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Fare-thee-well 2015! Sup 2016! |

Fare-thee-well 2015! Sup 2016!

… that’s it? 2015 is over?

I’m not sure how good a sign that is, but I can’t believe how fast 2015 flew by. That was truly ludicrous.

I said last year that 2014 was a ‘maintenance year’ for me. A lot happened, but it felt like all the effort that went in simply maintained the status quo. Nothing really advanced. I could probably chalk that up to the fact that I had to spend a chunk of my time re-designing iComics for iOS 7, as well as shifting house several times.

No, if I had to describe 2015 in one word, I would say ‘transformative’. So much changed, SO MUCH CHANGED and it was an exhilarating and amazing time. 🙂

Some of my highlights of 2015 included:

  • Starting to work remotely for Realm, which included a very interesting, but ultimately enjoyable working lifestyle shift.
  • Took 2 friends and introduced them to travelling to Japan for the first time in their lives.
  • Started taking open-source software more seriously, releasing several new libraries that were very well received.
  • Thanks to Realm, travelled to and presented at conferences in many different countries, made new friends and learned a comical amount of new things.
  • Stabilized a long persisting issue in iComics, which was received extremely well by its community.
  • Built something crazy like 4 open-source components in preparation of iComics’ next big feature (But I’m sad it wasn’t done by the end of the year)
  • iComics itself did well. Crazy well. Stupid well. I was thinking of making it free, but now I keep thinking that’s a terrible idea. XD
  • Taking up singing lessons. Something I’d always wanted to do, but didn’t have the facilities for before I shifted houses.
  • Learned a lot. A LOT; thanks to my awesome colleagues as well as all of the conference events I attended.

In any case. I had a fantastic 2015. I said on Facebook that I doubt 2016 could be better, but a mate assured me that once you’re on a good path, things only get better. I hope that’s true. 🙂

For 2016, my obligatory resolutions are:

  • The clichéd ‘lose more weight’ resolution. Again. 75kg would be amazing. XD
  • Learning to manage working remotely better. It’s tricky, and it varies a lot depending on the company and distance. A lot of people have been very helpful with this, but it still requires more experimentation. 🙂
  • Studying more. It’s absolutely crazy at what pace new technologies and paradigms are coming through my industry, and I had a few ‘left in the dust’ moments this year.
  • Revamp iComics. I don’t want to leave that project until it’s the ‘defacto’ comic reader app for iOS. It only needs a little more work (Probably.)
  • Leverage my YouTube channel better. We’ll see about this. Whether it’s publishing more presentations, bad karaoke, or iComics vlogs, I feel like having a better visual presence online would be good.
  • Strive for QANTAS Gold Membership. I glimpsed the QANTAS lounge this year, and I want to glimpse it more often. XD

Hopefully you all had a great 2015 as well. And if you didn’t, then hopefully 2016 will make up for it. 😉

Happy New Year everyone! Let’s make it a good one! 🙂

-Tim