Blog Entries Tagged Retrospective

Here's a list of all 18 blog entries tagged Retrospective here at derek.broox.com. I've also got 0 other things related to Retrospective.

  • 2023 was expensive, but fun posted

    2023 was a strange year. It felt gluttonous and hard to catch up, but it was always gonna be tough to follow the year of free boi summer. We had lots of good stateside travel, a couple annoying financial issues, and I accidentally bought a Bronco. We hosted fewer events and I made a conscious decision to only hang with folks who also invite us to things. This turned into spending time with new sets of great people but also seeing old buddies less than I'd hoped... read more

  • Twenty Twenty Two posted

    I almost didn't write a year-end blog because I kinda captured the year already, but ... 5 weeks late, I just wanna say that 2022 was one of the best years that I've had in a while. Most things have already been shared on my yearly stats page and blogs: I quit my job I got a hole-in-one I took 6 months off Oh, and we got a dog. But, I ultimately focused on myself and leisure and felt more alive than I have in a long time. I realize that I'm incredibly fortunate to have had those opportunities, but I'm now back to work, where I'm learning a ton and that's exciting... read more

  • 2021 - The Big Disappointment posted - 1 comment

    2021 was the year that was supposed to be normal again. I really thought that we would get together and beat this pandemic, but nope. 2021 was somehow worse than 2020, at least for me. The disappointment was real. The depression was real... read more

  • Forty posted

    I’m 40 now. Almost dead. So, as I approach my final years (RIP), I’ve been reflecting a lot on the past decade and what I want going forward. On my 30th birthday, I moved to Chicago to kick off a new, stressful, and fruitful trajectory in my life and career. In that decade, I took some risks, took advantage of some big opportunities, worked hard, had some big wins, lucked out, and burned out... read more

  • 2020 - That quarantine life posted - 3 comments

    My goals for 2020 were to: learn how to relax tinker on some smaller car/tech/house projects lose that new fat ride that bike Covid really helped me nail three of those, hah. But with nowhere to go, I didn’t get on the bike nearly as often as I wanted. So first of all, Kari and I were incredibly fortunate to have steady work, income, and a spacious home and yard during this pandemic. I absolutely feel for everyone that had their pay scaled back or eliminated, or were cooped up in apartments or city spaces without being able to fully enjoy their local amenities. The only way that I knew how to stay sane in isolation was to be outside and stay as busy as possible on projects, so I started the pandemic with a lot of yard work and small house projects... read more

  • Two Thousand Nineteen posted

    A few weeks into 2020 and I’m still not sure how I feel about 2019. The entire year felt like remodeling and travel... which turned out to be a lot less chill and a lot less healthy than I had hoped for. House I started small by tiling a window ledge in my office. Then, I remodeled the entire basement (with a little help on the plumbing, flooring, tile, and drywall)... read more

  • Twenty Eighteen. posted - 2 comments

    I really, really want to bring this suuuuper dated website up-to-date, but I've been so focused on things outside of technology that I haven't devoted any time to broox dot com. Let's fix that... at least for one blog post.. and talk about last year. 2018 felt incredibly productive... read more

  • Sixteen and Seventeen posted

    At the end of the year, I always try to write a little retrospective blog that highlights all the awesome things that happened. It's one of the few times that I actually take the time to write on this weird little site anymore. But, I didn't do that retrospective for one of the seemingly raddest and most successful years of my life: 2016. It took a while, but I eventually realized that despite the rad experiences, I didn't write about 2016 because I was generally unhappy. Over the past couple years, I've been stuck in my head... read more

  • Oh yea... 2015 was awesome posted

    Three weeks into 2016 and I've finally taken a second to think about last year. A year I visited both coasts, sang for a couple thousand people, celebrated 10 years with Kari, sold a company I helped build, and bought a new house. 2015 really was an amazing year. I travelled to Minnesota for beer, California for meetings, Maine for lobster, Boston for fun, Mayakoba for an amazing wedding, Madison for Shenanigans, the wilderness for disconnecting, and of course a dozen trips to Chicago (for both work and play). The big thing, though, which I haven't really talked much about is the sale of our company, Modest... read more

  • Becoming Middle Aged posted - 1 comment

    So, my friend Carol has this theory that you truly begin your middle aged life once you become thirty three and a third. She's based this on the idea that if we live to be ~100 years old (yea right), the first third of your life is from 0 to 33.3 years old, the second (middle) third is until you're 66.6 years old, and so on... She totally buys into this thing too. Like she'll even make you a 33.3, middle aged narwhal birthday cake if you're lucky like my buddy, Nick. So anyway, with that said, Carol tells me that today marks my 33.3 year old birthday... read more

  • Some things that I learned in 2013 posted

    2013 was a roller coaster of a year for me. A roller coaster with some serious business highs, lows, and hardly anything in between. A few of the key happenings were... went to a presidential inauguration and some inaugural balls! ... read more

  • Two Thousand and Twelve posted

    The year that I… brought in at Chicago house parties with Kari, Drea, and friends. mostly spent living in Chicago, apart from visiting my wife and working my ass off. learned to scratch records (sort of). watched my uncle get inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. met the President of the United States... read more

  • What I was actually doing for those 15 months in Chicago... posted - 7 comments

    I moved to Chicago for 466 days, where I lived in 3 different neighborhoods and visited 375 different places — 239 of which were restaurants or bars. I walked around 10,087 steps (or 7.67 miles) per day, slept roughly 7.19 hours per night, and gained 1 pound before returning to Iowa. I was actually in the city on 400 of those days and ventured out of Chicago on 117 of them. 68 of those (spread across 17 different trips) were spent in my actual home, with my wife in Iowa. I was also fortunate enough to get out to Washington DC, San Francisco, Arizona, and Napa Valley... read more

  • 2011 Retrospective posted - 1 comment

    Ah, 2011. A year that was brought in while wearing tie dye tighty whities at a house party in Des Moines, and finished at a freshly painted warehouse party in Chicago. It was quite a roller coaster year with my new job, huge culture shifts, and a long distance relationship with that amazing wife of mine. There's sooo much to talk about, but I'm gonna try to keep this short and list style. So, other than my new job and the move to Chicago... read more

  • 2010 Was Good posted

    So a couple weeks ago I put together a timeline of my 2010 with plans of writing a year end blog... so now that you've forgotten about everyone else's 2010 retrospectives, here's 1 more. Every time I write these I start out thinking, "man, I didn't really do a whole lot last year," but after looking back through photos, blogs, and tweets... I'm quite happy with last year. I traveled a lot, saw a lot, became a bit healthier, and progressed professionally... read more

  • From Sea to Shining Sea posted

    2009 was the first year that I visited both the east and west coasts... And actually, I also touched the northern border and was only 30 miles from the southern border. I know I'm a geo dork, but I think that's pretty rad... and while we're on the subject, I'll just go ahead keep gauging the success of last year based on travel... so here we go... read more

  • Bring on 2009!? posted - 1 comment

    Well, 2008 seemed to suck pretty bad for a lot of people. The economy, floods, etc. It was a rough time. I gotta say though, aside from gas prices, 401k losses, and a missed job opportunity, mine was pretty damn good. And our new year's eve celebration also bounced back to being good this year... read more

  • It's 2008 posted - 6 comments

    Kari and I's New Years Eve was quite interesting this year. We had these plans to make it a fancy/dancy night, which sort of fell through and left us stranded on a curb in some -4 degree wind chill weather. Aside from that though, it was a good night. We kicked it off with a fancy 5 course prix fixe dinner at Sage. It was amazing... read more