S1:E19
[00:00:00] Todd Libby: Welcome to the 2021 end of year wrap up edition of the Front End Nerdery Podcast. I'm your huckleberry and your host Todd Libby.
I wanted to take the time each year to do a wrap up of the season, take a few minutes to send out my thanks to all my terrific guests, review the year, and then look forward to the coming season ahead.
[00:00:29] To kick this first wrap up for season 1, 2021 off I'll explain in a little detail what my thought process was for starting the podcast. I planned to do an episode a month.
Nice and easy to start off with. But as the year went along, I found I could do and throw in a few bonus episodes during the course of the season.
[00:00:54] So I did. I started the podcast. After a lot of thought, there are already a lot of podcasts for tech as we know. Podcasts take a lot of time and money.
Popular podcasts they, they get the audience, they get the sponsors, they get the funding. And here I am just another white guy starting a podcast, but at the time I was just trying to find something to do during the beginning of the pandemic.
[00:01:22] And now, like, what two years later here we are. So, I saw this quote, before I started. And it was “the only guarantee for failure is to stop trying”, and I don't stop trying.
So, I saw that I took it into account and then I just jumped right in. If I got people to listen, terrific. If not, then I could do a one and done season and move on.
[00:01:49] Well, now I'm heading into a second season. Matter of fact, with all the guests I wanted to have on and all the people I asked to be on, I had four backup lists.
So, I have four seasons of guests that hopefully will, be able to come on. And everybody I asked at the beginning, no one said no. So, for that, I am very grateful to all of them.
[00:02:19] Speaking of guests, I wanted to thank all of this season’s guests from Jeffrey Zeldman, who we did a terrific two part, first edition. And all the way up to, this last episode with Eric Meyer and everyone in between.
And those guests in between were, Homer Gaines. Stephanie Eckles, Prince Wilson, David Dylan Thomas, Mike Monteiro, Preston So, Rahat Chowdhury, Miriam Susanne, Dan Cederholm, Nic Steenhout, Chris DeMars, Marcy Sutton, Joe Natoli, and Erika Hall.
And I want to thank you all so much for making this first season of Front End Nerdery very special. And every conversation I had was terrific. And I had a lot of fun catching up with people and talking to everyone.
[00:03:13] And in some cases, meeting people for the first time virtually. You know, talking about what they're doing, what projects they have going on, what they do for a living, how they got started in, development and design.
So, you know, every, every, conversation I had was super and terrific in, you know, throw in every adjective.
[00:03:39] I can think of awesome, wicked awesome as we say up in the Northeast. So again, thank you also very much. And please, you know, if you're a listener, make sure to check out everything they have going on and support them in any way you can.
If you can please buy their books. you know, if they've written a book. I know I've had a lot of people on and, and hopefully in the future, we'll have had people on that they have a book out from one of my favorite publishers A Book Apart.
[00:04:11] So, go ahead and check them out too, abookapart.com, they have some great books. So now I want to move to the people that have listened to the audio version, subscribed to both the audio version and the video, a YouTube channel, and watch those YouTube videos, you know, of me with, a guest, asking questions and having a, hopefully a great conversation.
[00:04:40] I know I've had a great conversation with all these guests, but I want to thank those listeners and subscribers and watchers very much. And I hope you enjoyed every episode you've heard or seen. Yeah, I have, and I really didn't think of about it at first, but I really wasn't thinking about numbers.
[00:05:03] You know, how many lists, how many listeners am I going to have next month or this month, or, you know, for, for the year, there, the numbers are growing.
And I like to see that that's a sign that, you know, I am doing something right. But I want to thank each and every one of you that have been a part of that, on the audio version or on the YouTube channel.
[00:05:21] So thank you for your support. So, as we close in it's this, recording is December 22nd, 2021. I'll be taking a small break in between the recording of this episode in January.
But I already have a January episode done and that will be with Jason Pamental, fellow New Englander, he is, one of my favorite people.
[00:05:45] He, you may know him, from Variable Fonts, conference talks and, yeah, look forward to getting that out so people can listen in or watch that as well. It was a great conversation.
I have some terrific guests lined up for next year. I won't spoil it now. but I will, have a couple of episodes, at least where there will be more than two people on the podcast.
[00:06:11] So stay tuned for that. Now I've been so busy lately, this last quarter of 2021. I moved from Maine to Arizona, underwent two operations before I left, New England. And it was just a lot of change, changed jobs twice.
Now, currently at my current job at Webstaurant Store, as an Accessibility Engineer and I'm loving it. So, I haven't paid any attention to the supporter pages I have up.
[00:06:43] I have a Patreon page. I have a Coffee page. Is it Coffee or Ko-fi, I don't know. But, you know, I haven't set them up and I haven't paid much attention to them.
Probably going to get rid of one and it won't be the Patreon page. So, look for that. I will have the link to that in the show notes for this episode. So, if you'd like to support this podcast and I hope, you know, I have some supporters, that could do that.
[00:07:14] I'm going to start getting in on that Patreon page and, yeah, paying some more attention to that. But again, if you'd like to support this podcast, I would appreciate that. And also again, links will be in the show notes for this episode.
[00:07:30] Season two, it's going to change a little bit, but not, no, it's not going to be a drastic change.
I’ll announce prior to the episode release, who will be on via Twitter, via the Front End Nerdery Podcast, Twitter handle, which is @FrontEndNerdery all one word. I'll announce it there.
And I may, I may, may do that at the end of every episode though. You never know when things are gonna change, so I might hold off on that, depends.
[00:08:05] But in the meantime, I thought season one would be good to surprise people with a mystery guest and, you know, it got a little attention. So, you know, this next season, I will be announcing on Twitter, who my guests will be prior to the episode.
[00:08:20] Going back to, what I've put into this, I've put in a lot of time and money into this podcast to keep it running.
I will be looking actively for a sponsor or sponsors more than one would be great. To sponsor the show. Right now, I do not have a sponsor. It would be great to have a sponsor or sponsors.
If anybody out there is listening. I've had two generous donations by individuals, to help defray the costs of the transcribing and captioning work, which has done, which I very much appreciate.
[00:08:52] So shout outs go to and thank yous go to Aaron Marks and John Croston for their generous donations. Without that, the work for the transcribing and the captioning would be, a little, little more difficult than it already is.
So, you may notice, as I swing wildly again to another, topic you may notice an extreme bump up in the quality of the audio version.
[00:09:22] If you listen to the first, how many I've lost count at this point, audio versions, there are, but the, the, the episode with Eric Meyer is going to sound a lot different.
Why? I've decided to go with the services of Lemon Productions run by Chris Enns, who does a fantastic, phenomenal job on the audio editing work.
[00:09:47] Let me throw that in there. And Chris does Shop Talk Show, Code Pen Radio, Ladybug Podcast, and Syntax FM among others. Which again, they all sound great. I listened to them all. So, you will notice a more professional sound quality. The— it was just night and day when I listened to, to the Eric Meyer episode, and it sounds a lot more professional.
[00:10:28] But, with that said, you know, I wanted to bring people on, as again, I swing wildly back to a full circle here to my guests. I wanted to bring people on that I knew that I've met over the course of this pandemic.
You know, we've done all these virtual things and I wanted to bring people on to talk about, you know, their journey, a little bit and things they got going on, what they're doing now, things they wanted to talk about. And I hopefully did a good job at that.
[00:11:01] This being my first season and my first real endeavor, putting myself out there, you know, and these will be out there forever, potentially. I wanted to, hopefully, produce something good that maybe somebody somewhere will get a piece of information from some episode with somebody, some, some terrific guests that I've had on and, it will help them in what they do.
[00:11:32] If I can do that with just one person, and this goes with, you know, everyday life, if I can say something that helps one person, then my job is done.
So, you know, hopefully I've done a good job. That's basically what I'm trying to say here. So, with that, last but not least, I would like to wish everyone a safe and healthy end to 2021.
[00:11:58] You know, and as we look at the news and you know, we scan Twitter, you know, 2022 is shaping up to be, you know, just another year in the pandemic. But I hope that 2022 will bring change for the good, for all of us.
Things are tough and, you know, sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel goes out, but focus and maybe we'll, we'll get that light. We’ll see that light again.
[00:12:31] So, yeah, I hope that 2022 brings change for, for all of us, for the better, a very happy holiday season to everyone listening, watching, wherever you are, whatever you celebrate. I hope it brings you happiness and joy as well as peace and time with family and or friends.
[00:12:55] And you know, just enjoy the rest of this year. Relax, drink a lot of water, eat more lobster, you know, get vaccinated. Maybe some people won't want to hear that, but get vaccinated, get a boost if you've already been vaccinated. Stay healthy, stay alive. Because you know, every one of us, you know, we all need to band together at some point.
[00:13:23] No matter what we think, unless you think, you know, really awful stuff, but that's besides the point, I just want to hope, you know, I just hope that 2022 will bring some sort of change that where we can start going back and being with our friends in person and, you know, going to in-person conferences and, you know, just a, maybe not quote back to normal unquote.
[00:14:03] But, a new kind of normal where, we're all, you know, looking out for each other. So, with that, I'll get off my soap box now and just say, again, thank you for, for everybody, guests and listeners and subscribers alike. I'm Todd Libby. Thanks for being a part of season one of the Front End Nerdery Podcast.
[00:14:24] And this has been the Front End Nerdery Podcast for 2021. Thanks, and I will see you next time.