2020 was a really weird year. A year of change, a year of stasis. A year of growth. I decided to break this post up different than in past years. A brief update on pre-pandemic life, and then an exploration into life during the pandemic.

You can read past years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.

Pre-Pandemic

We did a lot before the crisis really came to a boil. The year began with a trip to Portland, Maine. Melissa and I both had never been there, but we decided to go at the last minute, bought plane tickets and found a reasonable hotel room. We were blown away by the amazing food, and the bananas amount of snow. We loved the city, and debated moving there. We spent the days surrounding New Years there, and had a wonderful time.

As soon as we returned, I went head first back in to work trips. I had some trips to Austin and Atlanta. Then, for my birthday, we went to Costa Rica. We stayed at a resort, called Hotel Punta Islita. We went on hikes. Hung out at the pool and beach. Read a lot, and tried to ignore the world news about the pandemic. We spent a week there, and it ended up being our last trip in 2020.

As we left on the trip, we saw some people in both JFK and ATL airports wearing masks. We thought them a bit overzealous. It reminded me a lot of the Sars response in the Bay Area when I was younger. Paranoid folks being excessive (guy across the isle from me wiped his entire chair down with a wet wipe) but most folks acting normal.

While on our vacation though, it definitely reached the point where it was no longer normal. My employer, Google, sent me an email saying all employees traveling internationally should return home. I emailed my team to see what folks were doing, as about half our team was traveling that week. Everyone decided to come home, but only cut trips short if they were running past the weekend. We decided since we weren’t traveling on work business, and there were no reported cases in Costa Rica, we should just chill, and leave when we expect, four days later. As we left, the first case was reported in Costa Rica. Every few minutes at all the airports we went through, there were messages about getting temperature checks if you had been in China recently. But there were no new cleaning measures being taken.

During Pandemic

When we arrived back in NYC, I went to the office one day on March 6th, and then Google shutdown the NY office. That last weekend, we went and saw a movie. Nothing was really shutdown, and while I spent the next week working from home, it didn’t even feel real. I had drinks with @ryanalshak. I went for long walks. Things were normal, just lots more hand washing. And then NYC started to spike, and everything shut down.

We spent the first month of the pandemic at home, mostly just hanging out. We played lots of board games. Then in April, a variety of events at work made us realize I wouldn’t be in an office until at least 2022, probably longer. We also realized that we would kill each other if we kept living in our tiny apartment. So we started researching how to buy a house. We went through a lot to make this process happen, and from talking to our friends, we had more hiccups than most.

As the process progressed, we explored towns, got approved for a mortgage, bought a car, and finally in May, found a home we liked that we could also afford! We put in an offer and got rejected. We tried a few more times, before we were accepted, learning more each time.

The summer was paperwork, making plans, packing, lots of video calls with friends, and TV binging.

Finally, after a fight with our land lord and living in a hotel for two weeks, our house closed, and we got the keys! We moved in to our beautiful new home in Beacon, NY on September 5th, 2020.

We spent the rest of the year fixing and nesting in our home. We had a few visitors for socially distanced fun. We explored the area, going on drives, hikes and bike rides.

As the year wound to a close, two exciting things happened. I left my job at Google to go work with friends on a startup called Time by Ping and Melissa got accepted into culinary school and the Culinary Institute of America!

Despite all of the bad stuff happening around the world, we did alright. Stayed healthy and sane. Here’s to next year!

Things I built

Writing the above makes me feel like the year was pretty happy. It obviously wasn’t. Melissa and I were full of anxiety and stress almost every day. We gained weight, got into fights, and struggled with the lockdown. While none of our direct friends or family died, many second degree connections did die. At the writing of this post, 20 million Americans have gotten covid-19, and 350 thousand have died.

On top of all of that, there was the Black Lives Matter protests, the election, and many other news worthy events to keep us stressed and sad about the state of the world.

To keep myself distracted from this horrible reality, I often built things.

• I fixed this blog (somewhat, it’s still glitchy)
• Tab Archive - a chrome extension for archiving your tabs when you’re done with them.
• Home Network - A built an overly complex home network and lab using ubiquiti.
• Ethereum 2.0 - I started getting involved in the Ethereum community with @saturnial’s help
• FlightAware - I deployed a a flight aware node to watch the planes above our home.
• Clocks - I built a variety of clocks with raspberry PI zeros and various types of displays.
• Go Book - I continued slowly writing a book on Go with @ifosteve.
• Norns Shield - I put together a Norns Shield, and began attempting to make music with it.
• Plus lots of random open source work.

Goals

I think often about Devine Lu Linvega’s routine. He is someone I admire, and his descriptions of how he lives his time inspires me. Not because it’s something I want to emulate (I have no intention of replicating the nomadic or ascetic style of life), but because he and his partner are able to create wonderful art and tools. Creating tools that people use is something I am very passionate about. As you look at my goals from 2020, and my goals for 2021, know that attempting to build with a purpose is the overall theme I am trying to emulate.

2020 Goal Review

As 2020 was an utter chaotic mess, I’ve crossed out the things I didn’t do.

• Improve physical health
  • Run a mile, twice a week.
  • Walk 10,000 steps four times a week.
  • Weigh myself daily.
  • Make breakfast at home, three days a week.
• Put out content to improve the internet
  • Write 12 technical blog posts.
  • Write 12 non-technical blog posts.
  • Write second book.
  • Launch one side projects.
• Grow my brain
  • Read 75 books.
  • Read one non-fiction book a month.
  • Travel to five cities that are not NY or SF.
  • Attend four conferences or classes or talks to grow knowledge.
• Deal with reality
  • Erase all debt for both Melissa and myself.
  • Stick to a budget all year.
  • Start saving for a house (with a goal of one third of a down payment saved).

Some notes on the above:

• You can see more about my reading on Goodreads, but I read 48 books in 2020.
• Tab Archive is the project I launched, on both the Chrome and Firefox app stores.
• We bought a house, so no need to save for it ;)

Goals for 2021

Health

• Get 10k steps an average of three days a week.
• Go for a bike ride once a week.
• Track what you eat for a month.
• Go fishing at least six times.

Brain

• Finish Go Book
• Journal four days a week, blog once a week.
• Do at least 20 mentor-ship calls.
• Draw once a week.
• Launch four projects to the world and promote them.
  • Current thought: GoTak, ReportD, Relay, Etu

Community

• Don’t buy anything physical online for the first month of every quarter (January, April, July, October).
• Volunteer at least once a quarter locally.
  • Thinking the local library, but still researching.
• Attend a community meeting at least once a quarter.

End

Well that’s it. I hope you stayed safe in 2020, and I hope 2021 brings you joy and satisfaction. I doubt I’ll get the vaccine until 2022, given my age, location, and health, but when it’s available I will get it. Until then, my preferred mask is the Patagonia mask. Please wash your hands, be safe, and good luck out there.

#yearinreview

Lots of love,

/Nat