Happy New Year Everyone!
I started writing this after my first day at work in 2023, and have been tweaking it for the past week. 2022 was a rough year. My focus has been pulled in many directions, and I'm glad to be starting fresh.
Here are some a lot of thoughts about the last year.
Blog Stats
Here are some stats from the blog:- I wrote 57 posts last year, which is more than one a week. Despite this impressive number, my posts were very sporadic this year. Family health issues, including my own bout with COVID, forced me to juggle my schedule and I was not as consistent in my weekly posts. I overcompensated later in the year to make up for lost time.
- My most popular post was on Angular, about a bug when upgrading from Angular 12 to 13
- I had 38,000 total views, which is not too shabby.
- I wrote a lot about Angular and TypeScript, comprising more than half the posts I wrote this year. No surprise, since I deal with that stuff a lot.
YouTube Stats
I finally got vanity URLs for both my personal YouTube Channel and my DotComIt YouTube channel.For DotComIt, I had 23.4 thousand views and over 62,000 minutes. These are pretty cool numbers.
Music
I hooked my Alexa devices up to my Spotify account, and it plays a lot of random stuff. As such the bulk of bands in my instafest are ones I've never heard of.
On my own musical journey, I wrote 16 new songs for February Album Writing Month, hiding away in my home studio. Some friends are encouraging me to start releasing stuff, but I'm not sure I want to take on yet another side project. What do you think?
For the moment, I've turned my attention to digitizing my cassette collection. These are a lot of "one of a kind" tapes of bands I was in, or bands I recorded that I'd like to be able to listen to or send back to the band in question. It is a fun side project, and I just had to replace all the belts in the cassette deck to continue on.
Books
My Learn-With Series is going strong. I've updated it for both Angular 14 and Angular 15 this year. I expect to continue to update it as new versions come out.Most recently, I added a new chapter to the programming bonus books all about Angular's Standalone Components.
My writing exists primarily so I can explore new ideas. My favorite part is adding new chapters about new approaches.
The fact that I can make some extra cash on the other end is a bonus, although I struggle to keep the business profitable, since consulting is no longer my primary source of income. Thank you for all the continued support.
Mailing List
I'd love to say I continuously send monthly emails, but in 2022 I only sent 5 newsletters. That is not the consistent cadence I wish I was at.
Since MailChimp increased their prices for a mailing list of my size, I am looking for alternate, cheaper, options.
Family
I mentioned family health issues earlier in this newsletter. Well, in early 2022, my mother-in-law moved in with us on home hospice care, eventually passing in late summer. That was a major life change that hit us overnight.
I also got COVID for the first time. It knocked me out for a few days, and I had a lingering cough for 6 weeks or so. It eventually dissipated and I'm fine now.
Career
DotComIt has taken on very few consulting clients, since the bulk of my time goes to a day job now. As such, DotComIt is not currently profitable, as the book sales are not high enough to cover things like web hosting. I'll be having a conversation with my account and legal team to figure out the path forward. I don't want to stop writing blogs or publishing books.
I stepped into a management position on my current project, which is a radically different skill than programming. I'm figuring it out and taking up all the training they can throw at me.
Final Thoughts
I'm honestly not sure what to expect from 2023, except a lot of recovery and a lot of house cleaning. My career and writing will continue as it always does, and I'll continue to adapt to new things.
What are you planning for the 2023?
posted by Jeffry Houser in
Personal, Jeffry Stuff
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