I started writing my 5 year plan but I just couldn’t stop at 5 years. I’m finding it easier to think about mapping out all my future plans and expectations as I see them. Maybe some are unrealistic but it’s the future I’m preparing for:

http://adam.shadowpuppet.net/plan.php

I’m thinking of making 3 paths though: Worst Case | Probable | Hopeful

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state.html

Here’s the idea: http://antic.ShadowPuppet.net/28-hour-day

However, the list didn’t provide any solid useful examples of why the items are important. They also missed some really important issues that affect all web developers.

Here are a few security concerns I keep with me whenever I develop a site:

1. Always filter for malicious data and THEN validate user input, both on the server side. Do not rely on JavaScript or any other client-side technology to prevent hacking attempts or malformed data. Look up XSS (cross-site scripting):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting

2. Build your server side scripts so that they cannot fall victim to cross-site request forgery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_request_forgery

3. For any user login form/handler, use SSL Get a cert (something like $100)–or generate and sign one yourself (free), which requires you and your users to add a security exception (because it’s self signed):
http://www.yatblog.com/2007/02/27/how-to-create-a-ssl-certificate/
If you fail to make this information go via SSL on your webserver, you are requiring all of your users to send passwords in cleartext through every computer between them and your webserver.

4. Always use SSH/SFTP to connect to your webserver. FTP is insecure. When you connect via FTP, you are sending your credentials in cleartext over the network. Anyone listening in will be able to scrape your access info.

5. Escape any database input before it goes into queries, lest you become victim of SQL injections:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection

There are many more concerns but these are the ones that jump to my mind this early in the morning.

01. Become financially independent (meaning I don’t have to work at all if I don’t want to because I have enough passive income to just play music, travel the world, write and spend time with my family and friends) before I turn 31. Last year, my goal was before I turn 30, but I think I’m going to be 6 months late of that mark.

02. Do a free standing back-flip. I wish I had done this a few years ago when I got health insurance for the first time in 8 years. Now I’m without coverage again and I just don’t want to risk it. I fell on my head without insurance a few years ago and they charged me $4K to tell me I was OK. I guess I’ll have to wait for completion of #01.

03. Write a novel. I haven’t even gotten to the first draft phase but I do have 6 Word documents with crappy titles, meager plot summaries, a few brainstorm snippets and two character outlines. I’m half way there, right? o_0

04. Speak at a TED conference. http://www.TED.com. On what? Whatever it is that I give to the world before #10 happens.

05. Master the Accordion. I’ve had an accordion for 8 years. I love it. It’s awesome. Every time I pick it up and play it, I get hypnotized by how awesome it sounds. If I were stuck on a desert island and I could take only one thing with me, I would still choose to take a boat but if loopholes like that weren’t allowed and I was forced to choose something that couldn’t get me off the island, I would probably take an accordion.

06. Produce a musical album. I love to sing but I know I’m not that good at it. After mastering the accordion, I’ll probably move onto that part, but I love music of all kinds, so I might pick up another instrument.

07. Travel the world with my daughter. My little girl is teh awesome!!!!11!!!one! I want to show her all the places I haven’t seen yet.

08. Learn to speak, read and write Mandarin Chinese fluently. And German, Russian, Arabic, Zulu, Hindi… I would also like to learn just enough of every language that I could pick out a strangers dialect and say a few simple phrases with confidence. Just a “Hey, you speak {language name}? Cool. I’m just learning.” It’s surprising what kind of connections come out of just knowing that.

09. Create a game or some other meme that will withstand the test of time, passing from generation to generation.

10. Become a singularity. Hey, screw this whole ‘before death’ thing. I plan to bypass that part.

Previous buckets kicked:

* Master riding the unicycle
* Learn a foreign language…not necessarily fluently ;)
* Buy a house
* Visit any part of Europe (went to London)
* Visit any part of Asia (went to Thailand)
* Have a child
* Start a business

I would expect Gmail to know enough to filter out its own words from Gmail adsense inclusion–or at the very least, filtering out the word ’spam’ but maybe people really do visit their spam box, simultaneously thinking to themselves, I’d love some spam!

“Thanks for the book.”
“oh, yeah, glad you like it.”

Then we have a discussion on personal education philosophy and practices.
Sometimes, lately, I’m not sure if I had a conversation with a friend or if all happened in a dream.

“Didn’t we go to their house last week and play cards or something…?”
“No, it’s been a while.”

Optimistically, at least I remember having good times.

Now, I lie there thinking about innanities, filling out forms, paying bills, the state of the economy, work, work and more work. All these worries and obsessions, so human, are so restrictive.

I just can’t find it in me at the moment to become creative about beurocracy. This makes it difficult to sleep.

I used to start dreaming to fall asleep, starting with something abstract and twisting it until it was even more difficult to articulate. Soon, all would be a haze of dream and random thought stream.

I need this again.

“We need to get to a Costco!” I tell my friends.

“OK, but first we need to stop at someone’s house.”

“Who? Why?”

“She’s a neurologist; she’ll know what to do.”

“…OK.”

On our way to her house, we stop at a school to pick up someone’s kid. In one of the classrooms, textbooks are flying through the air, having grown large teeth, attempting to bite the children.
“This isn’t just a zombie infection! This is some sort of magic.”
“That’s great news!” Says one of my cohorts, “It’s not a disease! We just need to find a magician.”

One of the men traveling with us knows where to find a magician and he takes us to his house. Surprisingly, this magician doesn’t know anything about the zombie attack. He believes us anyway and takes us into the ocean. “There,” he says, “we will meet another magician who can help you.”

In the depths of the sea, we find many new life-forms that we have never heard of before.

A cube shaped fish with bioluminescent saturn-like rings around it swims by. It’s gathering energy kenetically from other fish and creatures swimming in the water. It floats into a school of fish who twirl around the cube frantically. The cube gets brighter. A shark comes, pushing energy into the water as it feasts upon the swirl of fish. The cube and it’s rings get brighter and more energetic.

“It’s like an alien.” I say.

“How do you know it’s not?” The magician replies.

————-
OK, this dream really does go on forever so I’m going to leave it at that. To remind myself of the rest:

* Cubic alien beast becomes a flying carpet under the sea.
* Old lady magician under the sea, threatens attack but recognizes the traveling magician as a former lover.
* Infiltrating the military and fighting the attack.
* Vines growing out of the ground to consume the army.
* An unused field with chained up trees, under attack of consumption. To rebuild or let die?
* Pretending to be a woman and using the restroom at a closed down supermarket.
* The creepy janitors
* The Costco is closed
————-

Let’s sum it up with a Common Craft Zombie Guide: