Happy New Year / Year in Review 2014

01 Jan 2015
Posted by jcfiala

So, that's 2014.

Not a great year for the US in general, or for the world, but personally it went pretty well. My daughter started Preschool and daycare, which she's doing well at, which allowed my wife to look for a job which - as expected - mostly helps pay for the preschool. (Although preschool will get a little cheaper once we're done with toilet training.)

Also, Rose is continuing to grow and become more of a person, which is fantastic. She's now partially toilet trained, which is a great relief, and is really getting her alphabet and counting down. And she recognizes her name.

Professionally, things are going great. SpireMedia (where I work) has had a great year, releasing a number of websites, getting a bunch of new business, and posting bonuses for everyone. Personally, I was the development lead on the new Denver International Airport website at http://www.flydenver.com/, which we built up in Drupal and which has been doing great even with the pressure of the most busy flying time of the year (between Thanksgiving and Christmas). I figure if it's done well over these holidays, it'll stay up the rest of the time no problem. I'm also branching out (along with the rest of the company) into learning Laravel.

I also got to refurbish http://nextgenlearning.org/ for Next Generation Learning Challenges, refreshing the theme and adding new functionality for the site. It's nice to work on something which is both interesting and socially useful.

The end of the year was a mix of annoying and fantastic - on the one hand, we all caught a nasty cold (which is still lingering as a cough) which knocked us out for almost a week solid before Christmas. On the other hand, my parents came out to visit us for Christmas, and it was a lot of fun spending time with them and watching them having fun with Rose.

Next year looks interesting - some continued work with flydenver.com and learning more of Laravel looks good, as well as trying out some more backbone. Also, DrupalCon US is going to be in LA this year, which gives me a great excuse to visit my brother and finally see my new nephew Will in person. I think one thing I want to try and concentrate on is spending a little more time being in touch with my family - although I do occasionally skype with my parents, it'd be nice to talk more with my brothers and see more of my family.