2013 in review: taking a moment

Well its the new year, so Happy New Year everyone.

I try to do this every year, not always on this blog, but at least in general to review how things went in the previous year, what happens and such.

Social/community involvement

This past year has seen a few milestones, I changed companies, leaving a fantastic organisation that was SidLee Technologies, and joined a new startup with some old friends.  I will write in the coming months about the startup, but this isn’t the time for it.

Family Life

I now have 2 sons in elementary school, and its going better than expected, my middle son is adapting rather well, even through our concerns for his development challenges.  We have even welcomed a new addition Zeus

I have continued coaching hockey ( thanks in part to a more flexible work schedule ), and have watched my oldest turn into a pretty decent hockey player, he loves the game, and enjoys getting better at is.  I have learned from some of the experiences this year, about myself, and why I volunteered to be coach in the first place, and that I will most likely continue until there are people more qualified and more interested in helping out.  I am there for the kids, and not my ego, as I have learned this year is the motivation for some people.  I have already signed a team up for next summer’s 4 on 4 league, and it should be fun for everyone.

I built my first deck ( next to the swimming pool ) this past summer, all by myself, and it turned out much better than I could have thought.  I also managed to learn a few things about securing a structure in rocky soil.

I have over the past year spent more time with my wife, and family, as am happy to say things are better than they have ever been, even though we can drive each other a little nuts sometimes.

Professional

Onto the more professional aspects, I have spent the past year working with some amazing people and can only hope that I have contributed even a small amount to their lives to compensate for the huge amounts they have helped me.  I have learned more about front end technologies and frameworks, as well as the philosophies around them ( looking at you Dr Dray,  the Beauchemin twins ) as well as Andrew Moore, quite probably one of the smartest individuals I have ever had the pleasure of working with.  You guys are amazing, and I hope you know it.

I have also spent quite a large amount of time learning about design, UX and the whole marketing appeal of a project and the impact it can have, all skills that I believe will help me in 2014, and beyond.

I am about 4 months off from one of my goals of 2013, is that releasing my first mobile app. I have been working on and off for about a year on this app, i had a version, but was so flaky that it wasn’t viable to release.   I have re-wrote the android code, while maintaining the server side component as is.  I am in the midst of working out some of the final details, but I am hopeful to release it in early 2014.

As a parting note,  2014 isn’t a time for wishing people a better year, it’s about making it a better year.

Be the change you want to see in the world –Ghandi