Highlights of 2020

Here's a list of some memorable projects over the year that were conceptualized and built by me:

1. Jason Mendoza Says (Quote Generator)

Mint-lang. The Good Place.

2. Mahjong Score App

Svelte.

3. Offtrack Map Reveal.

Svelte. Dragula.

4. Blog and template

Eleventy. Tailwind. Interesting thing is that the blog post related to Eleventy was the number one blog post of the year.

5. daily-ui-flutter

Flutter. Daily UI. Codepen. I was so proud of my codepen achievements lol.

6. portfolio

Snowpack. Svelte. Tailwind. Netlify Forms. Picture loads very slowly.

6. hq-palette

lit-element. Node. Colors.

7. variable fonts primer

Atomico. Otion. Variable fonts.

8. readme-the-rss

Github Action. RSS.

9. turtmail

Terraform. AWS (SNS/SES/Lambda). Python. PyWin.

10. LastPoop

Terraform. AWS (DynamoDB). NextJS.

11. [DNF] Notes

Deno. Docker. Typescript. Github Actions. I found out that Notion does the exact thing I wanted... Lol, so DNF.

2021

I want to do more IaC, more CI/CD Automation, more TDD.

I want to focus more on doing the right thing than getting something out fast. Looking back at 2020, I did a lot of feel-good small web products. While I think it is important to just start, I hope to use that as a stepping stone into building something more meaningful with more probable chance of getting eyeballed by more people.

I want to continue to write more, also. I encountered a lot of new things in 2020 and whenever I got something small to work, I will get excited and want to blog about it (lol), even though it is probably documented on alot of tutorails already. Nonetheless, I think it is cool to nurture my own voice and writing style. I don't want to sound like a 18 year old blogger all the time lol.

I am grateful for 2020.

I changed my job right before circuit breaker (see: lockdown) in Singapore.

For the next 9 months after that, I went through the rollercoaster of highs and lows of working from home: the waking up late; the multitudes of zoom calls; the fatigue of ironically staying at home. I gained a nice work set up at home. I even got to try out a new mechanical keyboard (filco) and even a laptop stand.

In the last few days of December, I went back to work in office for a day with a colleague. Even though I had to lug two laptops to work, the effort was worth it. There is something about in person human interactions (even just in the pantry) that cannot be transmitted through packets in a chat message or a Zoom call.

因为失去了，才懂得珍惜。

It was finally my turn to pick up the eBook, The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F***, by Mark Manson. (I was on wait list for like eons.)

He mentions the fallacy of fault and responsibility. Covid19 took us like a 80km/hr volleyball to the face. It is nobody's fault. However, we are entirely responsible for how we decide to act and behave.

We have to own it and take responsibility and ownership for our lives. What good does it do to mope or to feel dejected?

Another tidbit of insight to consider is the idea that "Uncertainy is the root of progress."

Yes, we have to simulatenously learn to break down what we already know and accept that we do not know what we do not know and move forward humbly (thank you Furudate-san and Ushiwaka). And yes, doing so can result in failure and godforbit we experience the shame and fear of being labelled a failure.

Happiness comes as the result of solving problems. The more problems we can resolve, the greater happiness we can achieve.

Be it the problem of job fulfillment, or a stable relationship, or improving ties with your family. We have to pick and choose our battles. Not all battles can be won, so we have to priortise what we value most.

There's 364 days left to 2021.

Here's to an uncertain year ahead. :)