Highlights of 2018. Goals for 2019

Since I started this website, just over four years ago, I've written mostly about information security and cloud computing. I'm still going to do that, but I'm also going to write more about various other subjects that interest me, such as how the tech industry is broken and how we might be able to fix it, but also more diverse subjects like health, fitness, nutrition, personal development, intelligence, philosophy, mental health, etc. I'll also continue to keep you posted about what I've been reading at https://tomssl.com/books/.

I realise that it might be sensible to have separate websites for at least some of these topics and, of course, I've considered that. However, right now I have neither the time nor the mental energy to work out the best way to do it. Also, I hope that some of the articles I write will span several disciplines, so that approach would end up constraining me in ways I don't want. This is my personal website and I want to use it to share anything that I think might help people and that they might find interesting.

Bearing all of this in mind, I have simplified my logo and removed the Security Matters part. This might seem a bit odd (and, of course security does matter and this website does still contain matters pertaining to security), but it would be more odd having the old logo next to some of the stuff I'm going to write about over the coming year. It was another constraint I no longer want.

Selected highlights of 2018

• We finished our house extension (which was started in July 2017 and took until October 2018). Since we've been saving up for it since 2004, this is fairly major.
• I've been working with some nice, bright people for a bank in Central London, all aspects of which I love, except for the massive time commitment which the commute seems to entail.
• Having got fit and lean last year (but still not finished writing the article explaining how), I have managed to stay at roughly the same bodyweight ever since (100kg) and have started to get a bit stronger again.
• Lots of cool family stuff, including getting three kittens in September (they needed a home, we needed to have some of our stuff slightly wrecked) and the fact that my wife and I still managed to attend all of the important school stuff our kids were involved in.
• I stayed awake to see in 2019 (this doesn't always happen; if you've got young kids, you'll probably understand why).

Of course, there were loads of other highlights and this is just a random selection. However, I didn't manage to write nearly as much as I wanted to and I will need to be even more disciplined with my time this year if I'm going to achieve my writing goals. For example, I started (and nearly finished) writing a book early in 2018 but, after I changed jobs in May, all progress on the book ceased. My plan had been to finish the book in time for Christmas and I didn't do that. Whilst it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, it's... suboptimal.

Having said that, stuff is generally pretty cool. I managed to take care of the important stuff and that's all that really matters.

Hang on, what were the goals for 2019?

I've got a lot of stuff inside me I want to get out (I mean ideas, not viscera), so I'm going to do a lot more of that this year, which should equate to more articles here and at least one book being completed, if not more.

That's it for now. Have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2019 and, if you think I can help with any of that, let me know.

Picture credit: Me and one of my kids.