Thunderstorm of miscellany... and welcome 2009!

Hi all! Hope your holidays and 2009 are treating ya well so far! Apologies for going underground again... It's been a whirlwind with graduating, job hunting, moving across the country, the holidays, and visiting with friends and family. An enjoyable whirlwind however.

Hopefully I'm back for a while, but here's a smorgasbord of thoughts... Sorry in advance, it's quite the hodgepodge:

• Should I get a job immediately? Or should I take up other pursuits for a while before getting back into the working world? While I'd prefer to get a job sooner rather than later, I'm not killing myself to get my job tomorrow. Here's an interesting article in last week's AdAge weighing in on the merits of waiting versus full speed ahead. Good comments in feedback section too.
  
  
• Holy monkey I've become so into Twitter. If measured only by time spent on the network these past few weeks, it's safe to say it's surpassed Facebook as my favorite social network. Granted I use them for totally different purposes. Will post on this topic soon.
  
  
• Building an advertising portfolio online is quite the daunting task. It's consumed my life the past few days. I'm learning a lot, but am realizing it's quite the steep learning curve. However, things to thank for my little bits of success thus far: the few HTML tags I retained from CS 105 or whatever computer science class I took undergrad, and copious use of tips on forums. Thanks internet... though I have a long way to go.
  
  
• I'm in love with Adobe's Classroom in a Book series. These books introduce the reader to the Adobe software of choice and assign relevant projects that can be completed step-by-step. Cheapest prices I've seen since the release of their CS4 line has been on Amazon with about $34 per (Adobe's price is around $52). They have titles available for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash and more. I have varying experience with the first four, but am hoping to add Flash to my repertoire in the coming weeks thanks to this series (and Christmas). And I'm a big fan of offline solutions to software problems and reading something tangible.
  
  
• Not into the clunky book idea? You can always try lynda.com tutorials. They're available for tons of graphic design and web software and other computing topics. Examples of a few you could find: creating games for the Wii using Flash CS3, essential training for bloggers, and typographic principles. I'm already making notes in my head of potential classes I'd like to take on the site. You can get access to ALL the training on the site for $25/month (as often as you want). Or I recommend using this (copy and paste): http://www.lynda.com/deke to get a free 7-day trial before committing.
  
  
• I have tons of commercials I've seen lately that I'd like to comment on. Stay tuned.
  
  
• I have decided that I'm going to treat Feb. 1 as the new year as far as resolutions go. That way, I can use all of January to come up with a good one. And, should I choose a gym- or fitness-related resolution, everyone else will have broken theirs by then, so I'll have less competition for treadmills, rowing machines and the pool.
  
  
• I have the best family and friends in the world. Seriously. Way to make 2008 rock and I'm looking forward to the continued fun in the new year. Stay warm all!