2019
Post from December 29, 2019 (â» May 28, 2021), filed under Everything Else.
Time for the next personal retrospective. Iâm going to play with the format.
2019 was a rather quiet and uneventful year.
Travels
Itâs not a priority anymore but I traveled internationally.
- Malta
- The (breathtaking) Faroe Islands
- The United States (2Ă)
- Sweden
- Romania
- Spain
- France
- Austria
I traveled both nationally and internationally for Round Table, not necessarily all in my function as President (until February) and Past-President (from March on) of my table, RT 233:
- the Funta in Crailsheim,
- the RT Sweden AGM in Linköping,
- the RTI World Meeting in Brasov (Romania),
- the x33 Euro Meeting around Valenciennes (France), as well as
- several local and regional gatherings like district meetings and charity events.
Iâm proud and happy that my ideas and work contributed to several thousand euros in donations for Round Table charity. âOn fire for tabling.â
Some of the journeys I made with my girlfriend, Beatriz, with whom I moved in together in August, right into the heart of Hamburg. That was an important step for us, I look forward to the next one, and I love you, Beatriz.
Trainings
I made trainings and activities a bigger priority again. (If you just get to know me, I love trying things, and I try everything.)
- I went through bloodborne pathogens training,
- I acquired an Internet surf certificate đ,
- I made my sea/ocean boating license (SportbootfĂŒhrerschein See),
- I made my lake/river boating license (SportbootfĂŒhrerschein Binnen),
- I made a license to operate and own emergency signals (Fachkundenachweis/FKN or âPyroscheinâ),
- I went through a semi-professional beer tasting run by a colleague (cheers Franzi),
for the first timeI joined public protests (Fridays for Future and, spontaneously, a march against the LPT animal testing labs),- I became a certified Professional Scrum Master, and
- I made my forklift license (Flurfördermittelschein or âStaplerscheinâ).
I do love trying things and have a few plans for 2020.
Writings
I wrote.
- 3 books: 199 Love Haiku, Das kleine Buch der HTML-/CSS-Frameworks, and Upgrade Your HTML,
- 37 posts for meiert.com (29 in English, 8 in German),
- 4 articles for heise.de,
- 12 drafts that I discarded.
Statistics
I did other things:
- I wrote 1,688 emails (3,900 if I count notes-to-self, which are an important tool for me).
- I read 109 books. (I log them and rate the best on Goodreads.)
- I watched 144 films. (Too many. Star Wars IX was one of the worst.)
- Of the photos I took, I kept 2,867. Of videos, 36.
- I made 947 contributions on public and private GitHub, and (exactly) 1,000 commits to private Bitbucket.
This may do.
â§ It was a good year. I extend cordial wishes to you and your loved ones for the brief remainder of 2019, and wish you all the best for 2020. Be in touch.
About Me

Iâm Jens Oliver Meiert, and Iâm an engineering manager and author. Iâve worked as a technical lead for Google, Iâm close to the W3C and the WHATWG, and I write and review books for OâReilly. Other than that, I love trying things, sometimes including philosophy, art, and adventure. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.
If you have questions or suggestions about what I write, please leave a comment (if available) or a message.
Read More
Have a look at the most popular posts, possibly including:
- An HTML Optimizerâs Config for html-minifier
- How Running Your Own Website Is Much Better for You Than You Think
Looking for a way to comment? Comments have been disabled, unfortunately.

Perhaps my most comprehensive book: The Web Development Glossary (2020). With explanations and definitions for literally thousands of terms from Web Development and related fields, building on Wikipedia as well as the MDN Web Docs. Available at Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Leanpub.