No matter where you are in the world the last couple of years have been, shall we say, difficult. More for some than others and I’ll place my difficulties somewhere in the middle. And as with many of us I can’t say that 2022 looks any better. I mean it doesn’t look any worse, but while I think there is an end in sight, we aren’t quite there yet. That said, we will always have hope.

Now, what would a year in review blog post be without some “professional” statistics.

• I’ve now been blogging for 9.5 years. I’ll freely admit it’s been a real struggle for the last couple of years, but then what hasn’t been.
• I’m up to 875 posts (876 including this one.) Only 66 this year, which is lower than my usual ~100+ but honestly better than I expected.
• I passed 500k hits this year! – This one isn’t really anything I did, so thanks to everybody who contributed!
• I got to speak at the 2021 Pass summit! It was my 4th summit to speak at which I have to say is more than a bit shocking to me.
• Speaking of shocking, it’s also my 5th year as a Microsoft Data Platform MVP. I never really expected to be an MVP, much less for 5 years (so far).
•  3,613 of you follow me on my blog. Not sure how they come up with that number, and I know they include my twitter followers as well. Still, it’s a crazy number and I can’t thank you enough.
• I’ve now been working at the same place for 14.5 years. Which is pretty impressive to me since before that I don’t think I worked anywhere longer than 3 years.

 
And what does all of this mean to me?

I’ll be honest, I think just getting through 2020 and 2021 counts as a success. A moment of silence for all those that didn’t.

Ok, so what’s up for this next year?

• Blog: I’d really like to get back to 2 a week. We will see.
• Speaking: It kind of depends on Covid of course but maybe I’ll get to speak somewhere in person? I think once or twice for the year will be good enough.
• Health: I feel pretty good these days but I have got to get back to losing some weight. I’ve gained .. well .. a lot this year. I need to deal with this once and for all.
• Activity: My current plan is to work my way back up to 7,500 steps each work day with at least one 30 minute walk and 10,000 steps each weekend day with at least one 1 hour walk. On top of that I’m going to try to do some pushups, squats and “pullups” each week.
• Education: Yea, I need to get back to this. I think I’ll get my laptop rebuilt and try and set up Kubernetes/VMs again.

 
I wish you all the best of new years and may 2022 not suck quite as bad.