2018 ends
2018 was a mixed year for Emma and me.
At the start of the year, I was the principal engineer at MetaBrite. The year started out well initially, as we had moved to much larger offices at the end of 2017. In late January, a number of people were laid off, when it became apparent that the old business plan would no longer work. In late March, the company died abruptly when we lost our principal source of funding. I spent April looking for a job and received several offers.
I joined Stripe‘s Seattle office in June, where I work on the Edge team, which is "ensuring Stripe’s continued existence on the Internet". It’s been a bit of adjustment going from being a big fish in a small pond to at best a medium-sized fish in a much larger pond. Stripe is growing rapidly in Seattle and we just moved to a new space.
I’ve been active in Toastmasters, continuing as an officer at my home club, Freely Speaking Toastmasters. We’ve struggled with finding new members. After a couple of years in South Lake Union, we have moved back to Capitol Hill. In July, I became an Area Director, responsible for several clubs in downtown Seattle.
In June, the Wild Geese Players of Seattle put on our annual Bloomsday reading at the Seattle Central Library. In October, we arranged a 20th Anniversary Celebration of Irish Writing.
GoodReads says I read 113 books in 2018. Most of those books were on Kindle. I didn’t bother to add most of the paperbacks and hardbacks that I read, so the total is probably closer to 140 books for the year.
In the year leading up to my heel surgery at the beginning of 2017, I lost the habit of cycling to work, which I had developed over the preceding decade. I have not yet rebuilt the habit. I’m going to work on it in 2019.
Emma’s health has not been good and she’s had a rough year. She has a lot of abdominal problems, which are not well understood.
It’s been a poor year for the United States, with Trump in the Oval Office. I look forward to the new Democratic Congress which takes office later this week.
Here’s to 2019!