From Ruby to Watch City with a whistle - plans for 2013

Happy New Year to all and time to join in with the usual posts outlining plans for the year ahead...

Learning

Databases

Trying out an online course - Introduction to Databases from Stanford University.
I didn't pay too much attention to my DB course when I was at uni and as it was also a long time ago then it's time I had a refresher course

Ruby/Cucumber/Selenium
I've dabbled with these for a long time but I'd like to stop the dabbling and get more serious.
Resources I will be using:

Ruby on Rails tutorial book

Following along with a new series of blog posts by Jeff Nyman on Building Simple Web Apps with Ruby

The screencasts from Cheezy on using Ruby and Cucumber - and reading his book Cucumber and Cheese

Possibly doing the Selenium2 Webdriver basics course offered by Alan Richardson (@eviltester)

Test Design
Having completed the AST BBST Foundations ( blog post to come ) the next one in my sights is Test Design in April

Community
Carry on moderating and growing the Software Testing Club - which is now 12,200 and counting

Keep trying to answer questions on QA Stack Exchange

Keep attending the monthly GR Testers Meetups

Conferences
Now I am on the US side of The Big Pond then no excuses for not attending CAST 2103 in August in Madison, WI

Books
Currently reading Impact Mapping and Tap into Mobile App Testing - finish these and post reviews on my blog

Already mentioned Cucumber and Cheese which I'll be reading as I learn Ruby and Cucumber

I really must finish Thinking Fast and Slow - though it's taken me so long that I should start again from the beginning

Thanks to a bug competition from Matt Heusser I have a copy of Quiet: The Power of Introverts which has been on my Wish List for a long time

Blog
This blog has been neglected the last few months - a move across The Pond and a new job is not a bad excuse but now that I've been here a few months I cant keep using it. I'm aiming to keep a regular series of posts and to keep connected with other bloggers

Other
Away from testing I have a Grade 8 soccer referee class in January so that I can referee older age groups.

I'll be joining the crowd of people resolving to lose weight and get fit this year - but I do have goals to help me keep this going, one is being fit enough so that I can referee 8 games in a weekend and the second is so that I can finish the Warrior Dash in Michigan in September in a respectable time

I'm getting an interest in Steampunk so am thinking of going to some conventions - Denver at the end of March and Watch City in Massachussetts in May

That's the plan - let's see how it pans out....