what a year. this is not a sappy end-of-year recap, but I needed to take a step back to see just what an epic year it's been. in rough chronological order:
- a bunch of LMS-related activities, to try to kickstart discussion about what to select
- traveled to mexico to watch my niece get married on a beach
- got the all-clear after a potential cancer scare
- Northern Voice conference (likely my last)
- rode my bike a lot - Banff Gran Fondo and Highwood Pass (twice) and a bunch of other great rides. over 5000km throughout the year. woohoo!
- Open Education conference (hopefully not my last)
- got to ride in an ambulance
- almost lost a parent (heart attacks suck)
- lost a friend, mentor, colleague (heart attacks suck)
- realized that winter bike riding freaks my wife out, so decided to cut back on that. cue trainer. less woohoo, but still...
- finished my thesis, passed oral exam, completed MSc.
- continued working on the cat herding that is the LMS upgrade project, but stumbled closer to completion.
still working on the whole work/life balance thing. the loss and near-loss (and cancer scare and ambulance ride) kind of kickstarted a focus on fixing that. I struggle with maintaining a sense of perspective. the oldest surviving post on my blog, over a decade ago, is about the same thing (back then, triggered by impending dad-hood). so, yeah. balance.