2023 Year in Review

Where to begin? What a year 2023 has been. A lot has happened, and I’m excited to catch you all up on everything.

TL;DR: I have had a great year, personally and professionally. Everyone is happy and healthy.

Writing

I’m writing again, obviously. I’m excited about it, and it feels really good to be putting “pen” to “paper” so to speak, after a concerted effort this November to try a NaNoWriMo. I didn’t succeed in cranking out everything, but I ended the month with a lot of momentum on this project, and will be continuing with it into next year.

The Crystal Empire(working title) will be a standalone epic fantasy featuring compelling characters, adventure through a fantastic world, insidious intrigue, secrets lost to time, and spectacular magical crystal combat.

I’m looking forward to sharing more about this project as it progresses.

In the meantime, I’ve also resolved to make some of my backlog of stories available in some way through this site in whatever formats people prefer. Keep an eye on the Works section of this site for updates and ways to access content!

Personal

For a great year, I started this one off in one of the worst places I’ve ever been. I think my mental health had been breaking down for a while, and December of 2022 put a lot of things on my plate all at once. People in my life tell me I handled it well, but behind the scenes I felt one step away from just hitting the reset button and walking away. Zeroing out and starting over. I didn’t, though. It’s a wonder what boundaries and actually taking care of yourself can do.

It’s strange how impotent depression can make someone feel. Like you are incapable of doing anything to change your life or your situation, that you are simply stuck with it. It’s a common lie we tell ourselves. For me at least, the antidote to the worst parts of my depression is the fundamental belief that there’s always something I can do, some control I have in any given situation, even if it is simply over myself. I find that depression is the conflict between the inner and outer selves, the dissonance between who we wish to be and who others see, ambition and reality. Resolving this is hard, but it is within our control.

another key Don’t think about this as a metaphor. It’s just sunshine.

I should note that through all this, my family has been my rock. I cannot thank my wife enough for everything she does for me. In spite of the trouble early on, this year has been really great. Toddlers are hard, but also so dang cute. Helping this little munchkin grow up is turning out to be the biggest privilege in my life. My wife, unsurprisingly, is an amazing mother. I’m a lucky, lucky man. Dreaming of the family trip we took to the Florida Keys just before his birthday in February was what helped us get through the early part of the year, and that trip was wonderful.

ilana iguana This iguana hung out outside our hotel room for several days. Her name is Ilana.

I finally saw Blink-182 live in the spring! It took way, way too long for that to happen, since I’ve been a fan since I was nine, but they haven’t exactly been a band when I’ve had money to see them either! It was a great show, and we had a great night. That was our son’s first night staying at grandma and grandpas without us, too. It has not been the last.

dinner-date-before-blink Liz had some awesome sushi before the show.

We had some kidney issues with one of the cats through this summer, but after some medication and adjustments to diet all three of the furballs are pictures of health. You can hardly tell that last year the dog had surgery on her knee.

My wife and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on the Big Island of Hawaii. We may have had a brief love affair with Kona. It’s a charming little town and I’d encourage anyone who can to visit.

breakfast in kona I could eat here every day.

Summers are where Minnesota shines. Weeks at the lake, exploring by the river, visiting every park and playground we could, and just seeing people out and about as we explored our neighborhood. I went to the State Fair here for the first time to see the Black Keys! Another awesome show. Summer is easily our favorite time of year here.

We wrapped up the summer and went into fall working on a number of little home improvement projects and repairs. Our front walk was completely wrecked after last winter! My advice? Don’t use sandstone blocks for your steps in Minnesota, it’s a bad idea.

pretty much all the snow Not a lot of snow this year. So far.

This fall has been a weird one. El Nino has staved off the coldest temperatures, so far, and left us with a cold, foggy, grayness since November, where we’ve hovered just on the edge of freezing. I’d rather have this than the dumping of snow we had every other week like last year, but this still sucks. Everything around here is closed up in anticipation of snow that doesn’t seem to be coming.

Due to an unfortunate delay on a work trip, I had an airline credit we had to use before the end of the year, so we all took an impromptu trip to St Petersburg in Florida in mid December. I’d visited on a work trip a few months before and kept seeing things I knew I wanted to check out with the family, so that’s what we did. Three days wasn’t nearly enough time, but I did get to spend my birthday at the beach with my son. It was 70 degrees. We’ll be going back, probably soon. The rest of this December has been far less interesting than last December, and I’m very grateful for that.

birthday beach beer Happy birthday to me!

Highlights

  • The kid is a walking, talking, singing, dancing, eating machine.
  • We went to Florida, twice, and didn’t die
  • Hawaii
  • Solo travel
  • Everyone is happy, healthy, and excited for next year

Professional

Banner year for me at the ol’ mines. Early in the year I was tapped to consult on, then build a core strategic partnership and integration between my company’s product and a much, much larger firm. These efforts have helped drive transformative outcomes for our customers and partners, while opening doors to new business we were shut out from before. My work enabled some very cool stuff to happen this year. Heck, at our customer conference I got a shout out on stage by our CEO by name.

power of andy

Not really. But many of the presentations and several labs had been built around my efforts this year. It felt pretty good. I was just awarded for my visionary leadership on an entirely different project. Thanks to that, I think I have an opportunity to lead the charge on what I believe to be a necessary evolution within our product this and the next few years. More awesomeness incoming.

I haven’t done a ton of external consulting this year. The full time gig is keeping me pretty busy.

Highlights

  • Led efforts to enable and deliver a strategic partnership and integration for our company, driving some exciting new opportunities
  • Contributed to research that led to a newly filed patent
  • Had early access to new AI products weeks before launch
  • Multiple labs and several customer presentations at our customer conference this November based upon my work

Miscellaneous and Statistics

  • Best Book: The Cradle Series by Will Wright, which we just ripped through this year. Honorable mention goes to Tress and the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
  • Best Song: Blink Wave - Blink-182
  • Best Album: One More Time - Blink-182
  • Best Movie: Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Best Show: Doctor Who. But man is Harley Quinn quotable
  • Visited Airports: MSP, MIA, ORD, BOS, LAX, KOA, HNL, TPA, AUS
  • Pizzas Made: 24