I have been thinking for a few days how I wanted to do this. My 2018 end-year-review thing. And I had a hard time, too many things happened this year plus I am at putting my thoughts together sometimes. Also I did a poor job at documenting things, in an organized matter, this year. Jumping in between systems and note taking places and my changes on how to journal. Anyway, this my year-end review

Life vents.

2018 started a little out of wack in my personal life.

• Unemployed, that wasn’t fun. I had lost my previous job late in 2017, therefore I found myself at the beginning of 2018 without a one.

• Some hard life events involving some personal relationships and depression. But thanks to friends and professional help — and medication — things are looking much better now. With the occasional struggle, of course.

• Finally sometime in April I found my current job.

• Baby Luna, definitely the biggest event of the year.

Tech.

As far as my technology, there wasn’t much in 2018. 2017, though, was more eventful.

• The HomePod
• iPhone X🅂
• Apple Watch Series 4

Systems.

This is probably the most chaotic year. As I said before I changed and jumped around many systems which got me to be a little unorganized.

• OmniFocus
• Things 3
• TickTick
• Goodtask
• Todoist

Journal.

I have recently changed the way I journal thus the systems I use too.

• No more Wordpress
• Hosted blog with Micro.blog
• Ulysses/Drafts
• Bear

Games.

Games that have been acquired in 2018. Some I have either just installed or just played a little bit because, attention span I guess.

• Assassin’s Creed: Origins (PS4)
• Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (PS4)
• Spider-Man (PS4)
• God Of War (PS4)
• Destiny 2 (Xbox One)
• Octopath Traveler (Nintendo Switch)
• Pokémon Let’s Go: Pikachu (Nintendo Switch)
• Megaman 11 (Nintendo Switch)
• Celeste (Nintendo Switch)
• Diablo 3 (Nintendo Switch)
• Aegis Defenders (Nintendo Switch)
• Stardew Valley (Nintendo Switch)
• The World Ends With You (Nintendo Switch)

Movies.

1. STAR WARS THE LAST JEDI
2. BLADE RUNNER 2049
3. CARS 3
4. THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX
5. COCO
6. GODZILLA: PLANET OF THE MONSTERS
7. FERDINAND
8. BATMAN NINJA
9. DEADPOOL 2
10. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
11. READY PLAYER ONE
12. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT
13. RAMPAGE
14. DEATH OF SUPERMAN
15. SICARIO: DIA DAY OF THE SOLDADO
16. JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM
17. PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING
18. ANNIHILATION
19. BLACK PANTHER
20. JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
21. VENOM
22. BIRD BOX
23. (here was for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2019 then)

Music.

I listen to way too much music to remember everything but these are the ones I listened the most (I think) and quite describes my music tastes.

• ‎X 100PRE by Bad Bunny
• ‎A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships by The 1975
• Delta by Mumford & Sons
• ‎‎The Unheavenly Creatures by Coheed and Cambria

Social Media.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Micro.blog
• Mastodon

What do I want to work on for 2019?

• More journaling (blog and private notes format).
• “Settle for one task management system”.
• Be more present.
• Less social media.
• (Micro.blog doesn’t count as social media) ;)
• Read more, specially books.
• More photo adventures.
• For my Social Media, still trying to figure out what I’m gonna do with that one.
• And whatever comes along…

Sharing ten questions you might want to answer in a year-end journal entry. I’ve found these to be very beneficial.

I’ve found these questions to be a great launching point for a long-form journal entry looking at the prior year and considering the next.

Great year-end questions to reflect on. My thanks to @ronguest for sharing these.

Okay, here’s the pitch: delete all social media apps from my phone! (Except for Twitter because I am and awful person). Basically the idea is delete Facebook and Instagram off my device. I want to see if I miss any interaction with these apps, if I can resist the temptation of checking them out. Again to see if I can leave without these two apps and depending on that I may just close these two accounts for good. At this point I have no clear expectations on how it’s going to turn out but it’s a start. Also I’m aware that this is probably not a true test since in the back of my head I know they still exist and can be accessed in someway at anytime. Ultimately I think I would like to get rid of them and replace social media with this personal blog.

We will see.

IN OTHER NEWS:

We got some snow today and drivers got a little dramatic about it this morning on my way to work. 😅

Back when I was playing with the idea of starting a blog of my own, I struggled for a to find a “good” name for it for a while. Until, one day, I remember I was having a group-text conversation with some friends. This was a few months after our first daughter Marley was born, so a little over two years ago now. I don’t recall the exact conversation but I do remember that whatever the joke or the subject was, I didn’t get it until probably ten minutes into the conversation, I was a little lost there for a while. It was definitely one of those “oh! right!” moments. And as expected from these individuals I got a lot of crap for it. To which I said “in my defense I have had two beers and I have a Marley”. And from that little “joke” it’s how the idea of Two beers and a Marley came about.

So I created my blog and named it, Two beers and a Marley. I was probably the only one that really got the joke, some people just thought it was a cute idea or something like that. But I have rolled with my own joke for all this time, about two years or so to be exact. Here’s the thing now, we recently had our second baby, a new addition to the family. And somehow I feel like Two beers and a Marley doesn’t quite work anymore. Now I am rethinking the whole concept. I probably could still get away with the original name but for whatever reason doesn’t feel right. I have a couple of ideas that I am evaluating but nothing for sure yet. For now my Micro.blog it simply called Gabriel until I can either come up with a new name or decide to just keep using the original one.

One thing I do know for sure, it’s that I am definitely sticking with Micro.blog for my blog hosting and getting rid completely of my Wordpress account. I have sort of been maintaining both “sites” opened but I think I won’t be renewing by WP membership at the beginning of 2019.

Other things to consider in 2019:

• get rid of Facebook ?
• get rid of Instagram ?

Friday Five (plus three): Good riddance, 2018. – Gratuitous Web Presence

So, why maintain a Facebook presence, then? Although there are a bunch of “friends” (acquaintances, really) I could probably do without in my orbit, there’s a fair number of people I actually care about there, and I hesitate to cut the Facebook tether to them.

My feelings exactly.