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2021 YEAR IN REVIEW

Posted by on January 12, 2022

First and foremost, my brother died in December. We weren’t especially close, but we loved each other and he helped me whenever I needed him. Everything else that happened this year is background noise.

And the background noise is mostly pleasant. But for the bummer headline, this was another great year for me and mine.

Family
I feel that I continue to grow in my patience and attention for my children, but this is hard to quantify. Mary read a ton about homeschool, including some books I got for her, and I think both of us became more zealous advocates of the practice. Mary continues to improve in administrating homeschooling as well. Scarlett is getting better at reading and at math, and she impresses with her creativity and knowledge almost daily. Her art has taken a sharp turn away from constant drawings to cutting out components for games or costumes. Obi is becoming more physically capable and more verbal. He is much better at asking for things he wants now. Mary and I continue to have a strong relationship, but we work on it regularly. We are both great communicators.

Health
I ran a lot less this year, but I lifted pretty regularly. My weight trended up all pandemic, but I’m working now to move that the other way. My sleep has been pretty good. Toward the end of the year I set up DDR in the rumpus room and I’ve been playing that pretty regularly which I know is good for me. I’m pretty sure I got covid in late October (reduced taste/smell, fever of 103.3) but it only lasted three days (fever was only bad one evening) and I don’t think I have any lingering effects. Overall I was pretty healthy this year. In December I signed up for BJJ classes at a place right near the house, but they aren’t scheduled to open until after Jan 10.

I meditated off and on this year. I am certain it’s incredibly good for me. I hope to do it much more regularly in 2022 and forward.

Starting in March of this year, every day I wrote down in a journal two things I’m grateful for. I missed a few days, but always came back to it. This is something I will be doing for the rest of my life. I consider it a good mental health practice.

House
I changed a bunch of stuff in the house this year, but I might not remember much of it and some of the rest I’ll confuse with last year. I put rock wool batting insulation in the garage and got a portable AC unit for it too. I fixed the bathroom outlets to not trip GFCI from downstream draws.I switched Obi’s bedroom and my office and had to run cable through the floor and walls. That went ok. We were beset by bees and I think I fixed the problem. I finished installing the gutter guards and cleared the front gutter and I think it doesn’t overflow in big rains now. J came over and fixed a leak in one of the bathrooms. The hole is still in the ceiling, but I’ll figure that out and get it fixed soon. I started setting up smart home stuff in my office and elsewhere, including plugging the disco ball and light into a smart outlet so I can say “turn on the party” and it lights up and spins. I’m sure I’ll be doing more of that next year.

Work
I started working for CAVA at the end of November 2020, last year was my first full year working there. It’s going fantastically. I’m learning a great deal, I’m doing great work, and they’re happy with me. End of year work was a bit stressful, but I’m coping just fine. My home office setup continues to perform admirably. This year I upgraded my desktop to hardwood (the ikea top I was using was crunching under the monitor stand clamps).

Hobbies
I didn’t play much magic this year (pandemic), but I did draft a couple times at the house with friends and went to a handful of other events. I hope to draft with friends much more in the future. Played tons of boardgames this year. Current favorite is probably It’s a Wonderful World. Mary enjoyed Wingspan.

I posted a lengthy update on the state of my cubing near the end of the year, but the summary is that I continue to improve in my times, slowly. I also spent a ton more time watching cubing youtube content this year.

I played over 5,000 games of bullet chess this year. I watched a ton of content from Eric Rosen and a few other chess creators this year, and I am positive I improved a lot, but I have found that bullet chess is overall bad for me right now. I may continue to play it this year, but probably much less. I enjoy playing chess, but playing 100 games in a day seems to make me very irritable.

I think the only book I finished this year was The Anarchist Handbook. I am realizing that if I don’t find a way to make reading books my priority from time to time, I will continue to read only about one book per year.

I stayed about the same in my juggling this year. I still can’t juggle four balls or three clubs, but I’m still trying a little.

Guitar stagnated for another year. I played very little. I did play some piano this year, but without prioritizing it, I will stay essentially unable to play.

Other
Nick Calcaterra also died this year. I actually got to catch up with him the weekend before it happened. He invited me to draft at Marc’s shop, I learned Marc had a shop, and I showed up and Marc called him and he came down. It was the first time I’d seen him in probably 8 years, but we had a great chat.

Despite the pandemic, I got to see friends fairly often this year. That’s great! Mary and the kids and I did a number of fun things this year, including getting season passes to Saint Peters Pools and going fairly often.

I watched a ton of Michael Malice content this year and am caught up on the Penn podcast. I really enjoy all the things both of them produce.

Archon was weird this year. I’m glad we went and particularly glad we took Scarlett for the first day, but it was much less attended and didn’t have the two biggest events, masquerade and dance.

Overall
If I close my eyes and pretend I didn’t lose my brother and become an only child, this was a great year, especially for a pandemic year. But I did. I live a world without him now. All of our time is too short in this world. I feel grateful for every day.

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