Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

At the end of the year, I usually like to sit back and think about the things that I have accomplished in the past year, and also begin planning out what goals I will have for the coming year. 2010 was quite a year for me, in which I finished my Masters degree, released my engine as open source, was re-awarded the MVP award from Microsoft, and my personal favorite that I received a contract to produce a book on Direct3D 11. While the book isn't quite finished up yet, it is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time and I finally made it happen this year.

In addition, I have learned to speak German and moved to Germany this year as well. That has been quite a challenge, and has been quite rewarding as well. The cultural experience of moving to another country is very much worth it, and I would recommend it in a heartbeat. I've also made a few trips while being here, and I can personally attest to the fact that Europe is a great place to have lots of vacation time :)

Looking forward to 2011, I have already started building a list of things that I would like to get done. First and foremost, I need to finish my book project. This will likely take a couple of weeks in the beginning of the year, but I want to wrap it up as quickly as possible. In addition, during the writing of the book, we found a few topics that need to be addressed in the Hieroglyph 3 engine. Due to the time committment with the book, I haven't had the time to get the updates made to the engine but I will make it a priority in the new year. Adding more documentation is at the top of the list, but there are several performance oriented changes as well. I'll be sure to post about these as they are implemented.

I'm also going to continue to learn German and strive to speak like a native. While it may be out of reach, it is still an admirable goal to try. By this time next year I will be preparing to head back to the U.S., so my time to learn the language is limited. I will likely be posting some comments and insights about language oriented learning here as well...

Another area that I think will be interesting is to begin doing some development work with the Kinect. I have always had a great interest in doing computer vision algorithms, and the Kinect provides a great opportunity to get involved. Especially with my Direct3D 11 engine to back me up, I think there is great potential, and I can't wait to see what I can do with the sensors available on the Kinect [grin].

In any case, I wish all of you a happy new year, and here's to a successful and eventful 2011!