Happy New Year!
I usually begin this post with "Another year has flown by..." but 2021 was a strange mix of COVID-19 impacted lockdown time dilation—where it both flew and dragged simultaneously—and a (temporary) change of lifestyle for me. Time to look back from a bloggy/social media (not just CAD blog) perspective at another strange year:
Best social media related event(s):
With so much going on-line this year, including work for about 3 months, it is hard to single out one event but these come to mind:
- Richard Herring's RHLSTP video live recordings | For a modest fee, which supports a charity, Richard released the live video of his weekly podcast recordings, with brilliant guests, on demand long before they become available through other channels. Provided some great entertainment over the Auckland regional lockdown.
- Stand Up for Towel Day 2021 | This annual night of comedy and talks to celebrate the late, great Douglas Adams and his work was a great recap of previous events (most of which I had not seen).
I got no comments on the blog itself in 2021 but social media post links to Twitter and Facebook often generate comment there.
Best new media (Podcasters and YouTubers):
I listen to, and support, a lot of podcasts added a few more to the play list this year. Some of the best discovered include:
- Walk The Pod | I knew of Rachel from co-hosting the Level Up Human podcast and organising 'Stand Up for Towel Day' but only discovered WTP this year. A ten-minute podcast, made in her lunchbreak, about life and whatever comes to mind, or eye, while walking every day. She also welcomes contributions from other walkers (even Kiwi ones!) and has an associated Patreon Discord community.
- Solo Podcast - The Single Person’s Guide To A Remarkable Life | Found this via Probably Science and that episode is a good overview of Peter's path to starting Solo. It looks at life from a single person's, of any age, point of view.
- Ice Coffee: the history of human activity in Antarctica - Matthew Alan McArthur | I mentioned this brilliant history, delivered to the sound of a gas stove (preparing coffee) and (sometimes) real Antarctic location sounds, last year but have spent 2021 working through the back catalog of 130+ episodes. Still have a few to go but astonished at the dedication, depth of research, and passion Matthew has. His engaging storytelling brings this remarkable history to life.
Social media surprise?
Contributing, in a small way, to a podcast via contributions to a few episodes of Walk The Pod!
Best new(ish) social media tool:
My favourite app of 2021 is not new, I'd used on & off before, but I love the way Relive.cc allows me to rapidly document my now frequent cycle travels, combining the ride track, adding geolocated photos & video, and a music track into an easily sharable short video. For a look at one check out the ride where I decided to take this summer off.
Thanks for visiting, reading, following, and commenting wherever you do. Let's see what 2022 brings!
Boring Blog Stats (for me!)
[ ] = 2020 figures
TypePad Community: 74 [74] Following | 261 [228] Followers
Twitter: 40,400 [35,900] Tweets | 4999 [4887] Following | 2596 [2499] Followers
RobiNZ CAD Blog
Posts: 2164 [2157] | Comments: 1790 [1790] | Pages: 11 [11]
Page Views: Total: 1,569,577 [1,563,057] | Average Per Day: 242.22 [255.61]
FeedBurner Subscribers: 158 [163]
Most Popular Post from 2021: Well, that's saved me a fortune! | Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio about the new Surface Book replacement
Most visited post of 2021 was from 2007: Align, the forgotten AutoCAD hero
RobiNZ Personal Blog
Posts: 2376 [2353] | Comments: 1041 [1038]
Page Views: Total: 464,863 [459,891] | Average Per Day: 75.67 [79.59]
FeedBurner Subscribers: 27 [27]
Most Popular Post from 2021: Planning Time Out NZ 2021-22 about using MindManager to plan travel
Most visited post of 2021 was from 2020: The best active headphones? | Aftershokz Aeropex
