2011 Year in Review

This article was originally posted on my personal website at the time, adamfortuna.com. I’m transitioning content from there to here on Minafi as it’s forever home. Although this article was written long before Minafi was started, it’s a nice opportunity to reflect.

In 2011 I was dating my now-current wife and living in Orlando. I turned 29 during this year and was still getting the basics down about investing. Looking back on this year, it was a pivotal year for me, when a lot of major events happened that would become core to me later on.

My yearly recap of what’s happened in my life over the last year.

Travel

•  Ruby Conf in New Orleans
• South Florida for Danielle and Matts wedding
• St. Petersburg for Crab Feast
• New York City with Mrs. Minafi for Christmas and New Years

Body

• Got Lasik on both eyes in June.
• Changed up my diet to be more in line with The Primal Blueprint
• Dropped soda for the most part. Occasional diet at lunch
• Started going to CrossFit 2 times a week (and feeling sore the other 5)
• Got more clothes that fit well

Hobbies

• Continued gardening, but at a slower pace
• Moved from Plex over to Boxee as a media center and spent our first year without cable.
• Setup an awesome backup/recovery plan for my data
• Began brewing beer, starting with an Octoberfest and a wheat beer
• Developed an appreciation for whiskey
• Ripped every DVD I own, and compressed them, then sold the physical DVDs.
• Moved music over to iCloud for day to day access.
• Massive consolidation of financial accounts, and using 1Password to keep things even simpler.

Events and Entertainment

• Behind the Seeds tour at Epcot
• Wild Africa Trek for my birthday
  
• Went to Evil Dead: The Musical and Avenue Q with Mrs. Minafi and the EnvyLabs crew.
• Backstage Disney Tour for Mrs. Minafi’s Birthday
• Went to Food and Wine Festival at Epcot a ton of times, including with the EnvyLabs crew complete with dessert party under the fireworks.
• Played through Portal 2 and Skyrim.
• The Mountaintop a block from Times Square
• Pirates of Penzance in New York
• Loved Fuerza Bruta, despite not knowing exactly how to describe it
• Saw The Moth live and loved it (but not the standing outside for 90 minutes in the cold part beforehand)
• Went to The Comedy Cellar for a great show

Work

• Decided to part ways with IZEA after 2 years, 10 months.
• Took a month off of work, mostly to relax, clean out some of the house, and work on a side project.
• Joined EnvyLabs in April, and continue to be amazed by both the people and the culture.

Programming and Technology

• Launched LineofThought, a site for tracking what technologies different websites are using. More a “for-fun” personal project than a get rich project.
• Helped Mrs. Minafi on the technical side of her blog, Forkful whenever possible. Her blog is doing great so far!
• Moved the code for my first ever website, DDRei to github so I can continue to laugh at it for years to come.
• Created my first ruby gem, a super basic wrapper for TicketUtils. Have to start somewhere.
• Got my feet wet with iOS development.
• Started creating a budgeting application as a way of learning Backbone.js

As for goals for the new year? For most of this past year I was setting goals in smaller increments and working towards them, which I’d like to do more of. It’s great for developing a routine without too much overthinking. Most things I want to do in the new year are already in progress — going to CrossFit more, working on (and using) the budgeting app, learning more iOS development, uncluttering the house and bringing in more color. Other than that, I’d like to be more social in the new year, and spend less time watching TV.