2016 – Well, that was a hell of a thing.

Let’s start off the new year with a picture of a pretty meadow as way to be mindful that as much as 2016 could be described as many things, not all good, we also have things to be thankful for.

My list revolves around family and my kids and my own relationship. We also made progress on some financial goals we wanted to get resolved in 2016, though it took much longer than expected. While there were certainly nights of shaking our heads, some insomnia around fear of the future and certainly frustrations, on balance I remain a fortunate man who is working to be mindful and appreciate my life.

I’ve been giving some thought to personal goals for 2017. I haven’t decided if I’ll write them down or make them public, but I’m leaning that way.

For no good reason, it appears I haven’t written anything worth posting for almost 18 months. Just the way it works out.

As it is the new year, I put a new coat of paint on the site and may tweak it a bit more. The top domain page hasn’t changed in far too long, so I should think about that.

Looking at the site, it does have me wondering whether it serves any purpose aside from self-gratification. Once upon a time, having your own site was akin to staking out your own corner of the new World Wide Web! It was virtual real estate. The reality today, though, is that aggregation to places like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have shifted things away from words but also away from personal sites more towards these controlled publishing venues.

I’ve made clear before that I really, really don’t like the Facebook model. It controls who sees my content, not even guaranteeing that people who I have explicitly indicated are Friends will see the content, but those same people will certainly see ads inserted inline every four or five stories. Similarly, Instagram is inserting ads in my streams. Frankly, I don’t get Snapchat, which officially makes me an “old”.

The best argument I’ve heard for continuing to publish on my site is that I own the content and presentation. That’s not exactly a compelling argument since I’m not writing for a wide audience, but it’s at least an argument for paying the $10/mo to have it as an option.

That’s it. I’ve got no great point other than to write something here and get 2017 kicked off. Here’s hoping you are able to make this year everything you want!