Always interesting to see who you share birthdays with! Tip of the hat to fellow Leo and August 12th Birthday 
Planning ahead, I think one of the most important things that I can do for the Steem platform is simply present my background, illuminate what skills and talents I bring to the table, and provide my own personal set of goals and strategies for contributing to the health and vitality of the ecosystem.
Last Year (mostly chronological)
- Deep dive into Bitcoin
- Installed and maintained bitcoin miners
- Brushed up on HTML
- Learned CSS
- Learned Github
- Learned Linux OS
- Relearned Command Line
- Learned beginner Ruby
- Learned beginner Python
- Improved typing speed and accuracy (50+ WPM over at typing.io in different programming languages)
- Worked for Uber to help drivers get into the system and for technical support
- Learned beginner Zendesk
- Deep dive into Ethereum
- Invested into Ethereum in January based on fundamentals
- Installed and maintained GPU miners for Ethereum
- Wrote "I'm a former Green Beret and here's how I would take down Bitcoin" for Bitcoin Magazine
- Began doing social media work and client support for tech startup Stabilitas
- Learned beginner of JIRA and Confluence
- Discovered and began writing on Steemit
- Deep dive into Steemit
- Invested into Steem in early July
- Conducted debate with Tone Vays over the Steem platform
Goals Next Year
- Create at least two pieces of creative, original content per week
- Invite more former Green Berets onto Steemit (deal with it, hippies)
- Engage in more political and geo-political discussions on Steemit
- Announce and launch use case for Steem platform related to startup
- Earn 1000+ Steemit followers by my next birthday
With this, you can all hold my feet to the fire if I do something stupid. Have a great weekend!