2022 - Another Year Done
As the clock ticked over and the days changed, I was already asleep. That was until the fireworks started going off all around us. Those room shaking bangs could only mark one thing: 2022 had come to an end, and what a mixed bag you turned out to be. You threw some curveballs and challenges my way, both positive and negative.
Warning: This is going to be a rather rambling post with little structure and editing. The writing quality will not be as high as I’d usually like. This is about dumping words on a page. I won’t take it personally if you can’t read it all!
Looking Back at 2022
With so much happening over the year, it’s hard to remember it all. I’ll just pick out some key points.
Work
As always, work brought an incredibly high level of stress throughout the year. I’ve been with the same employer for about 12.5 years now, and this was by far the most stressful, relentless, constant barrage of shit I have ever endured there. I didn’t seem to be the only one that felt that way, either.
Despite that, I turned down a couple of job offers. One of which was double my current salary. Some said I was utterly insane for turning that down, and maybe I am. But we have to consider that money isn’t the most important thing. I work in a small team, and we get on incredibly well. Couple that with a good pension plan, being able to work from home as much as I like, and only a 2 minute walk to my office. It becomes easier to say no when one of the first requirements is that I’d have to be in the office almost every day, and move somewhere much busier.
However, when the right opportunity does come knocking, I’m ready to take it. But it’s going to have to be damn near perfect.
Sticking with the work theme for a moment longer, back in February/March, I wrote a series of blog posts detailing a true Zero Touch deployment method for Apple devices within an educational environment.
It received far more attention than I ever expected. Both positive and negative (such is life). Although practically all positive. A lot of that attention was thanks to @scriptingosx and their fantastic weekly newsletter.
While I’m not particularly bothered by some of the negative sentiment, I was incredibly surprised by who it came from. Suffice to say, it’s helped me make some decisions for the future!
On the positive side, it also led to me giving my first ever work related talk to a public audience. I’ve given a few internal talks in the past. But this, this was different.
You can find links to the talk and my resources here:
https://github.com/GrahamWilliams-DMT/macadmins-presentation-labdeployment
That was the highlight of my year. After June, it pretty much went down hill from there.
Personal
In June(?) I finally succumbed to the dreaded COVID-19. Not sure how I caught it as I had been so careful. Mostly by being my usual grumpy self and avoiding everyone at all costs. I also think my body being in such a weakened state from this led to my first ever running injury, putting me out of action until almost October.
My wellbeing is tied to my running, perhaps a little too much as I mention in the above post. This minor injury did a real number on my mental health. I withdrew from everyone and everything on both a personal and professional level. It’s something I’m only just coming back from.
This also really screwed up my plans for my fitness blog for 2022. I had some ideas around some content I wanted to put out, and just couldn’t. It was frustrating.
One of my crazy fur monsters developed an horrific gum infection which she managed to hide for weeks before I finally noticed when she was no longer eating her biscuits as fast. Usually, she’d hoover the things in seconds, so when she spent a couple of minutes per biscuit, I knew something wasn’t right.
While she was in having some dental work done, they removed a lump from her stomach which turned out to be cancerous. They were pretty sure they got it all, but you never know. She seems to be back to her usual grumpy self.
On to the biggest kick in the clacker sack. This year also brought with it the death of my Grandmother. A truly incredible woman who would do anything for anyone. The number of people present at her funeral was a testament to that. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury also took the time to attend, pay his respects and say quite a few words about her, and how her death was an incredible loss.
As I now live a good few hours away, I didn’t visit her anywhere near as much as I should have. It’s something I regret in many ways, especially not really getting the chance to say goodbye. However, seeing some pictures of her in the final months was soul destroying. I think I’d rather remember her the way I do right now, than the frail person she had become.
After all that, I felt like 2022 had given me a bit of a kicking. Others had it far worse than me, though. Silver linings!
2023 - What’s the Plan?
I don’t particularly like to start anything new, or attempt to form a new habit around this time of the year (New Year’s Resolutions style). They never stick. Mind you, getting a habit to stick any time of the year is a tough ask these days.
But, here’s some things I want to work on or improve.
- Attempt to write a blog post at least once a week:
As you may have noticed, I’ve split my blogs out in to separate entities on Substack rather than self hosting.
My personal (this one) will be aimed more at complete mind dumps such as this one, along with general stuff around tech and other hobbies.
My work (Irritated Sysadmin) Substack has the intention of only having actionable content. Something that can help or inform someone. This will be covering Apple and Microsoft (and possibly some Android) related products and services.
My fitness (Wild Ridge Fitness) Substack is for, yes, you guessed it. Anything related to my health and fitness journey through life.
This could end up being a mistake, who knows. If that’s the case, I may bring it all back under one Substack with different newsletters instead.
I’d like to try and commit to posting at least once a week on my blogs. That may mean once a week across all three. Hopefully that will build.
- Get back to learning Welsh
I was doing OK with this until other things started to get on top of me. Then I just didn’t have the mental capacity to continue learning something new.
- Continue my meditation practice
In March I started meditating daily. A practice that has continued, and quite possibly a major reason I haven’t thrown myself off a bridge yet. Just 15 minutes each day at 18:00 has kept me sane (as I’ve ever been, anyway).
I’ve found it incredibly helpful for dealing with a number of things and would encourage anyone to give it a go. I was almost a little embarrassed at first, as I wondered what people would think. Why would I do something so “different”? That feeling has long passed. I’ve been using the DownDog Meditation App for this.
- Explore Qi Gong
On my journey to improve my mental health, and physical wellbeing, I became interested in Qi Gong. This is something I’m keen to explore and learn more about, and attempt to integrate its practice in to my day.
One of the resources I’m using in an attempt to understand this is from Shi Heng Yi.
There are also some incredible interviews on YouTube which are well worth a watch.
I think that covers some of the main ones for now. The actual list is incredibly long. I have no idea how I’m going to fit any of it in!
Anyway, here’s to 2023. May it be less shit than 2022.