Last year I privately wrote down my new year resolutions. I found it helpful to have them referenceable throughout the year. What better way to stay motivated in 2009 than to share my resolutions with the world? So here are my 2009 resolutions, in no particular order.

Get fit
Beyond just going to the gym I want to actually improve my fitness level. Build muscle, lose fat, increase stamina, all that good stuff.

Blog more
I wrote 20 posts on this blog in 2008, that is miserably insufficient. I think 2-3 posts a month is a respectable goal for 2009.

Charity volunteer work
I’m extremely fortunate and I know it. Beyond just giving money to charity I want to give time.  I consider my time much more valuable than my money and I may meet some cool people in the process. 

Learn to fly
This one might be tough to fit into 2009, but if I can take just a couple of lessons I’ll probably get addicted and keep it up. I’m a licensed driver, motorcyclist and SCUBA diver, so a pilot’s license is my next horizon. Maybe I can take one airplane lesson and one helicopter lesson?

Skydive
As much as I hate the idea of being strapped to some stranger and flung out of a plane it’s the only way I’m going to get started skydiving. So I’ll just have to deal with the tandem jump and I’ll be on my way to solo-skydiving, which is what I really want to do.

Make music
I made a bunch of music in 2008 but not as many finished tracks as I would have liked. I’ve got a decent understanding of music and production now so I can hopefully be more productive in 2009.

Watch less TV
I’ve got a bad habit of turning on the TV whenever I am bored. In 2009 I’ll try to do other things like reading, making music, going to the gym, programming, etc.

Learn one programming language each quarter
I tried to start this one at the end of 2008 by learning Python, but other than buying a book and writing some basic stuff I didn’t make much progress. I still want to learn Ruby, Perl and Erlang so hopefully I can tackle those in 2009.

Continue DJing
I played a gig about once a month in 2008 and I’d like to keep that going in 2009. I’d also really like to play in some new cities like New York or Los Angeles.

Get into MIT
I’m considering applying to the Computer Science Graduate Program or the Sloan SDM Program. If I  choose to pursue either of these then getting into MIT is going to be a major priority in 2009.

I went grocery shopping this weekend and noticed a new trend in product packaging. I was looking for Tropicana orange juice but walked right by it because the packaging has changed radically. Pepsi has also done a major redesign but I heard all about it on HubSpot TV so I wasn’t surprised to see the new packaging in the store.

There are some definite similarites between the new Tropicana and Pepsi packages. Both are fairly minimal and use relatively desaturated colors. The thing that really stands out is the choice of sans-serif, very round fonts on both packages. It looks like Tropicana went with ITC Kabel which is actually the same font as the HubSpot logo.

I have a feeling this is just the beginning and we’ll see many more packages with this type of design. If I had to guess I would say these companies are picking up on the minimalist packaging that has helped to make Apple products the subject of many unpacking photo sets. Or maybe a one-trick design shop got contracts for both Tropicana and Pepsi? Either way I like it, I think both are much cleaner, modern designs.

At the end of 2007 I wrote down and saved some New Year Resolutions. I figured I would share them, along with the outcome. I’ll share my 2009 resolutions in another post soon. Here are 2008’s resolutions in review:

Get a gym membership, GO!
It took until March, but I did finally get a gym membership. My attendance is not perfect but I try to go 2 days a week usually Saturday and Sunday. I think I satisfied this resolution.

Do some volunteer work
It was a busy year and this one slipped through the cracks. I still want to volunteer for a charity of some sort so this is going on my list for 2009. I live an awesome life and I want to help out those who are less fortunate.

Make some music, even if terrible
A definite success here. I managed to make a bunch of music in 2008. Not all of it was amazing but a couple of tracks were good enough to get released on record labels.

Watch less TV
I’m not sure about this one. I still watch TV every day, probably more than I should. I’m okay with it, but I intend to reduce TV time more in 2009, except for LOST, I have to watch lost. Maybe I can skip American Idol this year?

Read more books
I did not read as many books as I would have liked. I have a bunch lined up and always have trouble actually reading them. I do so much of my reading via blogs, magazines and websites that I have trouble getting to the books. When I used to have a commute I would listen to books on tape daily, I miss that (but not the commute).

Go on vacation outside the US
I never made it out of the country. I went to Las Vegas for a few days in March but that was it. Not a great year for travel anyway, fuel prices made tickets expensive and the airlines tried to squeeze every last penny out of passengers. I’m okay with my lack of travel, I still had a lot of fun right here in Boston.

Continue DJing – do not put gear into storage again!
Another big success in 2008. I managed to DJ throughout the year playing almost monthly at RISE and a few other gigs at Felt and Green Room. I also played a lot at my friend’s apartments. My own DJ gear is not in storage but I don’t use it as much as I should.

Learn to fly?
This was not a “real” resolution (hence the question mark) but I still want to do this. Now that my roommate is a helicopter pilot I want to learn to fly even more.

Skydive?
I didn’t do it in 2008. I think this will go along with learning to fly, if I’m going to be up there I better be familiar with bailing out. Or maybe I can talk some of my friends into joining me for some skydiving in 2009?

One of the great things about living in New England is watching the seasons change. Below is a time-lapse of 41 photos I took from my HubSpot office window between August and November of 2008. Kendall Square in Cambridge is in the foreground along with the eastern side of the MIT campus. In the distance you can see the Charles River and the lights of Fenway Park and the iconic Citgo sign.

As an admitted twitter-holic I find this quite amusing.

From time to time the marketing folks at HubSpot come up with simply awesome ideas, this is one of them. HubSpot is the inbound marketing company and there was lots of material to use for the parody song. I hope others find this as funny as I do.

One great thing about working at HubSpot is being able to work on things that are not directly related to your job. I’m normally writing code and dealing with technical issues, but every Friday I help to produce our weekly live video-podcast HubSpot TV. I worked at NHPTV while attending the University of New Hampshire, so I’ve got a fair amount of experience with producing and directing television programs. HubSpot TV is also super simple to produce, all the content is taken care of by our hosts Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin. I just take care of the set, lighting, cameras and seating for the live audience. My favorite episode so far was from Halloween, check it out below. Also check out my photo stream of behind the scenes photos from HubSpot TV.

I went to see W this weekend at the Loews on Boston Common. Overall, it was a good film. I wasn’t sure what to expect, knowing it was an Oliver Stone film I thought it might be harsh or biased. However I think it was a fairly accurate depiction of the life of George W. Bush thus far.

Scenes in the movie alternate between the modern presidency of Bush and his earlier years. While there has been some dramatization, the scenes are all accurate to real happenings in the live of W., from his years at Yale to his religious “rebirth.”

The acting is very good all around, and the casting was excellent. Josh Brolin as W. mesmerized me. It is hard to believe this is the same actor that played Llewellyn in No Country For Old Men. Casting Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush is a bit of a stretch when you first see her in the film, but as the hair style and wardrobe changes she settles into the role nicely.

I’m not a fan of Bush, which probably fueled my desire to see this film. I have wondered how we ended up with our current president, and this film provides some answers. It shows W.’s struggle living in the shadow of his accomplished father and reliable brother. You see W.’s wealth of failure as he tries to find a place for himself in the world. Interestingly it shows how Karl Rove and Dick Cheney careful steer W. through the issues facing the country.

For me, the most interesting part of the film is how it ended. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here, but if you’re overly cautious about spoilers you might want to stop reading. I believe the film attempts to end in the same way as the current presidency, that is to say, we don’t know yet. The final scene shows W. standing in center field of the Texas Ranger’s baseball stadium (earlier in the film W. tells George Bush, Sr. that he feels comforted there). Although the stadium is empty, we hear an imaginary crowd and the crack of bat hitting ball. The camera pans through the sky, tracking a pop-fly to center that is not there. We see W. with his glove raised, squinting into the sun, trying to track the ball; fade to black and “The End.” W. has a chance to make the play, or to drop the ball. Maybe I am interpreting this wrong, but the symbolism seems a bit of a stretch, W.’s presidency is already in the bottom of the ninth and I’m not sure he can do anything to redeem himself or his place in history.

I enjoyed the film, although it was not amazing. For those that want a more visual history of the antics that explain the current president, I think it’s worth seeing.

At HubSpot we do a lot of work, but we also have a lot of fun. Recently I helped to produce some spoofs of the Mac vs. PC ads. Maybe you have to understand how lame traditional marketing to appreciate the video, but I think the outtakes are hilarious for everyone. Enjoy: Dude, Cold Calling Is For Losers.

I’m not really the kind of person who goes out partying on a Wednesday night, but for this show I made an exception. Steve Lawler has been one of the most enduring and talented DJs for as long as I can remember. He’s also one of those DJs where the live show is so much better than any of the mixed CDs or productions. I used to download every live Lawler set I could find online to hear what kind of dark and twisted beats he was playing.

I got to Underbar ridiculously early, about 9:30pm. Usually I’m only there that early to decorate but in this case the opening DJ was already playing. I guess they wanted to give people plenty of time to get there before a line started outside but I don’t think there actually was a line that night.

Tom Bartlett did a great job opening up. I’ve know of him from various messageboards and shows, but had not actually heard him play before. He kept it dark and groovy for the hours leading up to Lawler. It was nice to hear some quality opening talent at Underbar.

Lawler took over just a little bit before midnight. He’s a traktor guy so he only brough along his laptop. For gear it was all Pioneer: Three CDJ-1000’s, a DJM-800 and an EFX-1000. I was really interested to hear what Lawler was going to play. It would seem that tech house is the flavor du jour right now, and so I wasn’t surprised when he played a lot of it.

The first hour of Lawler’s set was just awesome. It was techy but had a good dose of Balearic flavor. I can only assume those sounds are a side effect of spending the summer in Ibiza. Maybe he had those tracks regardless of playing Ibiza, but it doesn’t matter. Tech house is very, well, techy, so having some Balearic melodic flavor on top helps to smooth things out; not many people can enjoy a 2 hour techno-pounding.

The second hour was good, but not as good as the first. His set progressed, obviously, and there were lots of good tracks, but it wasn’t quite as enlightening as the first hour. I couldn’t identify any of the tracks he played but a couple of my friends could. There was at least one Cirrez D track and also a Nic Fancuilli track called ‘Ide‘.

Overall it was a good night of music, and I’m really glad I went to see Lawler in person. There weren’t really any surprises for me because Lawler is playing pretty much the same stuff as a lot of other big DJs right now. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but a part of me just expected him to play some tracks so dark and twisted and non-conforming that I would go “Oh wow, this sounds like Lawler!” Regardless I had a good time: The music was great, I got to hang out with my friends, and I even got to meet Lawler after the show.