2021 Year-in-Review

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

While the pandemic continued to shape how we lived and worked in 2021, the Kirk family found plenty of silver linings to celebrate. Between welcoming a new furry family member, navigating life with two busy teenagers, and embarking on a major career change, it was a year full of transitions. Here is a look back at the highs and lows of 2021:

Family: Daisy, Vaccines, and Geek Dad Pride. We kicked off the year with a fantastic family announcement on New Year’s Day: we welcomed our second miniature dachshund, Daisy, to the household. Between Deebo and Daisy, my Twitter feed practically turned into a weekly “Doggos Corner”.

The kids, now 12 and 13, are growing up incredibly fast. I had an incredibly proud “geek dad” moment in April when I noticed my son Andrew playing Terraria with a friend; when I asked him about it, he casually explained that he had set up his own server for them on a Virtual Private Server (VPS). My side hustle also officially became maintaining Minecraft servers for the kids and refreshing them whenever they needed a new seed. To help manage our busy tween household, I even deployed a digital family calendar in the kitchen using a Raspberry Pi and Dakboard.

On the technology front, we officially became an all-iPhone family, handing down iPhone 8 Plus devices to the kids. We also finally upgraded our family vehicle from our beloved Prius V, taking delivery of a 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe Plug-in Hybrid.

Most importantly, after a long year of lockdowns and restrictions, the tide finally turned. By September, our entire family — including 12-year-old Emma and 13-year-old Andrew — was fully vaccinated, leaving us feeling much more optimistic about the future. Alicia and I even celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary with a hot date to a Tim Hortons drive-thru for coffee and Boston Cream donuts.

Work and Homelab: A Major Career Pivot. 2021 brought a massive professional transition for me. In September, I officially wrapped up my time as the Director of Digital Innovation & Technology at the Nova Scotia Community College. It was incredibly difficult to leave such a great team, but I started a brand new chapter working as an Executive Counselor for Info-Tech Research Group. A couple of months into the gig, my favorite part was simply having the opportunity to meet and help wonderful IT leaders all across the country.

In my basement “data center,” my homelab continued to evolve. Early in the year, I migrated away from being a happy Synology user after discovering Unraid; it completely blew me away as a storage and virtualization platform.

Sports: Watching Legends Leave and Struggling Teams. Sports provided more stress than relief this year. My beloved Pittsburgh Steelers were looking incredibly rough, routinely giving up massive deficits and running baffling plays.The Toronto Raptors didn’t fare much better, struggling through a tough season. The hardest pill to swallow was watching Kyle Lowry move on. However, seeing him insist on playing and winning games with his boys right up until the trade deadline was a great reminder of the mentality and leadership that makes him the greatest Raptor of all time.

Despite the sports-induced headaches, we wrapped up the year on a high note. Andrew and I discovered an amazing co-op video game on Steam called It Takes Two, sharing plenty of laughs and meaningful conversations over Discord. Time keeps flying by, but 2021 was a great year for the Kirk family.