2016 Year In Review

2016 Year In Review

Overall, 2016 has been a terrible year. All trumped up.

Let me clear about that: nothing good that occurred for me can counteract that harm.

Personally: We went to Australia! I've loved my wife, read 30+ books, and lost 20+ pounds. My sister visited, and had a surprise wedding when we visited Oklahoma to surprise mom for Thanksgiving. I was unironically described as "woke", picked up a 5k habit, and expanded my technical skills. I've gained new friends, and lost a few.

Gaming: I've played a lot of cool games, and written a decent game or two. Went to Dreamation for the first time, Camp Nerdly for the nth. We're on the end of a Space Wurm versus Moonicurn campaign, which is a sequel campaign to a super hero game, with microscope in between. My gaming Thursday nights continue to be fruitful, both in terms of games and in providing support for the crew.

Books: 32 were fiction, 4 were non-fiction, and 1 was a memoir. 27 were written by men, 10 by women. 13 had male only protagonists, 20 had women as protagonists, or as shared protagonists. 4 had no protagonist -- non-fiction. 33 (!) were by US authors, four by identifiable non-US authors. Twelve involved a WoC, whether as author or as protagonist.

I'm stretching those definitions a little -- I'm counting The Expanse because Naomi, and the coin & dagger series as the protagonist is not from the dominant type of human. Of those 12, only two were by a woman of color: The Best Of All Worlds, and The Summer Prince

Health: I'm down 20 pounds, thanks in large part to an economics experiment. My 5k time got down to below 34 minutes before it got cold. I'm hopeful I can get down to below 30 minutes before 5k season.

Financially, the long game: Roughly a 1 in 4 chance of retirement before age 50, 7 in 10 chance before 55, and ~100% before 60.That's lower than I want, and fixable by finishing my roth for the year, and increasing my 401(k) savings.

The medium game: I've got less cash on hand than I like. This is probably solveable through 2017 by, well, not going to Australia.

The short game: Monthly obligations are satisfied. That is: rent is paid, checking account is positive, and debts are under control. I continue to have a job.

Gifting: Between the campaign and give directly, I've given away more money than in any previous year. Given the long game, I'm likely to give away less this year.

These were some of my major projects for the year. What did you work on?