It has been years since I last wrote a “year in review” post. In fact, the last was my decade in review post in January 2020. So here we go.
10 Years at Actionable
In July, I celebrated my 10th anniversary as a full time employee at Actionable (I started there on contracts 4 years prior). It also marks the beginning of a job transition within the company. I’m working towards being in a fully technical role, leading the development of the company’s applications and infrastructure. It’s a better fit for me, with some exciting new projects ahead.
While we’ve primarily been a monolithic application until now, 2025 saw us expand into having multiple applications. This has given me the opportunity to use some new technologies. This year I’ve started to dive into OpenTofu, Python and Tailwind.
This was also the first year I tried writing code with the assistance of AI coding tools. While the primary tool was Cursor, I’ve also played with Co-Pilot and Junie, each to varying degrees of success. While I think agentic coding won’t be going anywhere soon, it’s still only a tool in the toolbox. I’ve found it will work best for experienced developers who can give a much more developer-like instruction to the prompt. It’s been useful for writing tests, writing scripts to process data, and doing first passes at code review.
Theatre
Although I worked many events this year, there are two notable shows. The first in May was a local elementary school’s production of The Lion King Jr. put on by a huge cast of kids. This marked the first musical I’d done since before the pandemic.
In November, I joined the RAPA for their production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee as audio technician. This show was my first with this company, and the first community theatre production where I’ve been part of the company rather than representing a venue or vendor in at least 20 years. They were a fantastic cast and crew to work with. I had an absolute blast, and hope to do more with them in the future.
Café Expansion
In June, my partner Veronica’s cafe expanded. The tenant next door was downsizing, and so the cafe was able to grow, adding more seating room and giving the staff a little more room in the kitchen.
Extended Vacation
In August, we took the longest vacation we’ve taken in years. We hitched up our camper trailer, and headed east for three weeks. Although our goal was to visit Newfoundland and Labrador, this summer’s wildfires on Newfoundland caused us to rethink our plans at the last minute. Instead of boarding the ferry to the island, we turned back, and spent additional time in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec (backtracking west the route we’d taken).
Atlantic Canada is beautiful. If you’ve never been, you must. This was my first time driving the Cabot Trail, and the first time since I was a child visiting Peggy’s Cove. I hope we get to go back to see Newfoundland soon.
With some additional camping in the fall, we spent approximately 28 nights in the trailer in 4 provinces.
Media
This was the year I embraced the podcast. Perhaps the long road trip out east had something to do with it, or the drives back and forth to the theatre for the Lion King. I think this was the year I listened to more podcasts than music in the car.
Notably:
It’s also the year I dropped my Spotify subscription and started rebuilding my own collection – either on CDs, digital downloads, or vinyl.
WordCamp Canada
This was a quiet year for conferences, personally.
Ottawa was home to WordCamp Canada, the national WordPress conference, for the second time this year. The event was held at Carleton University, in the same rooms where we’d previously held WordCamp Ottawa. I was happy to volunteer for this event and catch up with old friends and maybe make a few new ones. Thank you to the organizers for letting me take part!
Next year’s camp will be located somewhere else in the country – which has not yet been announced. Keep your eyes peeled.
I’m hoping to attend more conferences next year.
Both Parents Retired
Capital Sound and Light, my Dad’s sound and lighting rental company, which has been in operation since I was a teenager, officially closed this year. Happy to see both of my parents enjoying their retirement.
Looking forward to 2026
That’s the big items for this year. Wishing you all a safe and happy New Year.