add 2012 year in review, closes swanson#24

Author: Matt Swanson

Diff for: _posts/2013-01-01-year-in-review-2012.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "My Year in Review: 2012"
+categories:
+- blog
+---
+
+Last year, I wrote a laundry list of my accomplishments in 2011. This time, I want to
+share some themes in my life for 2012 instead.
+
+##A Year of Tracking
+I've been drawn to the [Quantified Self][qs] movement since I first read the blog a year and a half ago. I 
+tried to get on the tracking bandwagon a few times, but I always fizzled after a couple days — I need
+effortless data capture or I just stop doing it.
+
+I bought a [Fitbit][fb] and a [Withings scale][ws] for Christmas in 2011 and took another stab at tracking 
+my fitness.
+
+[qs]: http://quantifiedself.com/
+[fb]: http://www.fitbit.com/
+[ws]: http://www.withings.com/
+
+This time, I was able to stick with it and I got some pretty awesome results (lifetime == 2012).
+
+<div class="pic">
+  <img alt="Becoming less of a fatass" src="/static/fitbit-stats.png">
+</div>
+
+I tried a few different Pomodoro tracking apps (including my own [experimental goal-based system][vine]) but I
+found that, frankly, I don't really like doing Pomodoros. I understand the purported benefits, but I 
+had a hard time stopping when the timer went out. I guess I'm just a momentum-based creature.
+
+[vine]: https://gist.github.com/3753245
+
+I made a concerted effort to read more &mdash; by reading on my Kindle before bed &mdash; and I read 21 
+non-fiction or technical books this year, up from 8 in 2011 and 7 in 2010. I keep a queue on books that I 
+want to read as an Amazon Wishlist and write a review when I finish the book as a means of tracking. My favorite
+book this year was [Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance][better]. 
+
+[better]: http://swanson.github.com/writeup/2012/10/14/better.html
+
+Paired with reading, was my own writing. I'd like to try [750words][750] at some point, but for now, I just
+try to blog every week or so. Thanks to the ease of using Google Analytics (effortless capture!) I've
+actually been tracking my blog since my first post in the fall of 2010. 
+
+I wrote 14 posts this year, down from 22 in 2011 &mdash; but my blog received double the traffic. Quality over 
+quantity, I guess? A quote from last year's writeup: "Not bad for a random developer in Indiana!"
+
+[750]: http://750words.com/
+
+<div class="pic">
+  <img alt="Problogger status ;-)" src="/static/blog-stats.png">
+</div>
+
+I'm really happy with how a few of my posts turned out. I got an early Christmas present when one of my
+posts appeared in the print magazine [Hacker Monthly][hm] in November.
+
+[hm]: http://hackermonthly.com/issue-30.html
+
+<div class="pic">
+  <img alt="Hacker Monthly November" src="/static/dead-tree.png">
+</div>
+
+It wasn't all gravy, here are my failed self-tracking efforts this year:
+
+* [Zeo][z] for sleep tracking - headband was uncomfortable and I had the older model that needed manual syncing 
+with an SD card
+* Daily technical journal - felt like too much of a hassle to stop in the middle of working, didn't last past the first week
+* [RescueTime][rt] for productive - satisfies effortless capture, but didn't drive me to be more productive; I still run it but don't really do anything with the data
+* [LoseIt][li] for calorie tracking - kept at this for about a month before stopping, entry was annoying and felt like I was guessing most of the time (is this a 100 or 120 calorie apple?!?)
+
+[z]: www.myzeo.com
+[rt]: https://www.rescuetime.com/
+[li]: http://www.loseit.com/
+
+Tracking was on my mind constantly through the year. I couldn't even escape it on my SEP projects. The first
+quarter of the year was spent finishing an Android project for diabetics to track their blood glucose levels
+and other health metrics.
+
+![](/static/morale-app-2012.png)
+
+I continued building my team mood tracking web app (above) &mdash; [Morale][m]. I've managed to not only 
+convince most of SEP, but several other companies in the beta, to click a "Good", "Meh", or "Bad" face to 
+indicate their mood every day. My weekend hack has grown into a full product and has over 250 users in our 
+current beta. I spent many late nights adding new graphs and visualizations to the app this year.
+
+[m]: https://www.moraleapp.com/
+
+![](/static/queuerunner.png)
+
+And since I can't seem to build anything that doesn't involve tracking these days, I shipped another 
+[side-project][qg] in September for keeping track of what TV episodes I've watched and which ones are still 
+in my "queue". I wasn't happy with any of the existing alternatives, so I designed and built (with TDD) my own.
+The project, [QueueRunner][qr], has turned out to be a great playground for trying out new techniques (I've 
+played around with `Draper` "view models", running `DelayedJob` in a `unicorn` worker, isolated testing) and 
+working on my design chops.
+
+[qg]: https://github.com/swanson/queue-runner
+[qr]: http://www.queuerunner.com/
+
+##Getting Involved
+
+If you saw me at a Meetup or Indianapolis dev event this year, you would probably be surprised if I told you I 
+was paralyzingly afraid of going to these events just a few years ago. I've been on the IndyPy meetup group 
+since I graduated college and, while I would read the meeting notes and posted slides, I never could get myself 
+to go to an actual meeting (regrettably, I still haven't). 
+
+I am pretty slow to open up to people and I get anxious in new environments so it was a big personal 
+achievement that I was able to start attending the Indy ALT.NET and Indy.rb groups in 2011. In 2012, I pushed 
+myself out of my comfort zone even further and stepped up my involvement.
+
+I helped with the Indy ALT.NET group's re-branding and transition to [Indy Software Artisans][isa]; I gave the 
+first talk of the year (on Redis) and did several lightning talks throughout the year. Behind the scenes, I 
+started attending the admin meetings and helped plan the talk schedule and reach out to speakers.
+
+[isa]: http://indysa.org/
+
+When I went to [Indy.rb][irb], I tried to talk to and meet the people I knew (through Twitter) in person. 
+Fortunately, [Miles][mz] is a very friendly organizer and there were structured "hack nights" that helped make 
+it easier to not just sit in the corner quietly watching a presentation.
+
+[irb]: http://indyrb.org/
+[mz]: https://twitter.com/mileszs
+
+I really enjoyed attending [re:build][rb] and the [Indy Hacker Holiday Social][ih] &mdash; two events where I 
+decided to  sit at home and read HN instead of attending last year. Making new developer friends (that aren't 
+co-workers) has been great and something I am grateful that I did in 2012.
+
+[rb]: http://www.rebuildconf.com/
+[ih]: http://indyhackers.org/
+
+But my favorite group that I got involved with this year was one that didn't exist in 2011. 
+
+Since March,
+I've been hacking on projects every Monday night with a great group of guys and gals at [Indy Startup Lab][isl].
+Thank you [Kyle][k] and [Anthony][a] for helping organize this meetup; it is something I look forward 
+to every week. We all push and support each other to get better, ship more, and eat [large potatoes][spud]. We 
+love seeing new faces at the group, so if you are ever in Indy on a Monday night &mdash; please stop by!
+
+[isl]: http://indystartuplab.org/
+[k]: https://twitter.com/kyleashipley
+[a]: https://twitter.com/panozzaj
+[spud]: http://www.in.mcalistersdeli.com/menu/giant-spuds
+
+##Closing Thoughts on 2012
+
+Change is hard. 
+
+You will fail before you succeed, but the payoff is worth it. 
+
+For me, this was a year of fresh starts and modest changes (thanks Merlin!) and I was very happy with the 
+results. Here's to more of the same in 2013.