2013 in review

For many, 2013 has been an intense and not always good year, but personally it’s been pretty good and I’m looking forward to building upon the foundations from this year into 2014. Here’s some reflections and highlights for you all to enjoy/endure.

Travels
I spent a lot of time travelling this year, to conferences and Holidays, this included three DrupalCons in Sydney, Portland and Prague, CiviCon in London, several trips to Canberra for DrupalGov and for the hell of it, trips to Germany, Denmark, Adelaide, North QLD, The Yarra Valley and many, many more local trips. This I really enjoyed, it felt a little like touring again, but slightly more constructive. Highlights of these trips would be the white round churches on Bornholm, DrupalCon Portland and hanging out with old friends in London, but really it’s been a most excellent year for travels.

Take a look at my Flickr page for pictures of at least some of these ventures.

Getting my opinions heard
I’ve been lucky to be slowly moving up the blogging and speaking ladder with slots and posts with Web Directions Code, CiviCon, DrupalGov, Melbourne DevOps, Melbourne Geek night, Melbourne Net Squared and a few others dotted around. On the blogging front I got my own personal blog updated more regularly, had a guest post with the Fetch and next year will be writing a monthly article for Sitepoint, helping me build one of my main aims for 2014, to get my opinions heard even more.

Work
Green Renters had a fantastic year, bucking the trend of the sustainability sector to have one of it’s most successful years, however I have now wound down my involvement in the organisation to a very minor capacity and moving into 2014, we are looking to evolve or pass on the organisation, it seems best to do this on a high, rather than a low. After getting back from holiday I left Moat media/Go1, which was a shame as it was a great little ‘gang’, but after our merger my role was changed and it just didn’t seem right anymore and time to move on. Initially, I was worried and slightly disappointed with the lack of interest in me being available for work again, I have never undertaken all the ‘extra curricular’ activities I undertake for any particular gain, but one likes to feel that they will be recognised and appreciated when you need something back. My concerns were unfounded as within two weeks I had been offered three jobs and was in the enviable position of trying to decide which offer to take, eventually opting for working with the Monthly, which I am very much looking forward to throwing myself into in 2014.

Personal
Cate and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in Hamburg and we’ve had an up and down year, with working together causing extra stresses that we are now both looking forward to being less of an issue in 2014 and getting our relationship back onto a more personal than professional track. On other fronts I have been getting back into board games and roleplaying in a big way, finding it a great way to relax after staring at a screen all day and building a small collection slowly (And PAX was fantastic). Musically I put the drums behind me and got back to guitar which I have really enjoyed and especially keep an eye out for the activities of The Gallant Trees, with the new 4 piece line up sounding awesome. At the same time, I feel like being quite a busy year I have maybe lost touch with a few friends and family and that’s something I’d liek to try and address in 2014.

Around me
Well, 2013 hasn’t exactly been fantastic politically, ethically, environmentally, economically or much else really, so why am I so positive and cheerful? Well, personally it has been a pretty good year and I feel that I am in a good position to do something about some of the shit happening (and about to happen) in 2014, which makes me feel at least energised if not entirely positive.

So all in all (and I’m sure I missed something) 2013 was fantastic for me, roll on 2014 which I intend to make as great at 2013 times about 10.