My goals for 2018, in no particular order:

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I’d love to get an email course, and a premium course put out there, but both of those require me to be a creator in a way that doesn’t come naturally for me, motivation-wise. I’m happy to spend hours going doing a coding rabbit hole, but I’ve not yet found a process that works well for me to just get my knowledge down in words that can then be made into something coherent later. Writing little and often, maybe what’s needed.

Relaunch gamajo.com

This has been a goal for several years now – the current site doesn’t reflect the work we do, or who we are targeted at, and the leads have basically dried up. This HAS to change.

Create a personal-branded site

Whether it’s a re-hash of this one, or under a different domain, that can focus on the professional version of me, I’d like to have a space where I can write about the web development industry, the technical things, how businesses can best help their development teams etc. The courses would likely live on this new site, which then removes the need to do much blogging on the gamajo.com. The main thing is, all these articles should be mostly _evergreen_ articles, that can stand the test of time – what I’ve written so far, mostly isn’t.

Get the new house in order

We moved to a new build bigger house in September 2017, as the kids needed more space. Naturally, there are still some boxes that need sorting, and some DIY tasks that need doing. We’ve done a fair bit, but I know we’ve still got a lot of material items that need to be got rid of, like baby clothes and buggies (our kids are 6yo now).

Finish my Genesis starter theme

Another project that’s been on the go for a while – I’d like to add some more features to it, and get it to a stage of being able to sell it, and also to write about the decisions that were made when putting it together.

Improve this website

I’ve got sections on this website, such as the Poetry, Marian Hartley, wedding, posts about the twins’ arrival and so on that all need tidying up. There are Instagram posts (which I’ve just started with again), an effort to connect to my Lightroom catalogue, WP galleries and so on that may just need re-organising. I’m keen to follow the IndieWeb approach of posting everything to my own site and then syndicating it elsewhere.

Make more profit

The 2017-2018 financial year is on track to be worse than the two years before it. Not disastrously so, but enough that, combined with the expense of moving house and taking on a much bigger mortgage, and having to replace my car being written off in June, the finances aren’t where I’d like them to be. Money isn’t everything, but it certainly makes other aspects of life more enjoyable if the cash is in the bank.

All of the above aren’t SMART goals – you know, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound – but, for now at least, it’s enough for me to be getting on with.

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

Recently I’ve been working with some folks on the next release cycle for some software. It’s a big release, and I’ve been pushing them to Do Things Right as they re-organise some code and make other changes.

Exactly what isn’t important, but I think they see my comments as aggressive – some probably are, but others are likely mis-interpreted from me being a Brit outsider to their mostly US company (different cultures, nothing xenophobic), and from the decoupling of feelings from expressions limited by the keyboard. I’m passionate about what I’m saying, even for the small details that in the grand scheme of things, really don’t matter too much.

Reality Check

I just caught ten minutes of One Born Every Minute, where a couple talked through their experiences of having, then losing their son at six days old. You may know how fortunate we’ve been with Smidge and Smudge, but this couple’s story brought me back to a friend who did lose an extremely premature twin at 10 days old. The day I first heard about the twin dying, I was in tears as it was all too close to home.

Needless to say, watching that program made me realise that while it’s good to be passionate about whether code is written in a certain way, it really means fuck all in the real world.

I’m Sorry

Tomorrow I’ll probably go back to being passionate about the code in question, but tonight I want to apologise to those (who’ll know who they are) I’ve been giving a hard time in the last few days and weeks. It’s nothing meant personally, I just care for your product and want to help make it the best I can, but I need a reality check, to step back and consider shifting that care to the things in life that really matter to me – my family.

My twins, known online as Smidge and Smudge, have just reached their first birthday, which means I’ve been a father for a year.

It’s been a relatively quick year, due to the twins having spent the first three months in hospital, but overall it’s been a good one. They’ve come through all the setbacks they suffered due to being extremely premature, and despite being low weight, they are progressing well.

The next year with them will be difficult, as I’ll be the stay at home Dad while Katie goes back to work for three days a week for now, going up to five days once the company workload increases.

The family has been overrun with a bug over the last few days, one which has made me and Katie violently ill.

Smidge and Smudge are just about getting back to normal, as are Katie and myself (other than bruising and tiredness), but it means a lot of catching up on jobs and life to do.

The twins moved into their own room tonight!

I wonder how we will all sleep…