2015 Year in Review

My life in 2015 went in some very cool directions, some planned, others were happy surprises. 2015 was the second full calendar year of this blog (started in April 2013) that had my first guest contributors, my first eBook, and just continued to grow the audience of the blog as a whole. I had over 10K views in 2015, which is fantastic as a milestone itself, but also a sizable growth from the year prior. I also hit 1K followers on Twitter, which was a nice milestone to celebrate for myself as I work to continue to grow the audience for this blog and the podcast (which had an awesome year too!). I look forward to continuing to improve the blog (like the recent layout redesign) and bring some new folks in to help with some of the stuff I can't do as well as they could, like graphics and writing about different things.

2015 had some cool things happen for me personally too. I did some adulting like starting a retirement account (!). I also traveled to a bunch of cool places I had never been before for both work and pleasure. I went to Tampa for ACPA 2015, which I presented at with my fantastic colleague, Krista Klein, which was really cool. I also visited my friend in Chicago over the summer as well as seeing Boston when my partner was interning in the area. I lastly had the trip of a lifetime for me going to San Diego Comic Con for the full experience, which was a dream come true. I took a bunch of photos and I will cherish the memories I made on these trips. I look forward to continuing the momentum I've had for the past few years of traveling to new places for various reasons. It's always a lot of fun!

2016 is looking to be a big year for me. My partner will finish up school, we'll both be getting new jobs and moving to a new area together after that (at the latest), and my brother is going to be getting married, just to name a few things. Hopefully there are more milestones to come for the blog, the podcast, and for me personally. I feel good about 2015 and what I accomplished and am looking forward to 2016!

Thanks to everyone who visited the site and helped sustain this effort. It means a lot and I appreciated all of your continued support!

2014 Year in Review: My First Full Year

"...you make time for what you want to make time for."

Now that the sun has finally set on 2014, it is due time to look back on the first full calendar year of the blog (!) and see where we have come. It has been a big year compared to 2013, especially since I've been willing and able to blog far more regularly now. I had almost 700 views in the fraction of 2013 I was blogging, and 2014 garnered almost 8,000 views which is a hugely awesome jump for the site which I am very grateful for.

In terms of posts, I kept regular with movie reviews, geek outs, and other random things for 2014. I had 177 posts over the year, which I hope to maintain at least that level of writing. I look forward to continuing creating a large library of posts to keep sharing out as "throwbacks", since this helps promote everything and gives me some breathing room on the weeks I'm light on new content (I highly recommend folks do this!).

Some reflections on the whole process though, it is definitely hard to write on those days when you're tired, creatively drained, or just busy and physically can't sit down to blog. I like to always say that you make time for what you want to make time for. I want to make time for this so I make the time in my life, even when it is a late night or weekend when I should just be lounging around or not working. I enjoy writing for this blog so it doesn't feel too taxing on me to do most of the time. My main takeaway for blogging this year is that you have to force it a bit until it becomes more habitual. The dedication and investment will pay off. I feel very happy and satisfied with the milestones I hit this first full year. It can be hard too when I feel like I should be doing more or worrying why more people aren't following or liking or commenting. It will take time and a huge part of success is just perseverance. I know that if I keep up with it, it will only go up from here in terms of achieving the goals I set for myself.

In terms of what is coming next for the blog, I hope to continue to promote the site regularly and get some guest posts from some cool geeks and nerds (if you're interested, please reach out!). I enjoy podcasting and it would be cool to do one for the site but I would want to build a bigger audience on the site first before I do a podcast or videos. I hope to read more books and do reviews for the site more often, since I feel like there is so much I want to get to and share.

Thank you to everyone that visited the site, liked, commented, shared, and found something fun and/or useful in what I posted. I look forward to continuing to serve up awesomely geeky stuff for you all!

All the best and Happy New Year!

Thanks for stopping by!