2021 - a year in review

It's my birthday! As is customary, here's my year in review. See 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.

Like lots of you, I guess, it kind of feels like a year of stasis and stagnation.

The last year seems to have whizzed by. Most of it spent in the same house - with only occasional forays to OutsideLand. A couple of day-trips to the coast, a few doctor's appointments, and one funeral. I feel like we got off lightly.

I've completed one year of my MSc. I have mixed feelings about it. I definitely feel that QA.com mis-sold it. Rather than being a Digital Technology course, it seems to mostly be middle-management business studies with a bit of tech sprinkled throughout. I've got decent marks for my assignment, and have learned how to read and write academic papers. But it isn't really what I was looking for. I'm hoping the coming year will have more of a tech focus. But, as I constantly remind myself, I'm not paying for this - so it's hard to feel too grumpy about it.

I did one live in-person event for Twitter. While it was a lot of fun, it was surprisingly stressful. I'm hoping to get to lots of physical-presence events in 2022.

All the gigs that I had scheduled for 2020 were rescheduled to this year. And then rescheduled again to next year.

One particular highlight was in April, when I received a text inviting me to get vaccinated! FINALLY! I took the advice of a good friend and, when booking, politely said "Do you think it would be possible for my wife to get vaccinated on the same day?" The staff happily accepted her booking and I gained many many husband points!

October saw our first in-person funeral. Liz's grandmother was in her 90s - so it wasn't unexpected, but it was still a sad day.

I became an inaugural member of the Twitter Developer Insider programme - their MVP-style track for API developers. It has been fun seeing what they've got coming up - and I got my bots marked as "Good Bots".

November was a study month. I took the Art of Hacking course for my MSc. It was OK. A good grounding in the fundamentals and tool use. I passed with 57/70 - which I think is pretty decent.

The absolute highlight of the year was attending COP26! A real conference! With real people! And food someone else cooked! And lots of alcohol! I didn't get a selfie with Obama or Greta - but it was a lovely way to celebrate the end of my year.

Onwards?

As I said in a previous post, I don't know what I'm doing with my so-called career. I plan to stay in the Civil Service for at least another 12 months in order to get my MSc. I've recently been regraded, which takes off some of the financial pressure. The work is still interesting and important.

I'm hoping the world opens up a bit more so I can continue exploring it.

Come the 1st of January 2022, I'll have been blogging every day for 2 years. I'm not sure if I want to keep up that pace!

I need a proper holiday. Sitting around at home doing nothing isn't a great way to relax and recharge.

Nearly Xmas. Nearly 2022. How much worse can it be?