Year of the Tiger 2010 Goals

Tomorrow will be my 6th Tet (Vietnamese New Year) in Vietnam.  It is hard to believe I have lived in Vietnam for nearly 6 years (May 24, 2004, I arrived into Saigon).  I have a lot of goals for the Year of the Tiger.  Last year I did accomplish some goals such as setting up a business but the outcomes were different than I had expected.  Live and learn, you just got to move on.

For starters, I will not be making a move to Japan as I had intended.  Instead, the consensus of my advisors and friends is that I would be better off in an emerging economy such as Vietnam.  Thus, I will stay here for a couple more years.  I am still on track to start my Phd in the next couple of years.  I still haven't decided which country; US, Singapore, Japan or even the UK.  I will make that decision in the next couple of months.

In the meantime I will continue teaching IT at an international school.  I really enjoy it and I know can contribute to Vietnam in that way, especially in regards to Linux and open source technology.  The Saigon Linux Group will be revived as a marketing tool to help the three to four companies that promote open source in Vietnam.  The new site will be launched in about a month or two (the old site is still up).  Saigon Linux Group has proved to be a great marketing tool in the past.

If possible, I hope to transfer the business license from SLG Vscapeone to Hakata Consulting.  My work permit and temporary resident card will be under SLGV so I want to simplify things instead of starting a new company.  This may not occur until June or July of this year.  If you guys do not know, I have been working on some Wordpress projects for a couple NGOs and small companies through Hakata Consulting.  Of course, I will continue to help Leon out at MNG JVP.  I am learning a lot from Leon and have a place to refer large IT projects.

Outside of work, I hope to increase my strength at the gym.  I will decide which route to follow, bodybuilding, powerlifting, or strength training.  My student and I hope to launch a weightlifting portal this year for Saigon.  There are many inquiries from Expats on the locations of weightlifting gyms in the city.

I will continue in my Vietnamese lessons through the Vietnamese Language Center.  Ms. Thank Binh is so patient with me.  She expects to get me speaking correctly in a couple of months.  I got some of the pronunciations already.  She is a great Vietnamese language teacher.  I highly recommend her.

With SaigonNezumi.com, expect a new theme in a month or two.  I will be getting my Nokia N900 at the end of the month.  I want to do all my blogging from that phone if possible using the various social networking tools available.  I may even monetize it a little more as well.  I plan to add an eshop ecommerce component as well to sell coffee, sports supplements, and other items.  Why not? :-)

So these are some of my goals for the year.   Happy Year of the Tiger 2010!!!  :-)

(Nokia N900 - My next mobile phone)