 Good morning. It is mid-December and double AS is like three weeks away. This is exactly how my astro blog started one year ago looking forward to double AS. In the intervening year this has become part of my sort of weekly workflow. Things to shoot, videos to create, content to create for the internet, and it's also become a way for me to reflect on my own practice as an astronomer. So we're on winter break now which means the hallway is mostly empty. Looking back now a year into making videos on YouTube I have learned a ton. My thoughts about where this channel is going have also evolved. It started out as just showcasing what it's like to go to double AS and then this year it's gone more broadly into what it's like to be an astronomer. We've been on telecons, we've seen a rocket launch, we've gone to hack weeks in the Big Apple, and we've even hosted some here. It's been a cool journey this year. 2019 looks even busier for me which is great. Don't fall into the trap of like the cult of busy where like everything is just so busy. 2019 is looking more busy than 2018 because I'm getting better at my job because I'm growing both personally and professionally. Good morning. I have some ideas about playing around with the content of these videos. I really like the short videos where I get one message out very clearly. Probably one of my favorite videos this year was the short story I told about how I got scooped. Of course I also really like the travel videos but I'm not gonna be traveling as much this year which frankly I'm happy about. It means I can be home with my family more. So we're gonna be hosting events here in Seattle. Double AS is here in about three weeks. I will be bringing my camera but because I'll be home and I have to go home in the evenings I probably won't be able to edit as much film so I'm not sure I'll be able to get a daily vlog out but I will try and I may enlist some help of some friends. I've also got some ideas for some longer form content. I've only published a couple lectures that I've given. People really positively engaged about talking about my research. I'd like to bring the camera as a fly on the wall and show some of the meetings that I hold you know here in my office and elsewhere just because I think that's an important part of showing and documenting what it's like. I'd like to turn the camera away from me a little bit and practice sort of some more documentary kinds of shots. So as I'm reflecting on the year and especially my first year here on YouTube thank you all for participating and for joining me on this journey so far. Let me close this short video with I think the most important thing that I've written this whole year and that is stating my values as a scientist. This is something that my friend my colleague and a mentor of mine Lucian Walk which talked about earlier this year value-driven science a values driven framework for how you structure your science and your career and the choices that you have to make because ultimately you have to make a lot of choices as a scientist where to go what jobs to pursue what grants to write that you should write down what matters to you and that's how you should make the choices that will end up driving and dictating your career. So I wrote down a set of values I don't know they're the most complete set of values but they're a set of values that I believe in with regards to a research group that I've been working on building. Number one I believe science is a practice that we are practitioners of science meaning that we learn and then we improve and we make mistakes. You have to change and evolve change your topic change your approach. Number two I believe very strongly in human-centered design when it comes to projects and research and mentorship you should structure your interactions and design projects for the person not for the greater good of your research program not for your own personal glory as the esteemed academic but instead how is this project how is this code a student is writing on this observation they're taking going to advance them and build their tools and build their career. Number three I think we should broadly define the term scholarship in astronomy we think a lot about papers how are you gonna write a paper or a grant which paper or which grant are you gonna write like that's the unit of productivity that you really care about but there's so much else out there that we do that is scholarly and productive writing code helping people teaching outreach and engagement with the public and with each other communicating our science giving talks there's so many productive things that we do as scientists that don't really get counted I desperately believe that we need to advance and broaden our definition of scholarship so that so many of things that people who are working for equity and inclusion in our field who are building tools and who are helping sustain our field making sure that astronomy in the United States is a field worth pursuing as human beings scholarly activity as an astronomer is not just what papers you're writing and what grants you're winning and lastly and it's a total cliche here on internet this old saying that is often attributed to Voltaire perfect is the enemy of the good or to put it in more pointed astronomer lingo submitted is better than in prep I think that's it for astro vlog 2018 I will be back with new videos new interviews hopefully some super cool time lapses and more reflections on what it's like to be an astronomer in America and if you haven't please hit the subscribe button it helps me grow this channel and it lets me know that I've got an audience to talk to I will see you in 2019 at the double AS here in Seattle cheers