Year in Review 2015

Last year I wrote about 2014, now it’s time for 2015. 

For me, recapping a year gone past is a great way to appreciate change and progress so hidden in our everyday lives. Wait By Why had a wonderful series of post about how a human life can be fit in one paper - so a year fits easily in a blogpost. 

This year my role changed quite a bit. The end of last year was a sad and anxious state of mess, but this year it has been easier. Hello Ruby is a toddler now: the book was finally published, the rights were sold to several countries, I’m busy working on the next book and this whole thing is steadily growing into a little company. 

This year I wrote a lot less, but read more. I made my 50 books challenge on Goodreads and felt good about prioritising reading. I traveled a lot, maybe even too much. On the other hand I exercised more regularly and in general worked more on stuff that I cared about. 

‘Well!’ thought Alice to herself, ’ after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! - Lewis Carroll

January

• Experimented with a 10 day detox and hated every second of it. The only thing I enjoyed was being able to say no to morning coffee for the first time in 10 years. Willpower! 
• Finished the majority of drawings for Hello Ruby. Had mixed feelings, since I knew the following 9 months would still be spent waiting. Wrote a shipping update I feared sending. Still haven’t quite done a post mortem on the whole project. 
• Loved the long, lingering days between holidays. Listened to a lot of Planet Money and This American Life. My favorite episode (still) is Radiolabs Hauntingly amazing Space. Ville left to New York. Played a lot with Earth Primer. 

Books read: Station Eleven. Burial Rites. Stranger in a Strange land. The New Tycoons. Station Eleven was one of my favorite sf-reads last year. 

February

• Was in Australia for the first time for RubyConf Australia. Met Clover (and her parents) - a real baby backer. Enjoyed biking around Melbourne and saw tiny penguins in pullovers. Met Michael very randomly. Encouraging words from Erik. 
• Was in Tokyo for 1,5 weeks and left my heart there. Did playtesting, visited Miraikan, wore a Kimono, hung out at the Embassy and had drinks in the American bar. Beautiful first experience to the city that I would return many times during the year. 

Books read: Embassytown. The Casual Vacancy. The Almost Nearly Perfect People. Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair. And the Hearts Says Whatever. Easy reads for travel. Nothing that hugely stood out. 

March

• Met the Swedish King and Queen during their visit in Finland! Royals made a big impression, but my Swedish didn’t. 
• Heard about Reggio Emilio from a former teacher of mine. The 100 languages of kids is still haunting me. Wrote about the process of making a book.  Loved seeing Amy pursue her calling. 
• Spent more time with friends: had people over for tacos, flower arrangements, did Heureka night on sex & space, had black dress dinner. Saw Wild with Jemina and had brunch with Troy, Jenny, Oona and Maija that later led to me staying in Åland. Spa day with relatives and easter egg hunt at Vaahteramäki also happened. 
• Visited Stockholm (didn’t know I would do this several times during the year!) and sneaked time in Junibacken to see the Moomin exhibition. Also visited Bath and London (Kano! Bath Ruby! <3). Was covered in Nikkei!

Books read: The Art of Asking. The Art of Fielding. The Windup Bird Chronicle. 

April

• Went to New York for Easter and to say hi to Ville. SoulCycle and being obsessed about Björk. My first somewhat viral tweet. 
  
• Went to Billund for the Lego Idea Conference. Childhood dream of mine to visit Legoland and see the factories + of course meet a ton of inspiring people. One of the best events I participated in all year. 
  
• Did one of the few company projects of the year with Marimekko. I admire the history of the company ad what they are now trying to do, so it was an easy match. Spent my last twenty-something birthday with my family, watching the Armi Ratia movie. 
  
• Back to Tokyo with Slush Asia. Always love. 
• Started playing Neko Atsume. 

Read: The Information: A History. The particular sadness of a lemon cake. Old man’s war. The Innovators. Children of Dune. Both The Innovators and The Information ended up influencing the rest of my work year. 

May

• We got engaged. It was a very ordinary Monday, turned extraordinary. “What we find in a soulmate is not something wild to tame but something wild to run with.– Robert Brault”. The fabulous roman yellow candles. 
• The first Hello Ruby Fellowship starts, with Aino and Janika. First time I needed to articulate my thinking to outside people, which felt scary, but turned out great. 
  
• We did a workshop at the Guggenheim exhibition and I ended up in Åland for a small-weird-bitcoin-art-architecture-extravaganza, that I absolutely enjoyed. 
• I read a lot about Aino Sibelius. Spent a nice day in Falkulla with old friends and their kids. Also started the gardening project. 

Books read: Aino Sibelius - Ihmeellinen nainen. The Girl on the Train. All The Light we Cannot See. 

June

• Started June in Singapore where I had last been for the first Rails Girls workshop. Was fun to be back and see old friends. Jetlagged, found a slide from 2011 that basically describes what I’m doing now. Most often things take time. 
  
• One off the bucket list! Sarah Kay visited Helsinki and me, sister and mom went to see her. I want to be Mrs. Ribeiro when I grow up 
• Two week crunch with Kirsikka to translate Hello Ruby into Finnish. Couldn’t have made it without my mom. 
• Had my goddaughter over for a Helsinki day and enjoyed her witty company. She is growing to be one fine young lady. 
• Left to France for Maija’s birthday party. Talked on the plane with Anniina too much. Loved Paris. 
• Read: Theories of Childhood. Elon Musk. Flash Boys. The Difference Engine

July

• My first adult vacation! I had a vacation responder with Knuth quote and all. Mostly I remember walking in Helsinki, Kahvila Siili, moving offices, dentist and spending time at our cpuntryhome. 
  
• I started HIIT training and tried the Kayla Itsines regime for a while. It was fun to feel stronger. 
  
• We visited Amsterdam with Ville and saw all his old places. Also did a day trip to Villa Mairea (with a company Tesla, which ended up being quite the adventure). Added Maire Gullichsen to my idol list. 
• Read: Harry Hole #4, #10 and #5. The Girl with All the Gifts. Rainbows End. Big Little Lies. Eleanor & Park (Yes, summer vacation! Zombies and detective stories and murders. )

August

• August started with tons of planning. Finally I felt like I was a bit in control. Jemina started working with Hello Ruby and it changed everything for the better. Did a ton of press in Finland. Got very bored and bothered with my face everywhere. 
• Started seeing the book in the hands of REAL people. The #helloruby feed on Instagram makes me giddy.  
• Went to Amsterdam for Scratch conference. Met some of the people who’ve influenced my work most (Mitch Resnik, Cynthia Solomon). But also got so introverted that on the second conference day walked 20km around Amsterdam. Saw the Matisse cut outs and went to Stedelijk to dream about Sol LeWitt. 
• Participated in Meidän Festivaali and totally fell in love with Pekka Kuusisto’s enthusiasm. Started #minimaa, a dinner group for people in Finland who want to work on quality kids products, but so far managed to organise only one event. 
• I participated in this two day retreat and met superb people and got a new mentor in my life. All in all I thought I took better care of myself this fall. Which would turn out to be a false belief. 
  
• Saw Vesa’s baby, went to Heini and Miska’s wedding, had dinner with Mikito for the first time in several years. Turning 30 is starting to show in our group of friends and it’s super nice. Inside out was my favourite movie of the year. 

Read: Fallout

September

• Lots of recruiting around mobile, next Fellowship, research partners and so on. Me and Jemina managed to sneak in an overnight strategy workshop in a hotel, which was fun and felt like a teen movie. (”This is how you run a company, you make a content framework in cute colors”). And I took a workshop on animation writing, which was fun and refreshing and felt good to be a student again. Hello Ruby also came out in Swedish. 
• Traveled a ton while sick. Never do that, kids! Paris, Copenhagen, Malmö, Malta and Göteborg. Finally I was so worked up emotionally and physically that every time I moved my neck my head exploded. Speak about recovery time. 
• Loved spending time with Ville and his mom in Malta (although the traffic drove me insane) and the hike we did with Henrietta was super nice too. Saw Emily in Paris and had fun time with Pumpkin Spice Latte season starting and meeting little Ms. Gaudet.  

Read: The Knockoff. Lohikäärmeenvärit. The Girl in the Spiders Web. 

October

• Easily the worst month of the year. I felt tired, over worked and like my focus was on wrong things. But I was very proud of our Fellows and the work they did.  The most profound statement I’ve heard this year came from a little girl Tatiana surveyed. When asked what technology is, she answered: “Technology is electricity that loves.”
• Spoke at TEDxCERN. Doing a TED format talk had been on my list forever and so has CERN. Fun, frightening experience and a pleasure meeting old friends. 
  
• Almost the entire family was together for my aunts doctorate dissertation. We continued to my childhood friend Suvi’s wedding. And Juhani & I celebrated by eating way too much. 
• Hello Ruby was FINALLY out! Me and Jemina went to New York for meetings and celebrated impromptu. Felt magical to find the book in Union Square’s Barns & Noble. 
• I continued to San Francisco, where I haven’t been in two years. It was great to be back and I loved seeing old and new friends. The quality of the people in San Francisco is unparalleled to any other city. Straight after SF I hopped the plane to Stockholm for Campus, rushed to the bookfair in Helsinki and had a big meltdown which Emma saved me from. 
• G is for Growing turned out to be one of the most educational books I read all year. Sesame Street work influenced me on other fronts too. 

Read: The Help. Carry On. Zero to One. G is for Growing. 

November

• By now almost all the Kickstarter deliveries were done, and what a huge relief it was. Saku made an organisation chart and I started to have more visibility into the future. 
• Visited Stockholm again and then went to Berlin for a day. Promised myself to go back for a longer time. Escaped to Japan for a few weeks: Matsue, Fukuoka, Tokyo. Magical weeks and fun experiences. I was in London for a few days, and caught the Ray & Charles Eames exhibition in Barbican. They might be my favourite couple.  
• Saw Ai Wei Wei in HAM and the Century of the Child exhibition in Design Museum. First time I saw the “original” exhibition (this one is specifically done for Scandinavia) was in NYC MoMa in 2012 and now Hello Ruby was one of the exhibited pieces. 
• My sister came back from India. I missed Slush for the first time in years. And we properly celebrated Thanksgiving (friendsgiving?) with a big turkey, that took way too long to cook. 

Books read:
Z: A Novel of Zelda. Player of Games. Kaivos. Purity. Välähdyksiä Pimeässä ja Pimeitä välähdyksiä.

December

• Traveled less which did wonders for my productivity. Started properly working on the next book and the next year OKRs for everyone (eek!!!). Found a new office the whole team can fit into. 
  

• Changed the gym and took some personal trainer classes. Enjoyed every day the gems from the MagicRealismBot.
  

• Celebrated 10 000 Ruby books sold in Finland with cake. Did US 7 radio interviews straight and also finished the speaking of the year. All in all I think I did 60+ events this year. Next year definitely less. 
  

• Celebrated Finnish independence day at the presidential reception and felt like Alice in Wonderland. 
  

• Spent the holidays with my family and loved the time off. Saw Spectre and Star Wars and enjoyed both. So many holiday parties!

Read: Between the World and Me. Marimekko: Suuria Kuvioita. Alice B. Toklas Autobiography. Kätilö. The Interestings.