Year Review 2021
At a glance, this year has been a bit of a writeoff for me. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s earlier in the year and I’ve spent most of the rest recovering, going so far to drop out of college on medical leave. My high risk to covid has left me isolating in my home for a large amount of time as well. Both have hampered my ability to do much physical things, but allowed me to read and research more than I could before.
Changes
Hardware
- ⚬ Added a shelf to my desk to allow me to use my computer standing.
- ⚬ Bought a Pebble Time watch.
- ⚬ Repaired my Ds Lite and replaced it’s shell with a snazzy Lime one.
- ⚬ Swapped my Thinkpad’s old Hard-drive for a new SSD.
Software
- ⚬ Ditched Windows for Fedora Linux. Best choice of the year right here.
- ⚬ Went full Free Open Source Software on my phone.
- ⚬ Began using RSS feeds to compile my favourite sites and blogs in one place.
- ⚬ Started my blog!.
- ⚬ Joined Mastodon.
Favourite things
Music
∘ Favourite Artist - Mkgee - Most listened artist of the year for me, fantastic producer though his bandcamp is missing his latest album sadly.
Podcasts
⬩ Fall of Civilisations podcast - Fantastically engaging podcast that paints the fall of many civilisations in a concise, historical narrative.
⬩ Panic Podcast - A podcast about the portland software company, Panic. Incredibly fun and enjoyable listen!
Websites
⬩ Hundred Rabbits - A site covering Rek and Devine’s artist collective. I’ve spent so many hours reading on this site, with so many adventures, knowledge and projects to read about, it really is a treasure trove.
⬩ Ritual dust - the personal site of Lizbeth Poirier, there’s a wide range of content to be found on it. From beautiful art, to recipes and the fabulously depthful folklore section that is an absolute joy to read, especially with the site’s fantastic design.
Youtube
⬩ Disrupt - Disrupt’s tv-imitation aids greatly to it’s flowing narrative and visual style. The stories they cover are fascinating, and the videos themselves are incredibly well produced like nothing else I’ve seen on the platform.
⬩ Not Just Bikes - this channel has fast become a favourite on Hacker News, where I first came across it. The highly informative videos make you rethink the old, pedestrian-unfriendly infrastructure so many countries continue to use.
Manga
⬩ Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō - A peaceful, warm manga set in a world where humanity is in decline. An unforgettable read.
⬩ Lore Olympus - There’s not much not to love about Lore Olympus. It’s style is vivid and easy to read, and it’s story engaging, really making you look forward for the next chapter.
Going Forward
The goal for 2022 is to get my health back into shape and sharpen my mind. I’d like to focus my time learning to properly program in a way that will actually be useful to me. The first project of the new year will likely be a rebuilding of this site, I’m unhappy hosting the site on github pages, not mention the code being an absolute mess. But I’ve got a clear vision of what I want to do this time, which makes it a lot easier to plan for. After that I plan to dabble in some C for the Pebble and make some watchfaces for a challenge.
Conclusion
This hasn’t been the best year ever, but I’m feeling more hopeful for next year! I’ve still got several months of free time left on leave so I’m eager to make the most of it. Here’s to a happy new year!
