I’ve never subscribed much to New Year’s resolutions. January commitments always seem destined for March guilt. But, if there’s anything my first year at Amazon has taught me, it is the power of setting goals and sticking to them. So, what the hell.

If there’s one thing I’ve missed the past few years, it is building web sites, from design to code. I miss this work too much to let my skills atrophy, so in 2015 I’m going to get back into the business. My work at Amazon is teaching me program management and metrics, which I hope will be an ideal match with my renewed technical skills.

Launch PeekCode.com

PeekCode.com is a new website I’m developing and plan to launch in February. On this site I will break down the design and code of interesting and clever, but also — importantly — useful, features from websites that I come across. PeekCode will be my place to experiment with marketing, advertising, and building up a subscriber base. By the end of 2015, my goal is to have 500+ subscribers and have earned $1000+ in advertising revenue.

Earn a new computer

My current computer, a 2009 MacBook Pro, has been a solid workhorse for the past 5 years. A battery replacement and new SSD in 2014 gave it a new lease on life, but it is seriously showing its age. I don’t want to just replace it though, I want to earn a new one through web work (freelancing, selling WordPress themes or graphics). While I expect a new computer to cost about $2500, my goal is to earn a $5000+ in freelance revenue.

Learn JavaScript, properly

I’ve always been good at hacking my way through actual code. I can pretty easily break things until they work, Google my way through projects, and blindly stumble my way to a functional product. But I’ve never been able to sit down, map out a set of functionality, and code it through without referencing every second function. In 2015, that will end. My wonderful wife gave me JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, and I’m going to walk the fundamentals before I run (for once).

Drive

Being a city-boy, I’ve managed to go my entire life without needing a license. I’ve been told that makes me a good European, but a poor American. Shudder. That will end in 2015.

And that’s it. We’ll see how I’m doing in 2016.