What a year 2014 was. I know we're already a week into the new year, but there's a few things I wanted to list out - however terse some items are - so at least I can tell in the future what happened, when.
I won't go into details for most of these items, but it's safe to say I had a busy year.
Personal
- In March, our second son was born. At four, our family is now complete.
- Spent much of the early part of 2014 coming to grips with the loss of my father
- On the last day of 2014, my uncle lost his battle with brain cancer.
- Bought a Campervan, and enjoyed a bunch of fun trips away with my family. It's like camping, but with a fridge.
- Took up running and improved my 5K time from almost 7 minutes per Km to around 5:25 per Km. We have a parkrun near home which I've only managed to get to once. I entered my first big event, the Run Melbourne and had a very respectible 5km time.
- Did a better job with my diet and dropped 5 kilograms and two inches off my waist.
- Renovated our house and made it a much nicer place for us to spend time
- Replaced the entire kitchen, plus laundry cabinets
- Re-tiled the floor
- Painted everywhere
- Block-out blinds to all bedrooms
- Other minor stuff
- Became Zoo Members and visited on two consecutive Christmases
- Built my first Lego kit with my eldest son (he loves Duplo, and got some Lego for Christmas. His 3 year old patience isn't quite ready yet)
- Tried meditating a bunch of times, particularly when I was struggling with various issues. It was peaceful and satisfying, and I'm not sure why I haven't done it more.
- Took up Pilates to help deal with ongoing back pain. It's working bloody well.
Professional
2014 was a good year for projects at work. I've been fully booked and had a couple of nice milestones.
My day job is going well and I'm really enjoying it. Client relationships are better than previously and I'm getting really good feedback. That really makes work more enjoyable!
- January: Completed a large project; the first I'd been pretty much solely responsible for from start to finish.
- Mid-year: Worked with a large Charity, again solo from start to finish.
- Since July: Things are going very well with one of Melbourne's racing clubs. The client is very happy and my co-workers have been fantastic, although being on-site by myself gets lonely after a while.
Work outside "work" was quiet this year and wasn't a major focus of mine. My open source contributions are way down, but projects like django-helpdesk continue to get good community input.
WhisperGifts is doing well. We've done some minor redesign work and added nice new features. It isn't making me rich, but people get real value from it and I see more paid users than free users (excluding those who sign up for free but don't go on to use it)
2015?
Right now my 2015 goals are relatively simple. The work on our house is pretty much complete and I need to spend more time with my kids and focusing on my mental and physical health. So I have just four things I will push hard to achieve:
- Get back into running. At least 2 runs a week, including a 5K Parkrun at least three Saturdays a month.
- Complete a 10km run.
- Spend at least 30 nights away from home in the Campervan, including a trip with 5+ nights off the grid.
- Meditate. Daily would be nice but I'll be very happy with 10 minutes twice a week.
I'm excited. Early 2014 was somewhat tumultuous, but things have settled down now and I'm ready for a happy and peaceful year ahead.