2023

I did this last year, so I should keep with it and do another big year in review post. So, in 2023:

• Started the year by going to Las Vegas for my birthday with a bunch of the regular crew. This was a great trip, and good to finally see a bunch of people and have fun.
• Went to Iceland (and London) for a solo trip. Hauled a lot of film camera stuff. The trip started very dark, but by the end, it all came together, and this was probably the most impactful and memorable trip of the year.
• Went to India (and Dubai and Qatar) for the first time for work.
• Solo trip to Poland. Great food. Auschwitz was overwhelming but necessary.
• India (again).
• Went to Singapore on the way back from India, and it was incredible.
• Went to Reno for Thanksgiving. It’s been a while.
• Went to Indiana and Wisconsin for Christmas.
• The travel total was eight countries total, six new, and something like 100,000 miles total.
• I finished an MS in Management and Leadership at WGU. I forget how much I ended up writing for this course, but it was 12 papers and two tests. I wasn’t as into this as the MBA, but it’s done. I started on 4/1 and finished on 7/31, so there’s my summer.
• FitBit and my FitBit scale crapped out on me, but I have Apple Health data and I did work out every day of the year. Steps are 2,568,505 and miles are 1168. 2022 were 2,200,380 steps; 1,038.01 miles, so a bit of improvement there.
• Weight is not good at all. I definitely did not meet that goal of quitting Taco Bell. I’m pretty much back to my pre-WW numbers, so I need to get on that.
• Returned to office, so I’m in SF three days a week now.
• I “un-quit” writing, but got no appreciable work done on anything solid. I have two titled projects that are starting to congeal, but there were a lot of roadblocks in the way on this. I got about 35,000 words into both.
• I “re-published” two of my unpublished books, so there’s that.
• I published two zines. That was a lot of fun, and I’d like to do more.
• I published 25 entries here. That’s eight more than last year, but it’s still rookie numbers.
• I did a lot of writing in Day One. I also published one-off hardcover books of my entries from 2013-2018 which were somewhat depressing and reminded me I’ve been trying to write the same three books for ten years now and making no progress.
• Only took 6490 photos. I got an Sony a6400 for the times when I need a “real” camera but can’t carry the full DSLR. I’m a bit burned out on photography, so not sure how that’s going to play out in the future.
• I gave up on dead malls and tried to take a big step back from nostalgia stuff in general.
• I got pretty much no reading done except for books on management theory, which were not exactly pleasure reading.
• Way more interpersonal drama I can’t get into, which involved taking a months-long break from all social media, which pretty much nobody even noticed, which tells me a lot about the strength in my online friendships and value of social media in my life.

I think my resolutions this year are to try to get writing again (or figure out what writing even is); throw out or donate about half of what I own; stop buying dumb stuff I will never use; and continue trying to get healthy both mentally and physically. And write. And write.