On a frequency of once every 365 days, based on the theme of my previous me-me-me posts and a general stamp I like to leave myself to remind Future Remy what the hell went on, here is my 2021.

Professional

Looking back at previous years, this section is normally a list of cool work-type things I did in the year. Except, 2021 is still rocking the full covid escapades and I've spent almost all the time working out of my home office.

I've managed one single trip to London and one trip to Birmingham (both in December) and I still struggle to see what travel in covid times looks like - though I know some of my peers have already managed it, and indeed for speaking at events.

I do miss speaking at events - I miss the people.

On the note of events, ffconf 2021 was also cancelled - or rather it was never going to happen, I knew this back in Feb 2021. I am currently expecting ffconf 2022 to go ahead, and I've started to build the schedule in my head, but that's going to kick off properly in 2022.

As with 2020, my working year was oddly busy and the business has done well to survive (and indeed stay healthy) during the pandemic.

As such, we decided that we could donate a percentage of our profits to a number of charities that Julie and I care about. Specifically:

It's something I also want to formalise for our company so that if we do well in a year, we give more to charities and if we don't do so well, then it's okay too.

Side Projects

  • Marbles Squared - a game for the Spectrum Next written in NextBASIC and Z80 assembly
  • http command for the Spectrum (and part of the official distribution) - a utility for the Spectrum Next to make GET and POST requests, again written in Z80 assembly
  • MIDI for Spectrum + discovering PCBs and 3D printing - a hardware hack that allowed modern USB based MIDI controllers play DAW software on (again) the Spectrum Next
  • Light/Dark addon - an auto theme switcher for Firefox

There were a few other random side projects, but looking back I can see that most of the projects didn't really exist for the web but instead in hardware and esoteric technology. Not sure if that's good or bad!

Personal

With another year dominated by pandemic, fear and the isolation that goes with that - I know that I'm desperate for some human-to-human interaction whilst simultaneously dreading the thought of trying to socialise again.

My top personal items I'd like (or am likely) to remember are:

  • Double vax'ed and boosted - thankfully without any significant side effects
  • Kittens - Kipo and Disco join our family (or farmily?!) and they are cute AF (but frustratingly not quite as friendly as the original Sharp Cat Trio)
  • Tinnitus - what a shit show that's been - and I've had a break from the therapy but my morning and evening tinnitus is still running at 150% and keeping me up at night (I'm planning follow up blog posts on my progress)
  • Hardware hacking the Seren Says game - I'll blog about this in future, but it's a box, that's like Simon Says, except it's connected to Hue lights and I made the thing
  • Reading - continued, slowed (mostly due to the actual books), apparently there was only 19 books (but I'll do a proper breakdown for my own reading in the new year)

I'm sure there's other bits, but this year, as with 2020, seems like a bit of a flat event and I hope that the energy at the end of 2022 will be a light more… spirited.

Blog posts

Running some numbers from Netlify - whom I host with - here's my top 3 most popular posts from 2021:

Apparently the first two thirds of the year were quiet :)

And what of 2022?

Things I'd like to do:

  • Continue reading books (yes, I set my bar low)
  • Blog a little more technical bits (and continue my two posts per month)
  • Speak at an event again
  • Run ffconf
  • Give more to others (charitable donations and/or teachings)
  • I'd really like to go on holiday, but I half (or mostly) suspect that won't happen

I'm not entirely sure I'm looking forward to it, but I do know that my little ones (the humans, not the cats) are getting bigger, smarter and completely blowing my mind as to how cool I think they are - and that's certainly something I look forward to.

Thanks for reading and I hope to you read your story too. As for future Remy, I do hope the years between now and then are a little lighter!