Last year I wrote “My 2017”, inspired by Always Improve, Never Stop, Never Pause, Never Appreciate: things I did; not necessarily “achievements”, but happy and/or notable things.
I’m glad I did, so I’m doing it again. So, in no particular order:
We celebrated our wedding in February with a bunch of friends and family. We’d done the legal bit in 2017 in a small ceremony; this was a slightly larger celebration party.
I simultaneously got told I was in remission, and hit a year of remission (an important milestone as the first year is the most likely period for relapse). This little temporal oddity is because remission is counted from end of treatment (I finished radiotherapy in September 2017) but there needs to be a delay post-treatment before a scan can happen. The whole thing continues to be somewhat of a headfuck - I heartily encourage not getting cancer - but still an awful lot better than it could have been. I’m also appendix-free, thanks to it trying to burst on me at the end of DjangoCon Europe - fortunately I made it home in time!
I left my job as LaterPay’s CTO - I got to work with some brilliant people and build a great team, but it was time for me to move on and take some space to look at what I wanted to do next.
I launched Containerize My App, providing Docker and related services and training.
I started a newsletter - fourth edition underway.
I helped run another successful PyCon UK 2018 as treasurer, and was re-elected as a trustee of the UK Python Association.
I spoke at PyCon UK 2018 about avoiding some terrible hiring practices. In hindsight, it wasn’t the best plan to submit a talk to a conference I was also helping to run, but I think it went ok.
I got to really smell burning thanks to a Raspberry Pi hardware failure.
I deployed Home Assistant to replace a lot of my ad-hoc home automation, and tidied and reorganised my personal server setup.
I saw some fantastic theatre:
- Hamilton
- Lady Windermere’s Fan - I’m a huge Wilde fan and this was great
- Les Misérables
- An Ideal Husband - more excellent Wilde
- Brief Encounter
- The King and I
- A Taste Of Shakespeare - a friend’s fantastic event: a beautiful crypt, 7 scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, 7 inspired dinner courses
- Spamilton - highly entertaining Hamilton parody
- Bat Out of Hell - cannot stop listening to the soundtrack
- Bring It On - so. much. fun.
- Othello at the Globe - I’d neither read nor seen Othello beforehand (often confusing it with Hamlet) but I think this was a pretty excellent way to first experience it
- Pack of Lies - Cold War drama isn’t really my thing, but this was a brilliant production
- Six - Henry VIII’s six wives telling their stories from their perspectives, with an excellent soundtrack
- Company
- Bat Out of Hell (Singalong) - having never been to a singalong musical before, I was a little apprehensive, and it definitely felt weird, but was remarkably fun!
So
As with the last few iterations, I started this with a feeling of “but what did I do?”, and it’s been great to remind myself of some of that.
My 2018 goals were: write more, make more, speak more. I didn’t do so well at those, and a big part of the reason was that a lot of stuff I did do either didn’t line up with what I really wanted long-term, or I was trying to do too much at once and didn’t make much progress on any one thing.
For 2019 I want to be a lot more conscientious about how I spend my time, and what things I choose to take on.
Easy to say, and advice I’ve frequently given to others, but actually doing it myself will certainly be a challenge.