Another year is coming to an end so I thought I’d reflect and jot down some things.

Programming

I’ve enjoyed spending the majority of my time writing code, including web applications, command-line applications, devops tools and user interfaces. Besides writing code, the next highest item on my list was probably “devops”. Tasks in this area included writing Puppet and Salt modules, bash scripts to simplify repetitive tasks, configuring firewalls and tracking down issues with services and servers.

On one project I’ve had the good fortune to help evolve a system to a Docker + Mesos environment that runs on 100+ servers. I’m also excited to continue pushing that system to make it simpler to develop, deploy and maintain.

Another project has given me the opportunity to work remotely on a REST based API with a web based user interface that runs on a single server.

I’ll list the languages and prominent technologies I’ve directly used, configured, deployed and/or managed this year:

Needless to say, it’s been a blast.

People

Work

I’ve been able to work with a lot of smart, hands-on, technical people which has been great. A few have moved on which is always a bummer, but I’m excited for them.

Friends and Family

I’ve made some new friends, had an old friend visit and stay a few days, and kept in touch with some others.

I also lost my mom. She had a variety of health issues that spanned decades. I miss her a lot, especially her “automatic redial” that would occur after you hung up the phone when speaking with her.

Besides having the chance to see my dad so many days when getting home from work, he’s been building a “playhouse” at our home, I had the chance to go to a Porsche driving event with him at Summit Point (slightly modified setup on the Shenadoah Circuit). We had a blast driving the 2016 911 Carerra 4S, Cayenne GTS and Macan GTS.

I’ve also had the chance to see my sister and her family a few times which has been great, my nieces and nephews have grown up sooo much. We even had my youngest niece stay for a sleep over, which was a lot of fun!

I also feel like the luckiest guy in the world, because I woke up everyday next to my high school sweet heart, who has been my rock every day. We’re raising three amazing children who certainly give us a run for our money, but also make us laugh and smile more than any other thing in our lives.

Looking Forward

I’m pretty sure last year I had resolutions to eat better, exercise regularly, keep the 2013 VW Passat and do new things with the family.

I still have moments where I binge on crab chips and ice cream, but I think I’ve gotten better overall, still want to do better. I made no progress in regularly excercising. There were days where I went for walks, did some basic push-ups / crunches, etc…but nothing consistent.

I did succeed in not getting rid of the 2013 Passat for something newer just because I might want something newer. However, it’s a TDI and fell under the VW scandal. I was given the option to keep the car and let VW try to fix the emissions issue or have VW buy it back. I’ve elected to have them buy it back. I got ahead of myself a bit and bought a 2017 Passat with the expectation I’d be selling back the 2013 Passat within a couple weeks. Turns out VW is swamped and disorganized, so the 2013 Passat isn’t going back until February.

As a family we did a few new things this year such as:

  • hiking/exploring the Catoctin Mountain Park
  • seeing the Harlem Globetrotters
  • setup a vegetable garden (which actually produced food we could eat)
  • bought and raised 3 Lionhead Bunnies which quickly turned into something like 16 - 20 bunnies after the kids put the boy bunny with the two girl bunnies. Over time, we ended up selling or giving away most of the bunnies. We took the rest to a nearby farm so they could live a better life (they had to stay in cages with us to prevent more babies)

Looking forward I want to continue exploring and doing new things as a family. A couple things are already lined up such as going to a hockey game (we’ve done this once before, but its been a few years) and seeing the STOMP show.

With regards to tech, I’d like to at least checkout a new langauge, maybe one of these:

I’d also like to try some new front-end hotness, think angular / react /…, but I’m not going to make a list since that area is rapidly changing.

I also looked at Kubernetes back in September 2014, but I’d like to give it a shot again. I’m slightly concerned about the Mesos ecosystem as Mesosphere continues pushing and focusing on their DC/OS.

Oh, and hardware. I’d like to get a Raspberry Pi, or something similar and create something.