Curiousity is life

The school term has just started and I've been reflecting on my drive to learn and keep studying. This video is a perfect explanation about how I feel, it's about the question and the journey as opposed to the destination and arriving at an answer.

One of my professors gave some sage advice during lecture. "You will forget 70 percent of what you learn one year after you graduate...you are learning how to learn". I agree, that being a lifelong student, it takes me less time to learn new things and that it's about being adaptive as being a sponge as technology changes at a rapid pace and knowing about something old is not as critical as being able to learn something new.

Software
The new school term has me learning new software again, SolidWorks for fabrication modelling, and ProTools for audio design. It's been 15 years since I started playing around with computers/programming and got on the Internet and I have been thinking about all the software and languages that I've played around with and it's a long list (from my own opinion anyway).

[Note: I first started programming when I made my first website using AOLPress to make a Megaman fan website on AOL in 1996. Yes, back when the common file format for images were still BMPs and loading a page took 10 minutes and hoped that no one would call and interrupt my modem.]

I have tried to keep the list in somewhat chronological order that I learned them in.

My giant list of software that I have used in some shape or form
Web Development: AOLPress, Macromedia/Adobe Dreamweaver, Macromedia/Adobe Flash, gcc
Graphics: MS Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign
Film: Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro
Audio: Goldwave, Finale, Audacity
Programming: Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse, MatLab
Languages: HTML, HyperCard, Pascal, JavaScript, ActionScript, CSS, C++, Scheme, Java, Perl, SQL, OpenGL, PHP
2D/3D: 3DS Max, Autodesk AutoCAD, Maya, XSI, VectorWorks, Cinema 4D

Obviously, I'm NOT an expert at all of these programs as there's no real way for me to keep up with all of them, but I still remember and understand the concepts that I've learned from trying them out. (The list probably isn't complete either because I'm sure I've forgotten some).

I should probably add Objective-C and Ruby on Rails to the Languages, but I never got a decent understanding (or a working prototype of those projects) of them.

Interpersonal Skills
I (think I) have grown a lot. I used to be someone who would never speak. (My sister has stories of her friends being amazed when I actually said hello and they jump in surprise going "Oh! He talks, he talks!")
My philosophy has always been to speak with purpose. By speaking less, when I do speak, it adds weight to the words I use (yes, I choose my words carefully so that I try to sound like I know what I'm doing).
By being quiet, I shut myself off from people, so I have to find the balance of talking too much and too little. However, I do feel much more comfortable now being social with people compared to before. Little steps.

Moving forward
I don't really believe in resolutions, new year's or otherwise. This was just a reminder for myself to think of what I have learned, of how I've learned, and how to keep continuing to learn and being happy not knowing where it may lead me. =) Cheers to curiousity and growing!