New Year Reflections and Looking Forward

The last year has been quite a ride! My oldest daughter married, celebrated 22 years of marriage, finally took care of completing that pesky degree thing, lost almost forty pounds, the company I work for purchased by EQT and basically set free to grow, presentations at multiple conferences, and some successful projects. That's a lot to cram into 365 days!

Reflecting on the year, I can see a few things I'd like to change going into this year.

First, spend more time playing in the back yard with my kids. It just seems like there was always something that needed doing. Maybe some of those aren't as important. The little ones grow up fast, so if you're sending me emails or messages after hours, don't be surprised if you don't see a response for several hours. Besides, I'm still a kid in my own mind, even if my body disagrees.

The second thing is that I didn't read and research interesting topics as much as I have in the past. I've already started to change this. I bought an e-reader over the holiday break and read five books. A bit of insight comes along with this as well, I feel more creative after reading sci-fi and fantasy genres. Exercising the gray muscle is always good! We'll see if I can knock out a couple of books a month this year, including some non-fiction on topics I'm interested in.

Looking forward to this year, I've already spent some time reading on topics that interest me outside of my normal geeky stuff. Think quantum entanglement for communication (OK, that may be somewhat geeky), deep-sea mining impacts, etc. I'll definitely be digging into more topics as the year progresses, and probably even reflect on some of those here, as I'd really like to share and interact with you on a more frequent basis.

Also in looking forward, I'd love to hear more about topics that interest you, that may not necessarily be related to your employment.

Here's to 2020!