I’m generally bad at doing these, but one of my goals is to write more, so here we are. Overall, 2023 was a pretty good year for me.

Highlights

Work feels like it’s going well. I’m settling into being a Staff Engineer, and overall I’m really happy with both the type and quality of work I’m doing.
I really really like being a parent. I’ve liked being a parent every year that I’ve done it (2 at this point), but this year I really felt like I found my rhythms on a lot of parenting topics. A big part of that is my son, who is starting to really pick up language and emotions, and is just generally a lot of fun, but part of it is the work I’ve been putting into being a better parent paying off. It’s been really nice to see that.
The “small web” is making me enjoy technology again. I never stopped enjoying writing code, and I’ve been very fortunate to have not really had a “bad” coding job, but I’ve been having an increasingly hard time being optimistic about technology as a field in recent years. The “small web” is helping bring that optimism back in a big way. I have two ongoing side projects right now, and both are directly related to wanting to contribute to technologies that power a smaller, cozier web.
I moved, and I love my new place. My wife and I got the idea to move into a bigger house in preparation for having a second kid early in the year, and I’m happy to say that I love the place we chose. It’s slightly closer to a bunch of things, including the train that I take into work, and the increased space means that I’ve been able to set up a really nice home office/music studio for myself. And good timing as well, because the second kid is happening in February.
My brain has finally accepted that it’s not a distinct entity from the rest of my body. For most of my life, I regarded physical health and mental health as two important, but very separate things. I read plenty of things that talked about the link between the two, but it never really resonated with me in a real way until this year, when I observed just how much my physical health can impact my mental health. Luckily, this was mostly in good ways: I started tracking my sleep and exercising more, and have figured out just how much they impact my overall mood.

Low Lights

Parenting a toddler is really hard. As I mentioned above, I really like being a parent, it’s one of my favorite life transitions so far. But parenting a toddler is challenging in a way that doesn’t really compare to anything I’ve done before. Toddlers are like cursed monkey paws: they’ll take any activity that you’re trying to do to make them happy and turn it into an exercise in creative self destruction. Obviously none of this is their fault, but it was quite the challenge in 2023.
Illnesses continue to suck. Like everyone else, 2020 changed my relationship with illness. It went from something that I thought of as a minor, rare inconvenience to a fairly persistent concern. Having a kid made that even worse, as I both have to worry about him getting sick, and having to accept that daycares are a petri dish where diseases are traded like Pokemon cards. Three years later, and that hasn’t really improved much. A number of plans this year were ruined or had to be compromised on because of illnesses, both COVID and the regular stuff.
There seems to be a dearth of optimism, and I’ve had trouble coping with that. I’m a naturally optimistic person. It’s hard to look at the state of, well, everything and not notice the amazing number of things that need fixing, but deep down I still believe that we can fix them. That’s not a widely shared sentiment online though, and given how much I look to online spaces for solace in hard times, it can be really tough to deal with that fact.

Some 2024 Goals

Give baby #2 a warm welcome to the world. As I alluded to, my second kid is slated to be born in February. I still remember how hard that newborn period was with my first kid, and I don’t imagine it’ll be easier with a toddler as well. In spite of that, I want to give the second kid as warm a reception as I’m able to.
Improve my relationship with the morning. I am–somewhat infamously in my family–not a morning person. But in my quest to do more integration between my mental and physical health, I had a few mornings where I woke up feeling great: I woke up without an alarm feeling creative and ready for a workout and to get the day started. I’ve been chasing that high ever since, and really want to work on my relationship with the morning in 2024. Something says that new baby might have something to say about that, but I can try at least.
Make more music. In the shuffle of life, I often forget to take the time to make music, which is mostly to my own detriment. Making music improves my mental health quite a bit, so I want to do more of it in 2024.
Keep writing more. I’ve been enjoying spending my time this way, and want to do more of it in 2024.