Lev Lafayette's journal

Attended a pre-NYE party on Friday, hosted by the good Anthony L. and Robyn M. Many old friends and colleagues there, including several current and former MPs and the odd diplomat. A fine night of good company and conversation; plus Anthony insisted on feeding me good scotch all night. Last night spend a quiet evening at Willsmere with caseopaya and our menagerie, slowly working our way through a great bottle of 2002 Murray Flyer Mourvedre, kindly provided by Phil T. As is usual for this time, the new year provides the opportunity for reflections of the past twelve months and portents for the future. This post is primarily about reflections. I am still pondering deeply about what to do about 2013.

Like quite a few friends, I don't think I'll be looking back on 2012 with particularly great love. Financially it has been quite hard on us (from the perspective of the middle-income first-world of course), with our household income about 1/3 less than expectations and some manageable debt as a result; although it seems we've turned the corner on that one. Of course, I was disappointed by the comical branch-stacking at the Unitarian Church this year which has cemented exclusion and financial incompetence for a period. Still, that cloud too have a silver lining with membership at a new liberal Church with much greater scale, scope, management, and opportunity. There was also two abandoned projects; studies at my The New Seminary, and the book on OpenFOAM, both of which were disappointing and relieving. Edit Neglected to mention that I did pretty much all of the organisation for Software Freedom Day in Melbourne, much of the Father Bob Maguire Concert at the Unitarians, and most of the plot for the computer game, Cargo.

Still, these things must been seen in perspective with the positive. Academically, I completed a Grad Cert in Project Management, and professionally the two PRINCE2 qualifications in the same field and with resultant related activities at work of increasing significance. I provided four presentations to the Philosophy Forum, three addresses to the Unitarians, one to the Melbourne Interfaith Philosophers, and one to the Language School. There was fifteen reviews published on RPG.net, and five issues of RPG Review published. There was three presentations to Linux Users of Victoria, one to Software Freedom Day, attendance and MC-ing at Linux Conference Australia and the same at the inaugural Multicore World conference in New Zealand. I wrote six articles for the Isocracy Network (one reprinted as the lead in the International Luxemburgist Network journal), and organised four forums from said organisation, and a further three for the Victorian Secular Lobby, giving presentations in two of those cases, plus a related Senate submission. Finally, because we keep rockin' in the free world, three reviews on Rocknerd.

Maybe I'm a little harsh on myself, but I do feel that I didn't achieve enough in 2012.