2012 In Retrospect

It is the last day of the year. Everyone and their mom are doing these “year 2012 in review” types of things. Might as well jump on the bandwagon. What was good on Terminally Incoherent this year? Well, everything. But if I had to choose, here are some highlights of this site’s life this past year.

What kinds of things have happened here since 2011?

• I found Jekyll and discovered a new way to create dynamic websites without server side scripting. I used it to create a teaching blog which I have been kinda neglecting lately.

• I lost a shit-load of weight (that’s a metric shit-load, mind you not imperial one). I’m happy to report I kept it off.

• I tried to establish a forum and build a community, which was going fairly well until I ran out of steam, and everyone just got kinda bored with it.

• I wrote a dissertation about the merits of vim and then followed it up with a really long post about configuration options and plugins. People actually liked these.

• I played Mass Effect 3, and just like everyone was angry, disappointed and heart-broken over that turd of an ending. Before I finished the game, I kept thinking: “How bad can this be? The game has been pretty good so far… Everyone is probably exaggerating as usual.” Nope – it was worse than I could have ever imagined.

• On the upside, Avengers movie was glorious. A year ago, most people knew Joss Whedon as “that guy who did Buffy”. He should have been known for Firefly but most people I know IRL have never heard of it. It is hard to believe he is now one of the most sought after directors in Hollywood.

• I got an iPad which turned out to be a great little tool. In my initial review I mentioned it was more of a “read-only” device but I must reverse this verdict. Since that time I have actually used it creatively quite a few times. For example, I used it to draw illustrations for my Max Payne 3 review and my offbeat fantasy setting, and to hack things (while logged in via ssh).

• I joined Pintrest. I was told it was for girls only, but nowadays I probably use it more often than Tumblr. Go figure.

• I have reduced my pocket footprint. Btw, that key-shaped multi-tool is gone. It got confiscated at the airport. At some point I removed it from my keys and put it in my wallet. The TSA were not impressed wit the tiny harmless serrated blade. They considered giving me a full on terrorist treatment, but it was way to early in the morning, and I didn’t have any liquids on me so all I got was a disapproving glare.

• I figured out that my iPad is pretty much the ultimate E-Book reader. Also, it is too awesome and expensive to carry around with me everywhere which is why I wouldn’t mind a cheepo Kindle as my on-the-road reader.

• I built a Linux server for $30. I’m still using it, and it still works great. I have actually bought another Pogo Plug since then, though I have not set it up yet.

• I tried browsing the web with just Lynx and it kinda sucked. I’m quite amazed how bad the experience was in this day and age of mobile web. And especially on all the geeky sites I visited.

• I went to Disney World. It was rather fun. Would do it again.

• I wrote another dissertation sized essay, this time about the origins of the mouse.

• I got hurricaned by Sandy and discovered the french press method of brewing coffee in electricity free environment. Also I discovered that my iPad could go for over a week without charging with me using it every night as an E-Book reader.

• I freed up close to 20GB of disk space on my Ubuntu box mostly by deleting unused kernel images.

• I started a new programming series where I try to explore the right way to use PHP (if there is such a thing as the right way for PHP).

In addition to all of the above, my dad has won a bout with brain cancer. It was quite scary for the entire family but it all ended well, so I write it up as a positive thing. So the year was pretty decent, not counting unfortunate medical issues and natural disasters. We all learned a few things, accomplished some good stuff and had fun doing it.

What am I planning for 2013? Honestly, I’m not sure yet.

I’ll try to continue the much neglected LaTex learning series, and the new PHP series which was actually quite fun to do. By the time you read this, I pretty much completed the pastebin app, but you probably have only seen about half of the series which will continue into January. After that, I might embark on another, more complex project.

The reinventing fantasy series was also pretty fun, so I plan to continue doing that.

I also got a few new gadgets, and video games from Santa, but haven’t had a chance to talk about them yet. So there will be a few more reviews coming in January and maybe even February. Other than that, I’m sort of expecting more of the same with one small change – depth.

I want this blog to give you more in depth reviews, more exhaustive commentary and more extensive guides and howtos. There is a bunch of posts that I published this year that were a bit half-assed. I knocked them out just for the sake of putting something up, without much thought or research. Going forward I’d rather skip a post or two and use the time write something of decent quality than to just post for the sake of keeping up with the schedule. So I guess this is my new years resolution – more depth, more quality.

How about you? How did this year treat you? What are your resolutions for 2013?