2017 Resolutions

1. Learn to dance
2. Read 15 books
3. Learn how to do handstands
4. Make a budget / track spending 
5. Pick ONE sport (3x/week)
6. Travel to a new country (Italy, hopefully)
7. Photo-a-day blog
8. Learn Italian
9. Figure out what's next
10. Finish my tattoo

First Tattoo

People keep asking me, "what does it mean?" I don't like answering that question because I hate being on the spot and it also feels personal and secret. But in any case, here's the gist of it. I like the symbolism of the moon, and I think it's a pretty design. On a more personal level I have been trying to internalize its message of rebirth -- a reminder that you can start over.

Tattoo planning

One of my New Year resolutions was to get a tattoo. I just e-mailed a shop in San Diego because I really like one of the artists there. This is my favorite from the artist:

I love the color, style and placement (although I'm not really into octopuses). I think I want a half sleeve, similar to this:

However, I want the colors to be a little deeper, and I want a red poppy flower somewhere in there:

 I like the style of the above poppy flowers. Other renditions I've seen look too crinkly, like they are carnations, which are a cheaper, less interesting flower to me.

Too carnation-like

2016 Books

1. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
3. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
4. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
5. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
6. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
7. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
8. The Shyness Solution by Catherine Gillet
9. The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapeña

2016 Resolutions

1. Run a half marathon
2. Try spinning classes
3. Break 130 lbs
4. Memorize Canon on the piano
5. Take dance lessons for at least two months
6. Read 12 books 
7. Take a writing class
8. Write a piece of fiction > 50 pages
9. Build a side project with React and Node
10. Visit San Diego
11. Travel somewhere new overseas
12. Follow up re:doctor
13. Get a tattoo

Sorting Priorities

I always want to do more things than I have time for, which generally means I can't choose and instead do nothing. I'm going to make a list of things that interest me, and then prioritize them so I can come up with a focused set of New Year's resolutions.

Weight and Fitness
Running
Spinning
Strength training (Pilates, weight lifting)
Personal trainer

Skills
Dance lessons
Tennis
Martial Arts
Guitar
Piano

Reading and Writing
Novel
Pilot
Read more books
Writing class through Berkeley Extension

Career
Work on side projects for learning/portfolio
Stanford Certificate $4k per class; Wait until we know where we're living longer term
Learn Scala better
Catch up on JavaScript things (React, Gulp, Node, etc)
Participate in coding meetups (Write/Speak/Code, WaffleJS, etc)

Travel
San Diego
Seattle
Overseas (Italy, Costa Rica or New Zealand)
Go back to Hawaii

2015 Year in Review

First of all -- wow I did not blog much. My 2015 resolutions was basically my last post. Anyway, let's talk about how I did on my resolutions!

I did do:

1. Get better at my job
   * Transferred teams (Home --> Moments)
   * Won at Hackweek with Abusefighter project (and presented at Tea Time)
   * A year ago I could hardly fix small bugs on my own. Now I work on larger features. Last year I worked on Quote Tweet, Conversations, and I just shipped the native Moment card.
2. Write More
   In May and June, I did the 750 words a day challenge, writing 50k words (or a 200-page book)
3. Apply to speak at five conferences
   I applied to four, got rejected by two (Self and Strangeloop), accepted at two (EmpireJS and Nodevember), and then invited to speak at two more (jQuerySF and NOLA Tech Week)
4. Put money into retirement
   $15k into retirement this year :)
5. Get out of my non-student-loan debt
   ✅
6. Get more involved with women in tech initiatives
   * Started Write/Speak/Code SF and hosted six big events (some better than others)
   * Attended Write/Speak/Code national conference
   * Started organizing WaffleJS where I help source female speakers
7. Contribute to an open source project
   Submitted a pull request to RevealJS

I did NOT do:

1. Get into a regular fitness routine
2. Take a dance lesson
3. Break 130 pounds
4. Read ten books
5. Get a tattoo
6. Keep a photo-a-day blog
7. Follow up on physical therapy for hip pains

Beyond resolutions, I did a lot of cool things this year. 

Highlights

I traveled a ton, including places I had never been: Milwaukee, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Nashville and London. I went on a road trip across the country and drove through new states -- Utah, Wyoming and Iowa. I worked on my career by organizing Write/Speak/Code, speaking at conferences, and working with new people at work (two hack week projects and a new team). I met Felicia Day and John Resig. I saw Bill Murray and Kevin Hart speak at a Twitter. I spent a week in Wisconsin with my sisters where we went to a big music festival. I lost five pounds and dropped a pant size (I'm now a 6). I'm doing well financially, and put money in to retirement this year!

Misses

I did not follow through on a lot of projects I started this year. (Guitar lessons, tennis lessons, photo blog, and book club). I spent too much energy on professional stuff, and too much of that energy on organizing and branding instead of technical expertise. I spent too much time on Write/Speak/Code but don't feel like I made an impact on anybody's life. I let other areas of my own life fall way behind. I want to be thinner and more active, and work on skills other than tech, like music and writing. I miss my family (Caitlin's kids barely know me at all) and I don't have many close friendships. Most importantly, I haven't been very deliberate about my life and what I'm working toward. This has been true my whole life, and it's something I'd like to start being better about in 2016.