Category: Personal

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I only have a bit to add to the correct notion here that 2020 is not worth recapping. I was extraordinarily fortunate and lucky over the past year. I got a new job, and no one in my immediate bubble has caught the plague going around. I was able to chronicle how different everything was.

The only thing to add to this notion is a general, simmering rage that has been building since March. From forcing everything to reopen, to brand new kindergarten students having to learn over Zoom calls, to seeing other countries able to hold large gatherings in the fall, to watching helplessly as doses of the miraculous vaccination expire, unused. My trust in basically everyone currently in a position of power is gone, unlikely to be repaired. Little acts along the way help, but I am not sure the rage will ever subside.

I will think about other little acts while I go noodle around some more with TiddlyWiki.

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Yesterday was my last day at Delphi Technologies. It was my first real job out of college.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. It was challenging and fulfilling, starting in test automation for embedded systems, and ending as a product owner on a cross-functional development team. As with any rewarding endeavor, I constantly went back and forth between “I need to leave this place” and “I’m going to retire here.” Ended up going with the first one, but I got nine years of experience and friendships to show for it.

It was bittersweet. I am simultaneously excited for the future, and sad to leave my coworkers (if any of you find this – Hi! I have a blog). I wish them all the best – they are well equipped for the challenges ahead.

I accepted a job offer to return to software testing – this time on web and consumer-facing applications. That was two weeks ago, and now there is a high possibility that my onboarding Monday will be remote. Pandemics move fast. Still extremely excited, with that twinge of apprehension that comes with speeding toward the unknown.

To new beginnings.

beginning
end

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In late December 2009 I was playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in my college apartment, and got into a spat with my girlfriend, who was disappointed that I was spending money on games and not thinking about the future. That capped off the previous decade.

From there, I got a ring proposed in March, graduated college the next December, got a job and got married in 2011, got Charlie in 2012, bought a house in 2013, had a kid in 2015, moved and helped Jessie start law school also in 2015. Most of the rest can be pieced together from previous years-in-review. Basically, we have all come a long way, and it has been a great decade.

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One of the first RSS feeds I added to Google Reader (RIP) was Deadspin (also RIP). It was always a bright spot in the day, opening the Funbag or Dadspin or the latest goofy/dumb/weird sports blog.1

I will miss Deadspin. It’s voice was funny, irreverent, and genuine, and it was home to several fantastic writers. Others will eulogize the site better, but I will say I started my blog around the time I started reading Deadspin regularly.

Here are my favorites, in no particular order. Read them with several ad blockers on, if you don’t want your RAM to melt.

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(and 2017 as well)

What a year(s) it has been. Even if I had written a year in review post for 2017, 2018 still felt like it was five and a half years. But, like 2017, I do not feel like writing one of these posts this year. Maybe it is because it is not as fun as it used to be. Maybe it is because all the things I would put here are already posted, categorized neatly without the need for an EOY summary.

The major theme for me of the past 1-2 years is that I feel like I could not keep up. Everything moved fast, and seemed to constantly accelerate. Professional responsibilities changed, which was exciting and harrowing. Our toddler is a big kid, to the point where he wants to do everything but can’t just yet. The world at large seems to hurdle between inspiration and death spiral, practically minute to minute.

So I’m going to use some of the scrum training we got this year for a full-blown retrospective.1

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