It’s that time of year again – a retrospective! One interesting difference this year is that I kept a fairly detailed todo list in Workflowy throughout the year. I can show the completed listings throughout the year to get an idea of what I got up to.
2017 was a huge year for me. I made several goals for the year, almost all of which I completed!
I moved from Athens, Georgia to Denver, Colorado in February. I’d lived in Athens for about ten years, and I really needed to be out of that tiny town and the humid south. Denver has been absolutely amazing – I’ve loved the outdoors for the first time in my adult life, and I’m way happier and healthier than I have ever been before. This was truly needed, as I’d sacrificed a lot of my health to get my degree and career on track.
I gave a talk at LambdaConf. People seemed to like it and find it valuable, despite the fact that it had a ton of Ruby code. I enjoyed giving the talk, and I’m excited to give more of them next year :D
One of my goals for 2017 was to lose 30lbs, going from 200lbs to 170lbs. I did not make any progress toward this goal, and dropped it pretty early in the year. I decided instead to focus on lifting and activity for fitness, instead of weight. I started getting more into cycling. I was mostly into commuting beforehand, but now I’m getting really into gravel riding and might even try to do a road race next year. I just finished a bike tour from Daphne AL to Port Saint Joe FL, too! It’s a lot of fun and really fulfilling.
I did not write a book. I have been mulling the idea over, but I have not taken any steps to write out a table of contents or structure anything.
I did a bunch of stuff related to software development and Haskell. I helped revive the DenverFP meetup group, which has had a bunch of cool talks and a quite successful Haskell Book Club. I gave five talks at various local meetups. I wrote fifteen blog posts, totalling 28,579 words.
We have three Haskellers at my job right now, and are actively training others. Another big Haskell project is about to get started, and I’m excited to help get it off the ground. The future is bright for Haskell here.
I went to BayHac in San Fransisco and had a blast. I spent a bit of time in Portland, and hung out with the Rust folks at Rustconf and had a great time there too. Speaking of, I should really get my Rust project going again…
I haven’t done anything with music. I ended up giving up on the cello, after about a year of practice and lessons. I’m a little sad about it, but it’s just too much of a distraction from my larger goals right now. I’ve been intending on learning classical guitar for a while, and have all the stuff for it. But I haven’t put in the time yet.
This year, I went to San Fransisco, Portland, Atlanta, and then the bike tour along the coast. I liked it a bunch, and I want to do more of it.
Last year’s retrospective was pretty bleak. I had a really good year this year, and I’m so grateful for that. I’m excited to do more traveling, especially out of the country now that I have my passport (Poland and Switzerland are already on my calendar).
I’ve got another bike tour planned (Denver to Santa Fe). I’m going to try and get more involved in the local non-programming communities. I’m going to follow a budget better and live healthier.
I’m excited for another year on this earth.