Allons-y!

At midnight last night Sara and I sat on the couch and kissed as we watched the clock tick down to midnight in Chicago. Why Chicago you might ask? Why not Mobile?

For those of you who don’t know, Chicago was where Sara and I met for the first time in real life so we find it fitting that we watch the celebrations there, via the internet of course, and face the New Year together by starting as we mean to go on… with a great big kiss and wrapped in each others arms.

Soppy stuff I know, but it’s important to us.

The past 12 months were amazing for us both personally and professionally, and 2012 looks to be even better.

I’ve learned so much in the past 12 months that I think it’s fair to say that 2011 may have been the year that I’ve finally grown up (although I still have a lot of that to do).

I’ve learned, both through success and failure, about being a step-dad to 3 wonderful kids. I’m hoping very much that, come the end of this year, we’ll be in a position where I can take a little of what I’ve learned and apply it to being a father to a new addition to our family.

The fact that I’m not Superman was a hard realization for me. Admitting that I simply don’t have the energy to do absolutely everything at once (no matter how much I want to), and that I need help every once in a while was a bit of a bitter personal pill to swallow, but one that was well worth swallowing.

Self-education has always been core to how I do things and approach problems, and this year I got to learn more than I ever wanted to know about things like WordPress, servers and caching, but the upside was that we got to travel to some really cool conferences to present of these things, and in the process learn even more new stuff and meet some of the most awesome people.

Intellectual challenge has also been front and center in 2011 (and I suspect this will never change) as I’ve spent far more time rationalizing, defending, explaining and perhaps, internalizing the fact that I am an atheist, than I ever have before. Again, this was something that has not been without great reward as I got to spend an hour presenting to amazing people (who have incredible patience) as I spoke about why I am an atheist. Putting together the presentation and opening myself up to deep and public scrutiny really forces you to question everything, but in doing so you learn a lot about who you are and where you stand.

One of the things I’d like to fix in 2011 is the amount of time we get to spend with friends. 2011 was a busy year for everybody we know. Many were juggling jobs, education, illness and other things at the same time, while we were juggling kids, trying to have a personal life, work and Scrw Media. I feel like I could make a better effort this year to accommodate and make time to be with the people we love.

And let’s gloss over the fact that, once again, I have more than a few pounds I need to shed this year….

Professionally it was an amazing year for Scrw Media. We went from hundreds of thousands of people a month visiting the network to literally millions of people a month visiting our sites. Obviously I want to make things even bigger and better this year and have lots of big plans which involve better design, tighter integration, a submissions process and even a couple of new projects. New projects, which I might add, will be a departure from the type of stuff we’re currently doing, but more on that in the coming months.

Everything that we’ve accomplished, tackled or simply done in the past year wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our friends and family, and I wish you all a Happy New Year for 2012.

Finally, to my beautiful wife Sara who has made so much possible and put up with so much in order to make things possible – Thank you my love, more than I could ever put into words. Happy New Year!

2012? Allons-y!