2019 Goals Quarterly Update (Q2)
OK, we have already reached Q2 2019! Right smack in the middle of summer. Not long ago, I posted my first quarterly update and promised to also send the first quarterly newsletter this quarter. Well, if you've subscribed you should have a fresh email soon in your inbox which includes a ton of interesting links and some content that is not included in this post (hey, I have to add value somehow!).
Progress on yearly goals
Let's see what updates there have been to my goals. To make it easy, I've only included new updates, so check out Q1 for a review.
Primary Goals
Professional
- ✅ Publish 4 Pluralsight guides on React & TypeScript by May
- I was just approved to write my 4th Pluralsight guide. Yes! It'll be out in August.
- ✅ Speak at NDC MN on a TypeScript topic
- I spoke! You can watch the recording on YouTube.
- ⌛ Publish 5 technical articles on the blog about Azure, TypeScript, or React
- 1 of 5 down. I recently wrote about Handling Safe Destructuring in TypeScript
Personal
- ☑️ Passive income should account for 2% of earnings, 1099 income for 5%
- Partially complete!
- Passive income as a % of W-2: 3.3%
- 1099 income as a % of W-2: 2.3%
- Total side earnings: 5.6%!
- This is awesome for not pursuing some more lucrative gigs this year so far. I've been focusing on monetizing KTOMG which has an opportunity cost but for me it's definitely worth doing.
- ✅ Replace my PCs at home with a single good Ultrabook/Notebook and a NAS
- Marking as done; no need to get a NAS, I just upgraded to two 1TB SSDs.
- ⌛ Push 3 substantive updates to KTOMG throughout the year: Steam review revamp, Raven 4 upgrade, and Linux hosting
- Migration completed to RavenDB 4 and the IGDB migration is nearly complete.
DIY
- ✅ Learn how to cut trim/baseboard and finish the nursery
- Let's leave this at just paint since I decided to leave the trim.
Stretch Goals
Professional
- ✅ Set up a quarterly newsletter
- Done! Sign up below or at https://kamranicus.com/newsletter
DIY
- ⛔ Install luxury vinyl plank in my office
- I think this will move to next year; I did research and picked out some styles, did a cost estimate, but I don't think I'll get to it this year unless I do it during winter.
- ⛔ Replace baseboard/trim in my son's bedroom Paint son's bedroom trim.
- I don't think I need to replace it; I may still paint it, though.
Unplanned Accomplishments
Professional
Invited to speak. This year was my first year where I was invited to speak at a conference. I'll be at MDC in October talking about building flexible UIs again (an updated version of my NDC talk). I also was invited to speak at the .NET User Group where I spoke about RavenDB 4 (video forthcoming).
New role at work. I was promoted to Lead Engineer and joined the Target.com web platform team. That means I'm actively working behind-the-scenes to make Target.com faster and better for you. I think if I add up all the performance optimizations I've made across the site, it's up in the 2-3 second range which is HUGE. It's pretty fun and I'm surrounded by way smarter people than me which I really enjoy.
More writing. In the last update, I mentioned I wrote an article about RavenDB indexes and that I had a second article in the works. Well, I published What's New in RavenDB 4.2 in May! I also posted a non-freelance article on Automating RavenDB 4 with Ansible.
Personal
- New blog. Starting a brand new DIY/crafts-focused blog with my wife, who loves to knit and sew. I focus on home projects and she makes awesome things for us to wear. I'll have more to announce soon.
DIY
- ✅ Completed a DIY window egress cover. I'm super happy with how it turned out. Guide forthcoming in Q3, which will be posted on the new blog 👌.
- ⌛ Cassie and I are refinishing an old dresser for our daughter, Saira. Progress will be posted on the new blog.
- ✅ Cassie completed her own DIY projects of repainting two old stools!
Final thoughts
Q2 went by quickly! We are in the dog days of summer and enjoying it quite a bit. Lots of trips, lots of friends, and still managing to hack away at projects and earn some side coin. The DIY stuff has been a lot of fun and I've appreciated learning new skills. Plus it's fun to work on shared projects with my wife!
