New Beginnings for 2014

Another year has passed. It felt like a long one for me, longer than most.

For Katie and I, last year was one dominated by a single dramatic event: the arrival of Noah. With both of us being first-time parents we found the long pregnancy dreadful, the birth scary, and seeing our son for the first time - terrifying. The first six months have been a roller coaster ride as he's grown up, with some days and nights dragging on forever and others zipping by far too quick. I'll probably post a specific post about Noah sometime in the next few weeks, one that is long overdue (obligatory statement 'I cannot believe that my son is six months old already!'), just suffice it to say that having a kid is easily the most significant event of last year (well, probably my entire life, but let's skip the emotions).

Noah chilling in his high chair.

Coding projects last year felt a bit stunted even though I got a some things done. I've started building out a modest Github account to better share some code. My main sites have seen some minor tweaks, nothing compared to the responsive refactoring of late 2012, just a few new features scattered about. Most of my time has been spent working on the waterfall site, which is almost ready to be pushed live (honest!)

Hiking, though - there was a lot of cool things that happened last year and some cooler things happening in 2014. Last year alone I hiked around the Keweenaw, climbed Ives Hill and Tokiahok Head of Mount Ida, and even explored some more of the McCormick Tract. New hikes are already coming together, stretching from the Porcupine Mountains to Pictured Rocks, including some return trips to my beloved Mulligan Plains and Huron Mountains. There were over three dozen different hikes that I blogged about last year - with any luck, 2014 will have even more than that.

Anyways, on to the 'new beginnings' piece. Next Monday I have a new job! I'll be working at Shutterstock, a fast-growing startup based in New York City, as one of their remote software engineers. Outside of the immediate perk of working for an globally recognized company this opportunity is going to have at least one really cool change: Katie is transitioning to a stay-at-home mom to spend more time with Noah.

So last year was fun, a bit long, though between Noah, the new job, and all the exciting hiking I have planned, 2014 is going to be legendary. Hope that others have some cool things coming up for next year as well!