I didn’t write a review for 2019. Work was a bit slow, and perhaps I felt like I didn’t have much to say. 2020 is a different story. None of us have ever lived through a year quite like 2020. The pandemic changed plans and the way we do life.
Accomplishments
This probably wasn’t the best year for productivity. I missed several of my goals for 2020, but there were some notable accomplishments for the year.
- I learned Vue and actually built something with it.
- I completely overhauled our build tools at work, which gave me an opportunity to learn a bunch of new things.
- I started reading more and was able to finish 34 books (which is quite a lot for me).
- I still watched a lot of movies (111!), even if there weren’t a lot of new ones being released.
- I failed at writing much for my blog, but I did start publishing weeknotes, completing 17 for the year.
- I set up and started using a CMD to keep track of my work.
- I learned Eleventy and started migrating my website
- I attended two virtual conferences (and learned how much I really miss in-person conferences).
- I cleaned up my dotfiles repo quite a bit and got the installer working.
One positive thing that came directly from the pandemic is that I started working remotely. I had been interested in remote work for quite some time, but I didn’t think that working from home would be a good fit. This extended trial has shown me that I really enjoy remote work, and working at home has not been a problem.
Highlights
- We went took a family vacation to Disneyland in January/February, right before the pandemic hit. This was a rough week for various reasons. There were times when we regretted not canceling, but looking back on it now, we’re pretty happy we were able to take this trip before everything shut down.
- The Zoom meetings and live streams at the beginning of the pandemic were fun — lots of live performances, chats, and virtual happy hours. But after a couple of months, you could tell that everyone was tired of these remote interactions.
- I got back into gaming a bit more. Some friends from college have been having bi-weekly Counter-Strike sessions for several years. It had been a while since I had joined them, so it was fun to jump back in. I also got a PlayStation 5 at Thanksgiving, my first gaming console since I got the PlayStation 3 in 2009.
- When it warmed up, we tried to get outside for walking/hiking as much as possible. I feel like this ended up being some of our best family time during the year.
- Both of my kids learned to ride their bikes without training wheels.
- I turned 40 in July. It was an odd birthday, but a good one. Celebrating my birthday while watching hockey after the NHL season resumed was not something I ever thought would happen.
- We took a vacation in Colorado, my first trip into the mountains, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
2021
It can’t get much worse, right?
Links
More yearly reviews: