The overall backdrop of 2022 was one of health issues. It’s been incessant, or so it feels.
It started with one of my parents being taken seriously ill in the first week of January.
Various other issues, including Covid-19 all round, and the usual childhood related non-specific It’s probably a virus, seemed to strike one, and then another, and then another. (Baring Covid-19, this is pretty usual for any given year with four kids, in my experience.)
Then coming back from DjangoCon US, I was in the passport line at Barcelona when my wife rang to say she was in an ambulance with our daughter, who’d fallen down the stairs. It was quite serious; she had a bleed in her skull. A couple of days in PICU, followed by another on the ward before coming home. Several weeks recovering fully. In the end, no lasting harm done. More of a scare than anything, but not fun.
I had to pull up the drawbridge and focus on what was important. Django 4.1 was top of that list as I’m release manager for that.
It was a solid release. We got in most of what we wanted, including DB constraint validation on model clean, the async ORM interface provided by Andrew, David’s work on the form renderers, and I was able to add Asynchronous handlers for class-based views myself.
Did I say, “solid”? It was another stonker. Django continued to amaze me how it rolls forward each time.
That kicked off my Summer of Async, which was to get major version updates of the Channels Trio—Channels, Daphne, and Channels-Redis—done.
This had been a while coming. Several issues had been blocked waiting for Python 3.6 and Django 2.2 to reach EOL. With those out the way, and—as always—with great help from contributors, I was able to sit down and make the cleanups that I’d long had my eye on.
Channels is now in a good position for going forwards. I’ve got my eye on point-releases in the new year, and I’m excited to keep them going over the medium term now.
Culminating the Summer of Async was my ”Async Django: the practical guide you’ve been awaiting for” talk, to be given at both DjangoCon Europe in Porto, and DjangoCon US in San Diego. (I’m incapable of—I don’t have the bandwidth for— two separate talks in such a short timeframe: they really take it out of me.)
Both editions went well, but I blew my timing a bit in the San Diego version, so it was very rushed at the end. People were nice, nonetheless, but I recommend the EU version from Porto.
Beyond the talk, it was awesome beyond words to get back to both the conferences and see all the old faces, and all the new. It was so fresh, and so refreshing, after a hard couple of years.
I was able to give my Get Started Contributing to Django workshop at the sprints in both Porto and San Diego, which makes three times in total now. Both went well, I think, but San Diego went better the second time. Importantly, I learnt things.
The goal now (that’s a Django “now”, so maybe not “right now!”) is to make the workshop freestanding, so it can be a resource that doesn’t depend on me giving it, which I’m happy to do, but clearly can’t do everywhere and for always.
I’m really enthused about the discussions on mentoring and such coming out of the DjangoCons. It will be exciting times.
The one big thing I didn’t get out the door was Button. No excuses. I simply didn’t have capacity until after DjangoCon US, and then my daughter had her accident.
Up and running, and hitting a good rhythm, at last.
It’s so close now it stings. I have a few brave souls in the Ludicrous Alpha: some are actually using it, the others I will guide-in shortly. But having cleared the pandemic backlog, Button is now my main focus until it’s generally available.
Still doing Tai Chi. Still learning French. Still cooking. Still playing bad piano. Still finding time for some philosophy.
I’d say 2022 was a hard year. But by being conservative, I was able to keep the ship sailing.
Looking at 2023, I’m really hoping for better luck on the health front, but that aside, I have a clearer plate, and feel less burdened than at anytime since before the pandemic began. I’m pretty optimistic for that. Looking forward to a good year. 🛞
May you have a Merry Christmas and New Year. 🎄