 25% about other internet- and/or tech-related things and the rest will be about my personal life, musings, linking to interesting stuff or whatever. My life is about so much more than web developing and I want that to be reflected in my writings. My sincere hope is that this is something that you will appreciate, that you will come here for my personality and style of writing instead of just high-profile web development topics.

Oh my God, who does he think he is? Just because he’s gotten some attention, he thinks we will read any crap that he puts out?

Well, yeah, maybe. That’s my wish, at least. Some people have told me that they don’t read my posts when they aren’t about web developing, and I totally respect that. I can’t demand that you like everything I write, it’s just what I’m striving for. However, I do think this web page will be more multi-faceted, that you will always be able to read about something interesting no matter in what area it is about, instead of me only telling you about HTML/XHTML, CSS or JavaScript.

I will also start to read posts and news from web sites and people I haven’t before, so that will also most likely affect and color my writings. I just need to break out of the bad circle I feel I’ve gotten into, I need to explore new grounds. This might just end up in a big fiasco, but I definitely hope it will be the opposite. Are you ready to try and follow me on my new path?

 

Happy New Year and my wishes that your 2006 will be great!

11 Comments

  • I look forward to reading some more great stuff from you in '06. Just think of new topics you add as a spice. A little spice here and there won't hurt, if anything you'll bring out the flavor of who you are.

    Happy New Year to you best to you in 2006.

  • Jules says:

    According to some Chinese interns we have at work here, you still have about a month of writing before the year of the dog: the Chinese new year is late January.

    However, whatever the date, I wish you and your family the Happiest New Year.

  • You're welcome my friend. I enjoy talking to you and am glad to hear you're planning to write more controversial posts. In fact, I prefer that over anything else.

    Happy new year ๐Ÿ™‚

  • I'd love to read some of your and Tommy Olsens writings in Swedish. I moved to sweden in february and his page was the only one on which I could learn some of the swedish webstuff words.

    Happy new year ๐Ÿ™‚ (I like your blog)

  • "R-man", huh ;).

    While I may have helped you get some readers, remember that it's your writing that keeps them coming back!

    Regarding your planned slight change of topics, that is entirely up to you. It's your site!

    Happy New Year!

  • I like a little personality amongst the posts, sounds good to me ๐Ÿ™‚

    I'm looking forward to reading an even more eclectic mix at Robert's Talk in 2006 ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

    Happy New Year!

  • Rowan Lewis says:

    Have a good 2006 Robert!

    I know how you feel about needing to break out of the circle, for me, my work was taking so much energy that I've had little time to think and be creative in the past five weeks. Looking at my blog you can tell, three posts in as many weeks, sad.

    But I've been looking at things that I can write, about Image Manipulation, and developing with Ferite, its such a great language ๐Ÿ™‚

    Have fun!

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Thanks everyone, and Happy New Year!

    Hopefully my upcoming writings will be as you say: a bit spiced up and more mixed.

    And Jules, I actually know that the Chinese New Year is about a month away, I was just trying to be fancy. See what I get for that, huh! ๐Ÿ˜‰

  • […] #8217;s Unabashedly Biased Picks 2005: Blogs, Design, Books and Achievements Robert Nyman: The year that was, and the future John Oxton: A bit of festive plagiarism […]

  • Oh man, that's just about the sweetest thing you could've written about me right now (and in general, but now especially due to certain circumstances).

    I'm very happy about us being friends, Robert, and I hope 2006 is going to be a (well-deserved) year of great things for you! ๐Ÿ™‚

    See you at SXSW!

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Faruk,

    I'm glad that it made you happy (although I felt a little bad over the ego-comment :|), and I'm too very happy that we have become friends.

    I'm also pretty sure that you're going to have a great 2006 and I really look forward to meeting you in person.

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