2019 Year-in-Review

Note: This post is AI-generated based on my twitter archive.

As I look back through the 2019 Tweet Archive, it is clear that life in the Kirk household is moving at warp speed. We spent the year navigating life with two rapidly growing tweens, watching an unforgettable championship run, and continuing to geek out over new tech. Here is the year in review:

Family: Tweens, Fortnite, and a Massive Road Trip. Our grocery bill officially skyrocketed this year as 10-and-11-year-old Andrew and Emma started inhaling all the food in the house. Andrew became heavily invested in Fortnite, waking up at 6:30 AM for new season launches and working on his play-by-play commentary for a potential streaming career. In a true passing-of-the-torch moment for this tech dad, the fastest computer in our house was officially relocated from my desk into Andrew’s room for gaming. Emma also joined the Fortnite craze, though I realized I had failed as a father when she proudly told me she was “camping” in the game, bringing me right back to my old Quake 2 days.

We also celebrated 14 wonderful years of marriage, realizing that Alicia and I have reached the stage where we accidentally dress exactly the same. Over the summer, we packed up our Toyota Prius V for a massive 5,300km road trip through Canada and the US, visiting friends, waterfalls, and countless swimming pools. We also made a conscious effort to be more thoughtful about our food and its environmental impact this year, moving away from cow’s milk to oat milk and experimenting with plant-based burgers on the BBQ. We wrapped up the year in matching Christmas onesie jammies and took a trip to a VR arcade, which the kids loved while I just tried not to get motion sickness.

Sports: We The North and Steelers Sorrows. If there is one defining sports moment of 2019, it was watching the Toronto Raptors win the NBA Finals. It was an incredible run watching Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet bring a championship to Canada. The hype even reached our driveway hoop, with Andrew shouting “board” and “bucket” without enthusiasm just like Kawhi.

Sadly, my Pittsburgh Steelers did not bring the same joy. The year started with the relief of finally trading away Antonio Brown and ending his non-stop drama. However, the season quickly devolved into a trainwreck without Big Ben, leaving me to suffer through conservative playcalling and watching “Duck” Hodges run for his life in the pocket.

Work and Technology: Homelab, Disney+, and DigITally Connected. On the technology front, my homelab tinkering continued. I spent a wild Friday night deploying a new Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X and rebuilt a PC with a new SSD for the kids. In the living room, after yet another price hike from Netflix, I finally cancelled the service and signed up for Disney+ to watch The Mandalorian.

At work, I was incredibly proud of my team at the Nova Scotia Community College. We hosted the DigITally Connected conference at the Ivany Campus to reconnect and learn from one another, and by November, I had successfully wrapped up my Annual Report to the Board.

2019 was a fantastic, busy year full of family milestones, epic sports moments, and plenty of coffee to keep us going. Time to see what 2020 brings!