2016 Highlights

09 Jan 2017

It’s January again, so I’m recording my personal highlights from the previous year.

January

In January, I signed a lease for Roost, a company I formed at the end of 2015 to build a coworking studio. After that, I spent a few weeks building desks, ordering chairs and other furniture, learning a lot about WiFi equipment, and buying and framing art from friends. I’m really proud of Roost and what it has become.

I went to see Linotype: The Film. I missed seeing it in New York, but distinctly remember all of my friends going. I didn’t know that I would like the film, but it seemed like a great opportunity to make some new friends. As it turns out, the film is fantastic.

Boulder finally started a pilot for proper bus passes. When I first moved here, I was astonished that there was no convenient way to pay for the bus. You had to have exact change or buy paper tickets that expire (which I learned the hard way). The only bus passes were various forms of an unlimited pass.

The pilot had a questionnaire, and the questions were telling. Examples include:

I laughed the whole way through. Boulder is pretty adorable sometimes.

February

This isn’t all that noteworthy, but I commented that I miss Mailbox more than Rdio, which remains true. Two fantastic apps that I am sad are gone.

March

I spoke at Smashing Conf in Oxford. My talk was recently listed as one of the 16 must-watch web conference talks of the year. I was out of practice, which shows, but a lot of people really seemed to enjoy the talk, and I enjoyed getting back into the swing of things.

April

Tegan learned to ride a bike. I was all prepared for hours of quality time with my daughter, but she took off after the very first push and never looked back. Later that same day, Riley took her first step. It was quite a day.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debated at the same venue we used for the Brooklyn Beta finale. Pretty cool.

May

Leicester won the Premier League. Words can’t explain how astonishing their run was. I feel fortunate to have watched.

We took the kids car camping in RMNP. I decided that we need more car camping equipment.

I flew to Korea for work. This isn’t that notable, since I’ve been working with Samsung for a few years, but I crossed the international date line on the return flight on the last day of my 30s. I didn’t really get an extra day, since I lost it on the way there, but it was a neat coincidence that I was able to experience the day before my 40th birthday two days in a row.

June

My wife and I celebrated 15 years of marriage. On the same day, a bear visited our yard to help us celebrate.

We all went to Brooklyn for a month. We met up with old friends. I played soccer every Saturday. We visited our old neighborhood. It was familiar and easy to fall back into our old lifestyle.

Brexit happened. I remarked that it felt like watching Trump get elected. Little did I know.

Christina threw me a surprise 40th birthday party. It had been more than a month since my actual birthday, but celebrating in Brooklyn was a great idea. It felt a lot like the old Studiomates days. We even ate Juliana’s pizza.

We had a going away party for Jason Santa Maria. Like my birthday party, it felt just like old times.

July

I took Killian car camping at Golden Gate State Park. It was our first father-son camping trip.

I got to see the Indigo Girls perform at Chautauqua Auditorium. Spirit renewed.

We took the kids to the Great Sand Dunes. I took a photo of Tegan and Killian walking across the top.

August

The World Wide Web turned 25 years old. I feel fortunate to have been involved in the Web from the very beginning.

I started an outdoor adventure club called Backcountry Club and took two trips to Indian Peaks. I can’t really put into words how meaningful these trips were. I think BCC will be something I continue to do for some time.

Tegan started kindergarten.

September

I saw Sigur Rós with Lachlan Hardy, who visited us in Boulder.

October

I resigned from FK and started Faculty. I’ll share more about that when I’m ready.

November

The election happened. I left social media for a while.

December

I went back to Korea for work.

I wrote an article for 24 Days in December called A Few of My Favorite Things.

2017

The world feels different. It’s hard not to fret, but I hope we can all be optimistic and continue to work to make the world a better place.

I hope you have a wonderful 2017. Thanks for reading.