Well, it seems 2019 was another slightly bizarre year for me.
I just looked back on last year’s review (here) and I’m guessing I had “resting bitch face” while I was reading it…
Conferences
One of the things I mentioned last year was I was taking a year off presenting. I had two events I had already committed to at the start of the year, then dropped off the face of the earth for the rest of the year. I came out of retirement for OpenWorld. I was originally going to pull out of that also, but the wife persuaded me I should go. I’m glad I did.
The reason for not presenting was really to give myself a break. I had been having a lot of trouble travelling, which I suspect is mostly down to being so fat. It was good not to have the hassle of travelling, but I did miss seeing folks. I’ve done some presentations at work during the year, so it’s not like I’ve done nothing…
The problem with not doing conferences was that work was very busy and I didn’t take many holidays, so I was basically swapping one set of stress for another.
I’m thinking I might do a few things this year. I’m not going to go mad and try and speak at loads of events, but I’ve got to get back on the horse. Of course, the first thing is to think of something to present…
If you’ve followed the blog, you’ll know I’ve been going to a few local meetups for Docker, DevOps and Azure. I’m a tourist, rather than a speaker. It’s good to do something different!
Videos
Last year I said I wanted to start doing some videos on my YouTube Channel again. I was “on a break” for a while before that. Well I started at the end of January and I think I’ve done about 44 videos this year. There are a few new playlists, and some additions to existing ones listed here.
I like doing the videos, and it alleviates my guilt at not presenting, but they do take up a lot of time. I know some people have asked for longer, more in-depth videos, but I would estimate that for every minute of the final video, it takes me about 60 minutes of work, so a 5 minute video takes me about 5 hours. With that in mind, the chances of me doing a long-form video are remote.
I know some people can just record themselves talking, but presenting takes a lot of prep for me. For a live presentation I work for days/weeks so I can look casual. For videos it’s a little easier as you can edit stuff and trim it down, but it still takes time…
If you’ve watched my videos, you’ll know I put in little cameos of people saying “.com” to finish my introduction line. I went to put out the latest collection of them (Volume 3) and noticed I had never uploaded Volume 2, so today I posted two short videos. Thanks to everyone who has helped.
I know it’s stupid, but I like it. 🙂
Work
Work continues to be problematic. I could blame the company, but ultimately it comes down to me. I’ve got to learn to walk away. I keep doing stuff in an attempt to make a difference, but things progress at a glacial pace and I get frustrated and think if I do more I can get things moving faster. I can’t. You can lead a horse to water, but that doesn’t make it a duck.
I’m going to try and stop moaning about work, and focus on fixing me. It’s too easy to get a victim mentality about this. I don’t need the job. I know the problems there are not my fault. Fuck ’em!
Website
The website it ticking along as usual. The numbers are similar to last year. I did over 130 blog posts and a hundred articles. I’ve got a bunch of other stuff waiting in the wings, but I can’t publish them yet. In a couple of cases I’ve got multiple related articles, but they are kind-of blocked until some bugs get fixed. It’s a little frustrating, but…
Maintenance of the website takes more time each year. The de-support of the non-CDB architecture in Oracle 20c has got people into a PDB frame of mind, and a lot more people have started to read the multitenant articles on my website. I’ve had to go through them a few times making changes to make things a little clearer, or put in some updates where a feature has changed slightly. Today Patrick Jolliffe sent me a message about a change, so I had to work through it, check it and amend the article. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it!
Similar to last year, quite a lot of effort has been going into my Docker and Vagrant stuff on GitHub. It’s something I find odd, as it takes up a lot of time and doesn’t really result in anything for my website. Sure, I use them to test stuff and I get a lot of good feedback about them, but I’ve spent nearly 20 years putting stuff on the website, and it feels odd to “produce content” for something that’s not my website.
Other Stuff
Nephew #1 has just turned 18 and nephew #2 has turned 15. December is a busy month. It’s hard to believe how time flies. I bought my house when the couple I shared a house with got pregnant with their first child. That child is now at Uni doing dentistry, and I’ve not got round to buying furniture or curtains yet. I’m not even going to pretend I’m going to do something about it by next year.
Physically I’m a bit of a wreck. I’ve really got to get my shit together, especially if I’m going to start travelling again!
Everything changes, and yet nothing changes… Let’s see what 2020 brings. I hope it’s good for everyone!
Cheers
Tim…
