Today this little web corner has existed for sixteen years. Funny thing is that 'sixteen years' does not even sound that long anymore in my ears, while it is enough for a newborn to grow into a person nearing maturity. While I would not say this weblog is really mature (how could it be when I cherish the child in me?), its content has shifted from short blurps of thoughts and snippets of my life to more technically howto related articles the last few years.

I like writing those articles, but they take quite some time and effort. At the same time, I kind of stopped using Twitter and its microblogging ways. I tried Mastodon for a bit, but that endeavour petered out quite fast, for the same reason I stopped Twitter cold turkey. I used Twitter as a way of feeding me tech news for years, and I switched to exclusively using Inoreader with a selection of RSS feeds for that. I miss the interaction of people a bit, but it saves me even more time, which I rather spend on a good book, a tv series, some hobby programming, or hey, even some family interaction 😄

This is the first year of my new job doing my thing in a small company instead of the big media corporation that I honed my skills at for eight full years. I thought I would not work at a startup anymore and while it technically is not a startup any longer, it kind of feels like it, including the stress of the implementation crunch. I'm proud of my team and the technical challenges we overtook this year; the products we are building are in a good shape and visibly getting better. When I think about me only joining a year ago, it amazes me how far we have come in that amount of time.

The Dutch division of that same big media corporation has recently switched hands from its Finnish mother company to a rival Dutch one, which shook up things for my ex colleagues; this emphasized how we really see things from a sideline. It is odd to see those changes happen from a distance.

In the meanwhile, close by my kids are growing up; one learning how to read and write, the other starting school altogether. It amazes me how fast time goes, and makes me proud of the little persons we are raising, how blood-curdlingly annoying they can be at times.

So, all in all it was an interesting year; one in which I refound my energy for work projects, maybe even overdoing it if I listen to my shoulders and neck (I should not work so much in the evening anymore too, better spend that time with Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, and such). Improving the balance here is key, and I think we are getting somewhere. Taking some days off like I am doing right now is a good way of reprogramming myself to not always jump in to Fix All The Things(tm).

Looking forward to a new year of challenges and interesting new things to come. All kinds of things growing up around me, we sure live in interesting times.