With 2015 coming to an end very soon, it’s time to look back on how the year was for me 🙂
Life in general
My personal life has been pretty much the same, but things changed at work. My team grew, and I moved into a management position! I was already a team lead, but now I’m more of a dev manager and spend more of my time managing than coding. I used to do 30% team lead stuff and 70% coding, but now the percentages are swapped!
Hobbies
2015 was a big focus on photography for me. I started a Project 52 to take a serious photo every week, and I was also invited into the Flickr licensing program early in the year.
I did more cosplay photoshoots than 2014 too. I did 14 total: 6 at Ikkicon, 3 at San Japan, 4 at AnimeFest, and 1 shoot at the lake. Half were with cosplayers I had not worked with before, so it was nice to meet new people!
My websites were another focus in 2015. I changed layouts for four of my websites: this blog, my graphics site, my cosplay blog, and my cake website. I also merged my Photoshop tutorials site into my graphics site, so I’d have one less site open. My photography portfolio is 90% done as well. I hope I can show it soon!
And of course, when I spend a lot of time on a couple hobbies, my other ones become neglected. I ended up only finishing one cosplay last year, which was Phi from Zero Escape.
Travel
I took a few trips to different Texas cities for conventions and a conference, but my first trip out of state was to West Point, NY. It was an unexpected one since we were going to a funeral. It was beautiful in the fall though, and I got to see where my in-laws grew up and went to school.
On brighter news, I went to San Francisco twice! The first time was for a bachelorette party, where I spent time in both San Francisco and Napa. It was a much needed trip to relax, and the food in Napa was so good.
The second time was on the way to Maui, which was me and my husband’s 4th trip to Hawaii. We spent a week on Maui doing things we loved, like snorkeling, hiking, and eating 😉 We now have a good feel for the 4 popular islands of Hawaii!
Other Notable Events
- I attended PAX South, which is the first one in Texas and our 4th time attending a PAX expo.
- I went to three Anime cons: Ikkicon, San Japan, and AnimeFest.
- I met Michelle, Mija, and Stereometric in person!
- I went to two tech conferences: TX JS (Javascript conference) and Grace Hopper (conference for women in tech).
- Since our company had grown so much, we had to move offices. We moved into a brand new building a few miles away that is much larger!
- My hackathon team got first place in a category for our company’s annual hackathon, and then we formed Menagerie Development afterwards for plugin/app development.
- I was one of the official photographers again for our company’s user conference.
Favorite Entries
I’ve seen a few other bloggers do this, so I thought I’d join in 🙂
- A quick guide to DSLR settings – my guide to using manual DSLR settings
- Wedding Memories – a few little known facts about my wedding
- New obsession: Onigirazu – how to make onigirazu, a play on onigiri
- What Nintendo means to me – my tribute to Nintendo and Satoru Iwata
- Professional-related goals – my goals relating to work and photography
- Beginner Cosplay Tips – tips on making your own cosplay
- 8 photos of happiness – photos that make me happy
Moving Forward
My goals for 2015 were around exercising more, cleaning up the house, and organizing my websites. Though I could have exercised more, I feel like I was pretty successful at all three.
For 2016, I’ve decided not to make goals like that. They’re just too general, and I feel more motivated when they are concrete things I should achieve. So, I won’t be writing new resolutions here. Instead, I will be looking back on my professional-related goals and set new ones for 2016!
Next up will be my gaming year in review, and then after that, I will revisit my professional-related goals!
Congratulations on everything you were able to achieve this year. Looks like your 2015 was full of amazing things and was super productive! I hope 2016 is just as good for you 🙂
Have a happy and safe new year!
I hope you have an amazing 2016!
I really like to read about year in reviews. You were very busy and had a number of things that changed. I really can’t wait to see your portfolio. 😀
<3
It looks like 2015 was a great year for you! Your cosplay shoots are great, I really like the top right Sakura – the colour of the costume really pops against the background.
I really enjoyed reading about all of your different trips this year, especially to Hawaii – will you be going again soon?
Good luck with everything in 2016! I’m looking forward to reading your gaming year in review too!
Thanks! I think we’re taking a break from Hawaii now 🙂 We’ve been 4 times in the past 5 years, so we should probably find another place to visit, haha.
Such an active 2015 for you! That is awesome. You made some real progress on your websites. I’m lagging WWAAYY behind but oh well.
WOW! Congrats on your “promotion”! 😀 Your website looks awesome, btw. I found you from Kya’s blog. I’m trying to get back into blogging myself and I’m hoping that blog hopping tonight will help. 🙂
You are awesome at photography. That’s awesome! I love your yummy pixels layout! It looks awesome!
Good job accomplishing everything you did this year! I hope your next year goes even better than last year!
Congratulations on moving up the ranks and managing teams :D. Glad to hear that you succesfully completed Project 52! I can imagine how hard it must be when there are slow weeks. I like how personalized this blog is, especially since you got a picture of yourself on the header (which works out perfrectly!).
You had some awesome traveling done this year. Hawaii looks amaaazzzzing!!! It’s great to see a lot of self-development going on, and it showed pretty well from the posts you’ve made :D.
Good luck with your goals for the year!
I feel so motivated reading this, it sounds like you’ve had such a lovely year. I hope 2016 is just as wonderful for you. Congrats on everything you’ve achieved, you definitely deserve every bit of it 🙂
I enjoy your photography so much, I’ve been inspired to pursue photography because of the amazing photographs amazing people like you have done :”)
You had a great year and I’m happy for it <3 I wish you all the best for the next year!
Ah, what a productive year you had with your work and hobbies and travels! I love seeing your photos throughout the year, and I look forward to seeing more in 2016. Not to mention your cosplay! Makes me wonder what will be your next cosplay project 🙂 And where you will travel next, what you will play, and what professional goals you’ve set for yourself. I wish you luck with all that, Cat! <3
Looks like you had an awesome year! I wish that 2016 is even better! 😀
The photos you took were great, I especially love the one in Hawaii, so beautiful!
Good luck with the goal setting.
Congratulations on getting the management position!
I love your outfits for cosplay. They’re so neat and unique looking. I don’t think I would be able to pull anything like that off. I am an artist, sure, but I am not really into cosplay that much. I admire those (like you) who can pull it off though.
Sounds like you had an awesome year of 2015, and I am sure that this year 2016 will be more amazing than the last. Happy New Years!
Happy New Year!
It sounds like you had a really great 2015. I love your cosplay photo shoots. I only just started cosplaying this year and I love it. Your costume is awesome! I hope you get more chances to do more in 2016 – I love those posts!
It’s exciting that you got to travel to so many places this year. I hardly went anywhere this year. I think most of my trips were to Comic Cons, but I never left the exhibition area.
Good luck with any goals you decide to make this year!
xxx
Happy New Year!
2015 looked amazing for you and I’m sure 2016 will be even better! I love all your cosplay photographs 🙂
Also, I’m hoping to visit San Fran this year! Super excited. I would also love to visit Hawaii, one day. Good luck with the goals you set! x
*big huge round of applause* You had a really successful year, Cat! And I love that you attended conferences and had some work-related wins, too. I remember some of your favourite posts and I enjoyed reading them too, especially the cosplay for beginners and the 8 photos of happiness. 🙂
I can’t wait to see your photography portfolio as I’m sure it will be full of all the amazing photos I’ve seen you take. 😀
I’m curious to see your professional related goals as well – I’ve become more work-oriented over the past year and it feels good to have goals in that area especially because I believe that professional development builds up on personal development in its own way.
Wooo, sounds like a good and successful year!! I didn’t know about your cake blog but IT’S AWESOME. Still a big fan of your photography (favorite is probably the pink-purple sky in Hawaii but I love the Card Captor Sakura cosplays too!!) Congratulations on all the amazing achievements, I wish you the best (and better!) in 2016!!
Cat, you had such an awesome year! I loved reading about all of your travels because you take such beautiful pictures! These just take my breath away!
Was it this year that you changed your layout? I feel like this is just as much a part of silent-white! The header is perfect, showing all of your interests and hobbies, and even you!
I hope you have a wonderful 2016! Can’t wait to read about your new year!
I’m so glad we got to meet up at PAX South!!! Sadly, we won’t be attending this year but lots of our friends are going!! I debated with myself but I don’t know if a prego Mija can waddle around the con lol!!
2015 was really awesome for you Cat!!! I know 2016 will be even shinier!! Thanks for being my friend and I hope we can meet up again in 2016!!
You definitely had a good year! And seems like you are going to have a better one. I have always loved managing my blog but you, you have a lot and you can manage them. What’s you secret?
Anyway, Happy New Year. 🙂