On Twitter, there seems to be a whole lot of hate for 2008. I’m all for looking forward to a new year, but really, was 2008 that bad? While any year has it’s ups and downs, 2008 was pretty good to me.
- I changed jobs at Apple from being a Production Designer (focusing on Front End Web Development Engineering) to a Visual Interaction Designer.
- I traveled to
- Vancouver and Whistler.
This was my first time to Canada. I was the lucky winner to get to go to Web Directions North, with conference ticket, airfare, and flight all paid for. Besides a fantastic conference, I also hung out with great friends, had fun karaoke, and went snowboarding for my first time. - Austin.
For my second South by South West, I was on a panel called “Social Networking and Your Brand” with a very talented group of guys: Paul Boag, Steve Ganz, Steve Smith, and Mark Norman Francis. I also did a performance art piece for 20×2 called “What’s the Difference?” in which I had Joshua Lane and Eris Stassi play Rock’em Sock’em Robots on stage while I recited a poem I wrote about evil robots vs. good robots. Also, I met one of my all-time favorites, Moby, at the Pure Volume party! Finally, I started a relationship with Joshua Lane after hanging out with him that week. - Brighton and London.
This was my first time to the UK. I started in Brighton, where Jeremy and Jessica were very kind and hospitable to me and let me stay with them. I went to the beach, hung out in the Clearleft office, and saw I Am Kloot play live. Then in London, I did a live on-stage photoshop battle with Hannah Donovan on my side; we were up against Jon Hicks and Elliot Jay Stocks. The unexpecting host, Andy Clarke, was surprised to see the whole contest turn on him, all in good fun. I also did a half-day workshop on Creating Sexy Stylesheets. After the conference, I hung out with Charlotte and Russell (two fellow Apple employees who work out of the UK office), went to the Tate Modern, met an amazing web designer I admire (Miguel Ripoll), and hung out on my last day there with Larissa Meek. - Memphis.
I visited for my brother’s graduation. It’s always nice to visit my old haunts. - Portland..
Josh and I took a weekend trip and crashed the Rails Conference after parties, and hung out with Dan Benjamin and Justin Palmer. - Las Vegas.
I went to Vegas for the first time ever, to celebrate Josh’s birthday. I saw Cirque du Soleil’s O, did some shopping, ate expensive but delicious food, and did a tiny bit of gambling. - Los Angeles.
I went to Los Angeles for the first time on a weekend trip to celebrate my own birthday. I took photos down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, saw two fantastic art shows where I met up with Jim Mahfood (a friend who did the illustrations for my website) and met Susie Ghahremani (one of my favorite artists). I also met up with Joe Segura (a former student at Memphis College of Art, where I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts — now doing film stuffs!), ate some fantastic food, went bike riding along the board walk from Santa Monica to Venice Beach, and did some shopping. - Sydney.
After Josh and I broke up, we went to Sydney for our first times to Australia (a trip that was planned well before the breakup). I had been dreaming of going to Australia since I was a little girl. I gave a talk on Creating Sexy Stylesheets, and saw as much of Sydney as I could. I did a helicopter ride, went whale-watching, went to Manly Beach, Bondi Beach, saw Kangaroo (and ate kangaroo), saw other native animals like koalas, wallabies, etc. (didn’t eat those), and met some amazing people. - Atlanta.
I took a weekend trip to speak at Webmaster Jam Session, where I was on a Web Design Smackdown panel, and also did the Creating Sexy Stylesheets talk. I had an absolute blast hanging out with some really fun people.
- Vancouver and Whistler.
- I had some articles published:
- I was interviewed:
- Jina Bolton on Creating Sexy Stylesheets, SitePoint
- UMS Interviews: Jina Bolton, Unmatched Style
- 112. jina, Boagworld podcast
- El diseño es el código, El País, a large Spanish newspaper, on the scale of New York Times.
- I moved from Mountain View to San Francisco and got an awesome new loft apartment, and hosted two very fun parties: my housewarming/Josh’s birthday party, and Thanksgiving (featuring Eris Stassi’s amazing cooking).
- I started taking graduate courses at the Academy of Art University, to get my Master of Fine Arts. I have a wrap-up post of the semester I just completed coming soon.
As you can see, 2008 was a pretty big year for me. Now there were some negative things (a break up, cancelling a book I was writing, and the rest which I won’t go into — I like to focus on the positive), but they were all things to learn from. I am putting together a list of things I’d like to do in 2009 and beyond. These aren’t really resolutions; it’s more like a wishlist of things I want to do, which could easily (and most likely will) roll over to 2010. That list is still growing, and will probably continue to grow. I want to do everything. It’s just the way I roll. :)
P.S. The rhyming in this entry’s title was not intended.
