Since I’m really not feeling great, its Christmas eve, I’m Jewish and I can’t eat Chinese food tonight (in fact I haven’t really eaten more than crackers in 2 days), I’m starting my random list of good things about 07 in no particular order.

My wife - a person is only as good as the people that make them smile, laugh and scream in equal measure. Amy is that person. She tolerates what has to be a difficult person (me) and manages to keep me sane and whole. Without here I’d probably spontaneously combust.

Working in the Music Business - this one might seem counter intuitive given the bad press the business gets, but one of the things that keeps me going into work every day and leaving 10, 12 hours later is the fact that my department, myself and the work I do is at the forefront of a huge reinvention, of the likes I haven’t seen in about 10 years. When I worked in newspapers, I thought we were doing the same thing, but it ended up that newspapers succumbed to the stupidity of hype from the first dot-com wave, while my hope is that my department, the people I work for and with, and those that work with me are doing the exact opposite.

Its a rare thing that you are “given” the framework on which to build a technological and system infrastructure for an industry you’ve loved your entire life. I walk in the doors of 3300 every day because its there for me to work with. Its hugely inspiring.

An Amazing, Amazing Team - I started the year with exactly one person working for me. He no longer works for me. I’m ending the year with 6, and soon to be 8 people working for me.

Over the last 12 months I’ve built a team that includes people I’ve worked with for a while and some new people who I happened to luckily find in the great influx of resumes. Shaun Haber, who’s sister I’m married to incidentally, picked up from San Diego and moved up to Los Angeles after working with us as a contractor for a long while. He is the secret of WBR I think, having designed, implemented and maintained an infrastructure that powers most of our sites now. He’s probably the best operations person I’ve ever worked with in my 10 years of working.

Teja Ream joined me after having worked together at UCSB. All told, Sara, Leah, Shayna, Teja, Shaun and soon to be Keff are doing more than a team triple the size.

Being in a tech department in a company on cusp of a huge change brought on by technology is challenging, as you’re proving yourself, trying to get resources and trying to educate at the same time. The fact is: we’re always under staffed, and never going to have the luxury of being single-minded specialists. Everyone on my team, from myself to my assistant are strong generalists across the gamut of web technology. Its a testament to the strength of their abilities that at the end of what has been a hugely taxing and rewarding year, we all still could sit around a table and toast to each other.

Drupal - Drupal has and will be the single biggest component to the work I do and I will do in 2008. I’ve used it for four or five years now, and the work the community has put into it is shaping the product to be the defacto Operating System for community and commerce based websites. Mark my words. Its a challenge, its open source, its a growing and evolving tool, but its been flexible enough to conform itself to what amounts to the trickiest business out there (music and artists), and its now the backbone of our web work.

R.E.M. - I always have to give a tip of the hat to the band that put me where I’m at right now (no joke), but this year especially was a great year to be working with them. I got to see them inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, standing 20 feet from the band, with friends and family and welcomed as one. I visited the studio in Vancouver and Athens, hung out with Peter in Seattle and watched a Patti Smith show with him, and more important than anything, was witness to the rebirth of this band I love so much.

The record coming next year is a force. Thats all I’ll say right now, but if you aren’t smiling by the end of your first listen and quickly pressing play again, I’ll eat my socks. So, on what is my 20th year of being a fan, the 13th year of Murmurs and my second year working with them closer as a part of WBR: thank you to Michael, Mike, Peter, Bertis, David and the office crew for being such a huge and important part of my life.

Health - I weigh 30 pounds less now than I did when I left Santa Barbara (138 right now). In SB, I wasn’t healthy for a variety or reasons and when we moved down, my goal was to get healthy. Since then I’ve exercised religiously, changed my eating habits and made it a point to keep moving. Exercise is a nice snowball effect in that as you build muscle mass, its easier to keep lean. I also find that running outside and working out at the gym is a huge means of keeping me stress free.

My Family - My great-grandmother is 94 years old and still more with it than I am. My grandparents, parents, sister, uncle and aunt and everyone in between is healthy, happy and doing well in life. You can’t ask for more than that.

Vacations - Amy and I never took a vacation after our honeymoon (and that didn’t count). This year we took three: Santa Barbara, Cabos San Lucas and Playa Del Carmen. They each got better and better, and we are now planning our 2008 vacations (hopefully to Europe). I don’t think vacations can ever be over-rated. Sometimes there is nothing better than disconnecting and sitting on a beach drinking a strong alcoholic beverage.

Old Friends - I got to reconnect and stay connected to a lot of old friends this year. In May I saw my oldest friend Michael in Toronto, reconnected with my friends Val and Kate from my days at Freedom, had my ten year high school reunion (which ended up being extremely fun) and through that reconnected to a lot of people via Facebook and other means. Its funny how little people change actually. Anyhow, I was a loner through much of my early twenties, so its nice to actually have people to talk to, truthfully.

Stability - Amy and I are finally feeling that we’re in a position of stability, in terms of our life, our home, my job, etc. The house isn’t fully done yet, but we’re so close that I already want to do more work on it.

More as I think of them…