2025: another year of blog on the desktop again
i was thinking about how i'd like to set some intentions for the new year but have been blocked. i have more time on my hands than ever in my life, but i'm still working on moving forward without the paralysis that comes from having so many options and ideas (and adhd - a damn hottie disorder). then i realized tonight, while scouring the live laugh blog archive, that i wrote one of these posts when 2024 started, so let's start there.
"last year i picked up a lot of new things: aerial yoga, airbrushing and 3d web development, and so of course this year i want to get better at those and my other hobbies."
i really can't overstate how nice it is to have these old posts to go back to and remind me of all i've accomplished. my brain tends to default to forgetting my wins and replaying the fails, so going back to these posts have helped keep my brain honest. this should be your year to start a blog if you've not done so yet.
here are some highlights from 2024:
i wrote 26 blog posts, significantly up from the 9 i wrote in 2023. i would love to write even more, and i believe that won't be a hard record to break since i'm making way more things that can be shared than ever. just like 2023, i wrote and presented one conference talk in 2024. this time around, though, i presented at a community-centric conference, verses the tech and coding conferences i'd always done before. even though i'd been a community manager for several years, i'd not had the opportunity to speak to a large community audience before. it gave me very good perspective on what good community orgs are or aren't.
i also presented in a work event which was a rewarding experience as i collaborated a lot, leveled up my public speaking, got to be product lead for an exciting release, and gained all the perspective i needed to come to the decision to leave my job - which was by far the most smart and life-changing thing i'd done in a very long time, not just 2024. cpr/first-aid/aed certification was another cool thing i got to do at work, along with hosting monthly code jams and doing weekly livestreams showing off all the cool apps the glitch community made. as much as i love not working, i do really miss my team!
it's very hard to get me on an airplane, but i made an exception over the summer to co-host the final xoxo. it was the week before my last week at work, as well as the last xoxo ever, so it was very emotional for me. it was not so much from being sad about xoxo ending - i mean, it had to. it was moreso the thick flood of emotions i felt i had to carry as both the host and as someone who many had not seen in several years. hosting a high-EQ event is really hard!
speaking of hosting, i started co-hosting robot karaoke with my pal jamie brew. we first met at xoxo in 2018! he comes over often for tacos, coffee, hearing me vent about the patenting of weather-related algebra, and planning our shows. our first one of the year is on january 13th btw! it's fun and i'm glad jamie moved to new york, brought me into the fold, and joined me in the Summer Of Quitting Our Jobs.
after i quit, i started reading books again. i was such a voracious reader until the pandemic started, so to come back to it has been so much more rewarding than witnessing everyones lack of media literacy on bluesky. some of my favorites were my friend kevin nguyen's "new waves" and mary roach's "gulp".
i also joined a gym. if you saw how often i went, you'd think i "love going to the gym" or "enjoy working out." exercising is like working: i'd rather not do it! but i'm definitely not taking this time off for granted; when i say my job is gym/therapy/laundry, i actually mean it. none of those pay, so i want to explore how i can offload some of these drawings and candles i've been making to make enough cash to, say, cover health insurance.
from all of that being said, i pulled together what feels like good, achievable goals for 2025:
- post more often on the blog
- start selling my weird candle sculptures
- make a collection of paintings showing off my figure and airbrushing practice
- stream weekly as a vehicle for keeping my sites and art fresh
- read more than 12 books
- get involved in more in-person communities
- run a virtual event, like livelaughconf 2.0 for its 5th (!) birthday
- truly, deeply enjoy turning 40
- don't chop my hair off
- do 5 solid pushups
i'm fortunate to have gotten a head start on a lot of these, but i'm going to be very pleased with myself in january 2026 to be able to come back to this list and give myself the deserved time to celebrate my wins. i wish the same for you all, and a happy new year.
xoxo jenn
