Now - Dec 2020
This is my now page.
It’s what I’d tell my friends if they asked me, “What are you up to right now?”
If you have your own site, you should have one too!
Things that have my attention #
This month’s obsession was most definitely Advent of Code - I’ve unwrapped a code puzzle and tackled it every day since December 1st! I’m very pleased to have completed every day’s puzzle on the day it was released. I was staying up to solve it for quite some time, until it was taking 3+ hours each time…that was definitely too much. I’ve learned a ton about programming by doing these, including loops, recursion, and optimising for speed/minimal-memory.
I’ve been enjoying Assassin’s Creed Valhalla lately.
I’m disappointed that Ontario is creeping back into lockdown - it definitely throws a bit of a wrench in my early-season skiing hobbies this year.
It’s gotten cold and lifting has been much harder to be motivated for - the bar is super duper cold!
This year’s successes #
- I joined R4DS Slack Community and it’s been an amazing community to be part of - making many new friends, having fun learning new things to become a better R programmer, and helping others also get better by answering their questions.
- I’ve made many new friends through the TDM Dynasty server and through the offshoot Mafia server that came off of it.
- Getting out as a rowing coach this summer was awesome, no matter how much I disliked the admin-bits of it, because I got to see and hang out with my friends as if it was a normal year.
- Continuing to hang out and work on projects through DynastyProcess with Joe has been awesome - his friendship and support has been incredible throughout the year.
- Work has been fantastic as a source of stability and routine. I wrapped up the second version of the core project in November/December and have appreciated the time to learn and work through some forecasting and predictive analytics for the upcoming year - really looking forward to continuing my growth as a data scientist/analyst/developer there.
- DynastyProcess has quadrupled in size this year, going from an average of 10,000 unique monthly users to over 40,000 (as of October/November)!
- I can definitely credit the mobile-first calculator for a bulk of that popularity gain - it’s definitely much easier to use than before.
- I made the ffscrapr R package a reality this year, managing to get it to support three different fantasy football platforms AND putting it onto CRAN!
- I carved a pumpkin every week in October, and loved the meditative process that went with it.
- I completed every single Advent of Code puzzle on the day it came out, and learned a ton about efficient R programming.
- I made a bunch of cool new apps for DynastyProcess and taught myself the beginnings of ML.
- I rebuilt my computer with some upgraded parts, and have been enjoying the improvements in computing power!
Disappointments #
I’m disappointed about my weight gain over the pandemic, and the frequency at which I slumped into a depression and burnout. I can’t wait for 2021, vaccines, and a gradual return to normalcy.