2009 in Retrospect: My Work

Since this website is dedicated to documenting my career, I figure I'd better take a look at the last 11 months which have been quite inspiring.

The company I started now has a strong team and we are ready to swing for the fence next year. We have gained 20+ clients, with 30+ projects which all have been delivered on time and on budget. Sick! Way better than I thought.

MarcGrabanski.com

Although my blogging and open source work has slowed down while trying to boost my company, that has not stopped website readership from growing. We are up to 119,065 visitors last month with 62,946 being unique.

Version 3 is Coming, Built From Scratch

I am gearing up to release version 3 of this website, which will hopefully re-surge my energy and motivation to bring you fresh content. It is yet another custom system built entirely from scratch. I dumped ALL my current code and design in order to rethink the whole blogging paradigm from the bottom-up.

More Speaking

I spoke at more events this year. I especially enjoyed the short-notice trip to Dublin, Ireland.

- jQuery Summit 2009
- jQuery Conference 2009 in Boston, MA
- Epicenter 2009 in Dublin, Ireland
- MinneWeb Con 2009 in Minneapolis, MN
- Twin Cities Web Design 2009 in Bloomington, MN

Technical Editor

I technical reviewed Dan Wellman's book on jQuery UI 1.7.

jQuery UI 1.7: The User Interface Library for jQuery

Startup Companies

Aside from my consulting company, I own shares in two startup companies. One of them launched a few months back, it is a rental listing and search engine called Rent Update. Another one is a firefox extension that talks to a web service I built.

Spring of LIfe

I used to be so addicted to things I could not possibly be useful to society. I had a life-changing experience back in 2004 and I'm starting to open up to sharing the source of my motivation and strength. The source that has led me to make this website, share with you any knowledge I have, and provide everything I can for my clients.. Jesus.

"but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 14:4

I feel "life" springing up inside me every day and even the most simple things in life take on extraordinary meaning.

Engaged!

I got engaged to Candy! She's been there beside me for the last three years and we are excited to tie the knot.

Happy Holidays!