Reflecting on 2021

Random Observation/Comment #745: 2021 was also a dumpster fire, but vaccines at least made the second half a lot more fun. I’ll hug all of you.

In 2021, we adjusted to the new normal.

  • Traveled to: Wyoming (for table tennis), New York (in Dec for Johnson’s 50th birthday party – epic 56 hours in NY), And then literally nowhere else.
  • Triumphantly: Started a new podcast and finished recording 33 episodes (listsof30.com), Brewed beer 3 times, Adopted 2 Guinea Pigs (RIP Rex, and live happily with the new family, Ludo) and 2 kittens (Meeko and Mei Mei), Did an overnight camping trip and hike to hanging lake, Some awesome friends came to visit Colorado (Yay Jason, Dennis (x2), Greg, Felipe, Christine, Wen/KO, and Jake), Bike ride in lake Dillon, Saw my parents for a month and my in-laws for a week in Aug/Sept, Went to see the Phish stands (nom nom grilled cheese), Made lots of dumplings with my parents, Lots of cooking random meals and hosting with neighbors (ramen, frittatas, brunches, pork belly), Drive up Mt Evans with my parents, Completed a 30 day challenge contacting my podcast idols (+retro), Completing 30 day cooking challenge of ETH-shaped foods (see my instagram), Wrote 50ish lists of 30 blogposts
  • Read / Listened to: (fewer audiobooks, but lots of podcast completionist)We got this with Mark and Hal – Wrote 30 favorite episodes, Judge John Hodgman – Probably listened to 300 episodes already – wrote 30 inside jokes, Dungeons and Daddy’s – Really love this one. Not a BDSM podcast., Offices and bosses – A little meta and silly, but I love the Hello from the Magic Tavern crew, Everything is Alive – Cute series interviewing inanimate objects, The Teachers Lounge – For those into long form improv, this is just ridiculous, Revisionist History – For those who love stories
  • Experienced: Lots of visits to zoos, botanical gardens, and museums on weekends, Lots of great parties with neighbors – notably Oktoberfest, Halloween party, bad dad beer nights, and randomly seeing Danilo for some picanha steak, Basketball game – Nuggets, Van Gogh exhibit, Hockey game – Avalanche, Guns ‘N Roses at Dick’s Sporting Goods, MCON Dao hosted by Metacartel in Denver, Wilco and Sleater Kenney at Red Rocks, Struggle Jennings – Watched James play, Soccer game – Rapids, Baseball game box seats – Dodgers, Carbone-Wan Friendsgiving, Best 56 hours in NYC
  • For the monthly ConsenSys Partners call, I’ve run 30 calls on different market insight topics related to our products and industry niches. This is basically my dream job right now.

This year went by so quickly with so many ups and downs. I found myself always looking forward to the next weekend where I could have the kiddos play together and the dads day drink. I lived a pretty simple life. I feel like work is a place where I would pay my salary to get the access to these incredibly smart resources. I’m glad to call them colleagues and friends. The only resolution is the same one I’ve made for a few years now – stay humble and never stop learning. A little luck here and there never hurts.

In 2022, I’m predicting:

  • Lots of taxes collected by governments – Hopefully everyone had a good year of investing with the S&P rocketing at over 20% returns. If these are unrealized then you’re okay, but if you were day/short term trading then you have enough capital to pay for taxes next year.
  • Market correction (although I said this last year) – There’s looming problems all around the economy. You can blame supply chain issues, printing $6 trillion in the past 2 years leading to inflation, or non-transitory interest rate hikes. In any case, we’re up for some hurting. Cash is trash, but farewell to retirement funds.
  • More trips with friends (hopefully out of the country?) – It’s not going to look good in a few weeks. I like to do some end of year dreaming for travel and shows, but I can’t really predict what’s in the pipeline. Hopefully we all bought insurance on those flights.
  • Crypto boom – All markets are correlated, so I suspect an even larger crypto boom and hopefully a never crypto winter. It’s a diversified asset I’m sure everyone is getting into. I will coin terms for “DeFi 2.0”, “NFT 2.0”, and “DAOs 2.0” now. Yay more buzzwords.

(Previous Years’ Reflections: https://seelemons.com/just-life/reflecting-on/ )

~See Lemons Prepare for 2022