2023: My Year in Review
As is annual tradition, here are my 2023 highlights. It's been a big year!
A new job, lots of time at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), Ella started at a new school, a trip to Canada, a roadtrip for Wookies in the Woods, and a whole lot of video work. Here's the full list in somewhat chronological order:
- Built an AV rack for Drum recording gear
- Gibson Custom Shop Silverburst Guitar acquired
- Rebuilt Miter Saw station (so many drawers)
- Caitlin and Dave visit Raleigh
- Canes Hockey game at PNC with C&D in Red Hat box
- Smoked a Brisket
- Cars and Coffee with the R32
- Sawstop Table Saw arrives! (Farewell trusty Ridgid)
- Finally embrace the Festool ecosystem and it is glorious (sanders and dust collector)
- Total Network Rebuild - I'm going 10 gig with Unifi and fiber!
- Ella accepted into Montessori
- Publish my first proper YouTube video - March 17th
- Change jobs at Red Hat - Become a Cloud Success Architect (CSA) after 5 years as a TAM
- Brent visits Raleigh!
- Fully mic'd the drum kit with Brent
- The 10 gig networking video
- Wookies in the Woods!
- Autocross in the R - my first motorsports event in the USA
- NC Zoo with Ella
- The Tailscale video
- Signed up for a real track day at Virginia International Raceway which means car prep!
- Brake upgrades! with issues (new pads and caliper issues rubbing on new two piece disc hats). Nightmare!
- Kayaking on Falls Lake with Ella for my birthday
- Quickjacks
- VIR Memorial Day weekend with Tidewater - First time on track in USA - PB 2.27
- Track day(s) blog post thread
- NCCar Track Day
- Dedicated track wheels and tyres arrive
- VIR with PCA Carolina
- Our neighbour removes almost all their trees :(
- DIY Golf R Intercooler Upgrade - blog post
- Self-Hosted Episode 100 💯 🥳
- VIR with Chin - PB 2:18.09
- Said farewell to our Golf Mk4 R32
- Became mildly obsessed with Coffee and Chemex
- Left Red Hat after nearly 6 years
- Joined Tailscale as Developer Advocate
- Chicago - DevOpsDays conference (mmm Deep Dish)
- Ella's first day at Montessori
- Took Ella to Butterfly House in Durham
- 5 year anniversary of emigrating - where does the time go?
- New Orleans with Tailscale (and Cat)
- Canadian Rockies roadtrip with Mum and Brent
- Factorio binge
- Mum visits Raleigh
- Promoted to Head of Dev Rel at Tailscale
- AlleyCat first public recital
- VIR with PCA FSR (signed off solo!) - PB 2:20.59
- All Things Open
- Caitlin visits Raleigh (Pumpkin patch!)
- UK backup system total failure
- Chicago - Kubecon
- Bambu X1 Carbon
- Peppa Pig live!
- Bonus Room reshuffle
- Organisation resolution - make places for everything and put things in them. If there's no place, it's gone. Gridfinity!
- VIR with Tidewater - PB 2:16.01
- UK backup system total rebuild (thanks Gary!)
- Framework Ryzen laptop
- Garage gets a mini-split!!
- Dumped Plex
- Going overboard with the picture wall