• New year’s 2012 at Lights All Night in Dallas
• Finished last handful of business undergrad classes from UTSA and graduated
• Killed off Free Testbank after a five year run
• Participated in Techstars as a Cloud program design Hackstar
• Spent six months at 99designs, building out a new product
• Got back into blogging, however casually, thanks to Svbtle inspiration
• Moved permanently to San Francisco in a lovely place overlooking the park
• Learned to appreciate espresso drinks and the craft behind them
• Wore the Halloween costume of my childhood dreams
• Discovered that you can play glow-in-the-dark golf
• Had my first Coachella experience
• Was lucky enough to experience winter in Melbourne
• Roasted lots and lots of coffee
• Spoke at 500 Startups on design testing
• Collaborated with Wells and Ian to release Retina Mac Apps which did some gangbusters traffic
• Crashed the Warm Gun after party
• Played a DJ set at SXSW for the Austin on Rails crew
• Finished work on the initial release of 500 Startup’s founder network, Dashboard
• Released a group chat app for my friends and I, Latte
• Was so jet-lagged I barely interacted at my family reunion in Michigan after 72 hours of straight travel from Melbourne
• Worked with AppSumo for a day
• Found excellent hiking spots around the bay area
• Commissioned an adorable Cat
• Ran in Tough Mudder with some of my best friends
• Grew a dirtstache for Movember
• Started mentoring on Clarity.fm, got questions? Call me on there

At the end of last year things got messy, Console’s business operations were winding down, I spent weeks making sure that our team moved on to their dream jobs, was single for the first time in a few years, was almost completely broke, and had two classes left to finish my undergrad. I was enough of a wreck to go through a complete Skyrim depression, locking myself in a room, turning my phone off, and living vicariously through a fire mage for a week.

Thankfully Jason Seats offered me an opportunity to work with Techstars while I finished my degree in San Antonio. It ended up being the opportunity of a lifetime to view an accelerator from the opposite perspective. Through helping those startups get to demo day, I met quite a few of what I’m sure will be lifetime friends.

Bringing closure to my time in Texas brought me another level of joy and a diploma to boot. The low course load gave me time to experiment on side projects, grill with my roommate, and enjoy the sights along the way. When it came time to walk the stage, I opted to fly back to California two days sooner rather than walk. Shortly after moving back I interviewed at around three dozen companies ultimately choosing 99designs to work on an unreleased project. Was lucky enough to work with some of the brightest developers of my life on something that we were all passionate about. In December we parted ways and I’m happy to announce that I’ll be joining Thoughtbot’s new San Francisco dream team office this coming January. I’ve been working with their open-source software since 2007 and have talked about their playbook ad nauseam since it was released. Seriously could not ask for a better place or people to start off the new year with.

Thank you so much to my friends, family, coworkers, and posse for this past year. I want the world for each and every one of you, always let me know how I can help you out.

2012 has honestly been the best of my life, but something tells me next year we can top it.