2014: Year In Review

There can't be a better way to end this year 2014 and it has left a mark on me and my career. It will sure to be a year to remember in my lifetime. I am reviewing with you on all the things that went well, that dint go well, accomplished resolutions, faltered ones of the year 2014.

Blogging

I started the year with a blog on the new year day of 2014 and received a warm welcome by many. It was started on a note to improve my fear on committing something and keeping up on that and to improve my communication and presentation skills. I am proud and overwhelmed personally on the fact that I could accomplish a full year of blogging and reflecting on the things of that month dedicatedly. I dint had any hard feelings and pressing deadlines to accomplish that and I thoroughly enjoyed blogging.

Fruitful (Wise??) Investments

I happened to be the kind of person who used to over-think too much and try to find reasons to postpone an action on some investments and decisions that are personal to me and that attitude has changed (if not completely) over the last year and made some investments that marked fruitful.

It was a Midas touch with many of such investments and I ensured that I made use of the investments to the fullest possible extent. Few of such investments are

• Gas connection for health consciousness and exploring cooking skills
• Nexus 5 for being social, learning on-the-go and managing stuffs adhoc
• Honda Shine for exploring the joy of road travels and long rides, commuting without hassles and attempting things that wouldn't have been possible this much without a bike
• An apartment (Golden Lake view), my dad's dream and now am a proud landlord of a flat in Bangalore
• Lenovo laptop mainly for supporting my brother with his learning and for me to attempt freelancing and 
• Investment on knowledge through online courses and book reads

Treks and Road-trips

To be a part of trek has always been a pleasure and I had been ignoring on that opportunity for lame reasons when my buddies used to call me and broke that streak last year and did a high altitude trek to 'Kukke Subramanya' with +Arunjeyan.I have a separate blog here http://goo.gl/jnv2Is about the trek.

Since the time I got a bike, I have been planning for a long ride and that was not happening. However I could accomplish that during the visit to 'Sivasamudram' where +Magesh 

had called for, and it was a splendid ride for almost 400 kms on a single day. The enjoyment has pumped extra oxygen and I got a weird idea of riding all the way to my hometown Madurai. I achieved this feat with my brother +Karthick as well on December 2014 when my sister was admitted for her delivery at the hospital. I could reach Madurai in about 7 hours for 430 kms with the help of here maps (offline capability) application. Thanks to the roadways for having an awesome road and maintaining it so well. Thoroughly enjoyed the ride!!

Professional feat

It was very challenging professionally as I struggled to overcome the fear of failure when put up on a team with experienced folks. Being in a team of experienced folks is not new to me but somehow the dilemma or fear or whatever-it-is was so much that it took good amount of time to overcome that. I believe to have finally managed to overcome that by the end of the year (at the end of the project :-))

I had the opportunity to be part of 2 teams for a short period and had the joy of exploring Android. This is year that I was given extra responsibility by means of promotion and this 2015 would be the year where I will be expected to perform for the role given. I managed to gain and sustain friends and it has always been a pleasure to have their support and encouragement.

Personal feat

Though all of what is written is my personal feat there are few that is worth mentioning as a feat as it had impact.

The impact made by infinithoughts, a self-help magazine which has awesome mind-boggling content that definitely transforms the reader. Thanks to +Magesh for referring this magazine. Taking this forward, I gifted one of this brand's books as a gift to my brother +Karthick on his birthday and it surely has an impact. In fact the impact is reciprocated to me when he corrects me on my mistakes and expectations.

Managing is an art and is something that I have never enjoyed and achieved this feat during the purchase of my flat and worked on to ask the right questions to the right people and get the work done. Surely this will have a lasting effect on my career. I must thank my friends +Magesh, +Sabari, +Vivek for imparting the idea and being on my side all through and especially on this purchase.

Financial planning has always been a gray area for me and this flat purchase has given me the ability to face the challenges and plan for the month upfront and act accordingly. I must thank my friends +Bharath and +Viji who had been a great support when financial help was needed and must thank my mom for giving the support in need. Without the support of these people, I wouldn't have been able to achieve my dream of purchasing a flat.

Moments to cherish

I was pretty skeptical on finding a job for my brother as the market was not doing good and he dint leave me much workload than just directing him with a channel and he could earn a job for himself and has successfully passed his probation.

One of the best moments to cherish is the privilege to review a book on software development named 'Soft Skills: The Software Developer's life Manual' by +John Sonmez  from SimpleProgrammer.com. I have been an avid reader and follower of his blog for quite some time and registered for a place to review the book. John and Manning publications facilitated me with the opportunity and has already left a first review of the book  in Amazon.com. This surely demands a blog post and I will write one as soon as I complete it.

The beautiful moment of this year is the welcome addition to my family in the form of my niece. I have named her Nithyasree (informally). This little angel has kept my nights busy and I am overwhelmed to do this night-outs and have never enjoyed this before.

Learning

This year had been a year of exploring and learning android programming with the help of +Coursera. I managed to complete 3 courses with final exams on Android that was called out on the specialization category, a course on 'Learning how to learn' that talks about what happens in the brain during learning and a course with +Udacity on 'Git and Github'. Though the courses had given me a good learning exposure, I am yet to act on the learnings and develop something fruitful.

Useful reads

Apart from the busy schedule that was mentioned, I did spend some time reading books apart from blogs that I keep a watch on. Some of the notable books that is being read (many of them are not complete) are

• 'Mini habits' (Sample) by Stephen Guise
• 'Rich dad Poor dad ' by Robert T. Kiyosaki
• 'Soft Skills: The Software Developer's life Manual' by John Sonmez
• 'Unposted Letter' by Mahatria

Many have supported me in the overall year of 2014 and I would like to thank each and everyone for their support. If I could manage, I would plan for a separate blogpost.

This marks the end of a fruitful and overwhelming year of 2014 and I wish I would carry the learnings of 2014 into 2015 and mold myself as a better person.

To you the reader and follower of my blog, I wish all success and a blasting year of 2015.

Happy and Prosperous New Year.