2012 Retrospective
I really love the Google Zeitgeist videos for the spirit in which they reflect on each year (see the ones for 2010, 2011, and 2012). These are fantastic for looking back at the big events we all experienced throughout the year.
I also like to put together an annual retrospective (see the ones for 2010 and 2011) to consider the things my family and I have experienced and the ways that we have grown. Let’s jump in.
2012 was amazing.
Our family grew by 33%, if you count number of people, or only by 3.5%, if you are counting biomass. We added 11,527 miles to our car and, collectively, we stepped foot in 1 Country, 1 Ocean, 8 airports and 23 States. Since last year, the number of books I read decreased by 58% but the number of blogs I subscribed to increased by 113%. I tweeted 176 times, posted 111 things on Facebook, and built 5 websites.
It was also the first year I:
- Programmed a game
- Put up a Facebook ad
- Spoke on a radio show
- Landed a salary
- Saw a giant squid
- Got a tweet from someone with 20K+ followers
- Paid money for an eBook
- Ran 5k at the National Mall
- Ate food out of a dumpster
- Met the President
- Held my own garage sale
- Visited San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Boston, and Washington DC
- Walked through the Redwood Forest
- Bled the brake lines on our car
- Was interviewed on television
- Attempted to grow a Mustache (I’ll spare you a link to that one)
- Moved across the country
- Got a smartphone
- Ate octopus
- Had an FBI background check
- Bought a couch
- Watched the US Presidential Debates
- Graduated college
- Had a son
- Saw Marine One
- Took a shower when the water couldn’t get as cold as I wanted
- Cleaned up after a Hurricane
- Saw a Jackson Pollack
- Sent out a Christmas card
- Juggled three diapers in the air
- Had my Gmail account compromised
- Contributed to open source
Then again, Holly made an 18 pound boy, entirely from her own bodily resources… which is something I could never do. It was also the first year she:
- Spent 7 hours on a plane with 2 children under 2 years old
- Made a homemade apple pie without accidentally substituting salt for sugar
- Took a child to the emergency room
- Went inside the Washington DC Temple
- Hosted Thanksgiving dinner
- Was elected county delegate at republican convention
- Learned self-hypnosis
- Ate chicken at Joe’s Crab Shack
- Hit a traffic cone
What a year.
(Detailed Stats: 2011: 3 family members, 283 lbs, mileage=153629, read 12 books, total blog subscriptions=24. 2012: 4 family members, 293 lbs, mileage=165156, read 5 books, total blog subscriptions=51)