My 2014 was better than my 2013. Here are
some reasons:
Take
This Job and Love It
I began 2014 gunning for a full-time job,
but to repurpose Hemingway’s quote about bankruptcy, I decided to go freelance gradually,
then suddenly. I was a freelance journalist for about a decade, and by the end
of that cycle I was exhausted with the lack of money, the solitude, the irregular
hours and extremely irregular payment schedule.
Content strategy consulting is a much
different beast. There are client meetings, office visits, collaboration
sessions and other social elements. And when I need to concentrate, I have the
flexibility to work from home. From January to June I was gradually busy, followed
by a sudden whoosh of projects and presentations. By the end of it all I was
tired, but also a bit smarter and a bit richer.
Along with doing, I was able to augment my
brain by reading:
* Why We Fail (Victor Lombardi)
* Service Design (Andy Polaine)
* Exposing the Magic of Design (Jon Kolko)
* The New York Times Innovation Report
* UXPin Guide to Minimum Viable Products
I also attended UX Thursday, the best $100
I’ve ever spent on a conference.
Adventures
in Mid-Fi
In June I found a bass player for my
indiepalooza cover band. Shortly thereafter I found a drummer. And by November
we were sounding pretty darn okay. More importantly, we’d agreed on a name
(SubPox). But then we had to switch drummers (amicably) and the mad rush of
December happened. But I feel 99% confident we will play live in the spring of
2015.
Along the way I bought a life-changing
reverb pedal and a life-affirming delay pedal. Together they cover most of my
guitar noodling requirements. Which means I’m only two more pedals away from
not buying any more pedals for a very long time.
All
The Pretty Pictures (and Pixels too)
* Hearing Richard Turley, Erik Spiekermann
and Andrew Zolty talk at Design Thinkers
in early November.
* Enjoying Pulse Room by
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in a nearly empty Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in
July.
* Playing all the indie games at the AGO’s
Fancy Videogame Party in February.
* Admiring all the kickass KAWS at This is
Not a Toy exhibit (Design Exchange).
* Experiencing Jacqueries
on a warn August evening.
* Nuit Blanche-ing with Between Doors plus Everything
and Nothing.
* Touching a bunch of fun stuff at digiPlaySpace in the
TIFF Lightbox.
* Loving and not loving the Douglas
Coupland exhibit in equal measures at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Word
Nerd
* I was Handling Editor for an RRJ feature that won
third place from the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in the “Specialized Business Press Article” category.
* On June 16 I shared embarrassing moments
from my Grade 5 diary at Grownups Read Things
They Wrote as Kids in front of many people at The Garrison. In August my
performance was broadcast on CBC radio.
* I wrote about hidden gem Black Mirror for
Hazlitt.
* My byline appeared in Applied Arts and
Report on Business.
* I volunteered a few times at Story
Planet, but it wasn’t until I took part in an Alpha Workshop that I really felt
useful. Twenty kids collectively develop a story up to the crisis point and
then each writes their own ending. The whole thing takes two hours and somehow
it works.
This
Content Isn’t Going to Strategize Itself
As I’m fond of mentioning ad nauseam (because
I have SEO-whore tendencies just like everybody else), I organize the Toronto
content strategy meetup. This year we were able to get Karen McGrane to give a
guest talk. She was very generous with her time and insights and I’m grateful I
was able to have dinner with her beforehand.
The Other
Stuff
* My friends Graeme and Nadine had a second
child in February.
* My friends Adam and Bri got engaged in
December.
* My friend Chris threw a delightful house
party in January.
* I went to the RC Harris Filtration plant
during the February long weekend for an ice-tastic walk.
* I had the “SuperBeautys 2” breakfast
special during a 28-hour trip to Montreal in July. It isn’t a great year
without one of those.
* I quit Facebook on October 11. I thought it
would be a three month absence, but I now think I’ll never return to big blue.
* On April 11 I reached peak Galaga at Get
Well with a score of 150,650.
* I finally bought a super-slim Bellroy
wallet and it was worth every penny.
* I’m now the sort of person who owns a
wheelbarrow.