Year in Review
In some ways 2022 was one of my favorite years ever! I got back to some things I’d had to neglect for a few years due to kids and life, learned a lot of new things, and made more new friends than the previous couple years combined! Here are some reflections (mostly for myself I suppose) and predictions for 2023!
Personal
Thanks to finally going to a physical therapist so I can go running again (first time since early 2021), I made and spent more time with friends in Eugene with common interests — tech, running, hiking/adventure. Monday Night Run Club has become a highlight of the week - rain or freezing! We got our passports renewed so there may be some international travel in our future in 2023. with Meagan and the girls being on a traditional school schedule and me able to work remotely from anywhere, we’ll see if we can make some sacrifices on a monthly basis to be able to do even cooler stuff on breaks. Highlights included trips to Portland, Bend, and just exploring many of the cool areas around Eugene!
2023 Goals: Have people over to our house every other month.
Professional
At Empath now for 2+ years, my role had a lot of exciting things to work on this year that of course I can’t really talk about here, but a lot of it involved using AI to make my job more efficient, more work with clients and even some UI design learnings! I also taught a Data Science for Math Educators course at Fresno Pacific University after saying ‘goodbye’ in 2019 to teaching in the curriculum and instruction program because I felt it’d been too long since I was in the classroom. Most recently, I restarted through Coursera an IBM Data Science certificate and and have completed two courses in the past 2 months! Learning a lot about practical python/R in data science and it’s been helping inspire/guide my AI-based experiements with OpenAI’s API. A chapter on interoperability I’d co-written (in 20220) was published, and a book I’d helped provide commentary on/was mentioned in the acknowledgements on AI in Education was published!
2023 Goals: Do more real machine learning/coding practice.
Athletic
In 2020 I started riding my bike for fitness thanks in large part due a gift of an indoor trainer from Adam Blum. Because I was able to ride before going outside, going for a ride was fun again. A new Trek commuter road bike in January 2020 that was more solid than the road bike I had before was also instrumental in feeling more confident getting out on the road for fitness; also kids being older. Highlights included my first half marathon in November (in snow!) and my longest ever solo road bike ride of 75 miles in late October!
2023 Goals: Train to wattage on the bike and heartrate on the run; 9 min/mile half marathon time. Half Ironman in July! (Full Ironman in 2024).
Overall
I know this isn’t Strava, but wanted to pause and appreciate this photo taken this week in the Fresno/Madera area on December 20th. One guy I’ve known for 20 years off and on (since he was a camper in my cabin at Sugar Pine Christian Camps!) the other guy for about 14 years and we used to do quite a bit of outdoor exploring together! The point is, we talked about life, our passion for riding and being outdoors, obligatory scary injuries/‘best ride ever’ stories, and just hung out. It was a challenging yet fun ride and I was able to keep up! That’s pretty much how I feel about 2022… after a few years of challenges, I’m all ‘caught up’ and ready to get into the best shape of my life, best professional growth, and be the best husband/father I’ve ever been now that a lot of the uphill work is hopefully behind me!
So… 2022: reconnecting with things I’ve been good at in the past and now am in a renewed context — teaching at FPU, multisport training, etc. Thankful for a few days off at the end of 2022 here and looking forward to 2023!
A spreadsheet with details of my professional and athletic goals is here!
