2023 Resolutions
get cat - I didn't expect this to happen and it didn't, but it's a north star that I'm making progress toward. I've heard that some people have some cats and they somehow manage the smells (litter, food, etc) in a small apartment, so I'm kind of curious about how they do that.
get new apartment - I haven't been able to do this because I only got a job at the very end of the year.
get job related to degree - Somehow I landed in a job that is the epitome of what I went to uni for. It's in the food manufacturing and automation industry and takes advantage of my programming skills. I hope that through it I can learn more about the mechanical side of the industry.
meet new people - I've met a lot of new people this year, but it's been through professional contexts like study, work, networking events, etc. So I've met a lot of engineers, but I think this has made me realise that what I really want is to meet people with entirely different life perspectives, and in an informal context.
upgrade portfolio site - It turns out that my portfolio site played a critical role in getting me my current job so I'm really glad that I prioritised it the way that I did.
continue working out - I was very consistent with working out, except around the peak of the uni semester and when I first started at my job. It turns out I was consistent enough because I lost nearly 15kg in the 6 months or so after graduation. I made two changes around that point that I attribute my sudden success to:
1) Jog every day, and keep track of the time. Every day jog a few seconds longer than the previous.
2) The secret to a healthy diet is to identify the textbook healthy foods that you should be eating (vegetables, etc) and then put sauces/dips/seasoning/etc on them to flavour them with the tastes you like. For me this meant putting pasta sauce on vegetables, and lemon juice on apples.
get all HDs - I did it again, my near-perfect record was untarnished.
BIEN 2022 Article - Reluctantly I gave the speech and therefore have the core structure for an article, but I need a bit more time to polish it up.
Collaboration tool - I made some great progress toward this. The core structure is largely in place and now it's just a case of making it more robust and adding features.
Cmail upgrade - I didn't make progress on this this year because I decided I didn't really want to do it. It turns out that Discord is mostly fine for what I need.
redwood desk - I did it and it's amazing. It's just held together using clamps, but I think that's enough. I don't want something so large I can't move it out of the doorway.
aluminium shelf - Some of the joints broke as I was assembling it so it's a little shaky, frail and ugly, but it's functional and at the end of the day that's what matters most.
plant-watering PCB - I had a pump watering one of my plants early in the year, but it watered too frequently and overflowed causing an electrical short in my apartment. The path forward is to get a manual workflow together before attempting to automate it.
split keyboard - I made some great progress towards this, but my attention was torn between this and many other progress so it was made at a snails pace. My lesson from that is that the project of the moment should be my one and only priority because splitting my attention just makes it so that nothing gets done particularly quickly or well.
now for the 2022 goals...
grow plants - I have a small outdoor area but it's all concrete right now, I'd love to have things growing. I've been researching plant care methods and it turns out I've been thinking about it all wrong up until now, so lets see how things go with this new understanding. Once I've got a good workflow together then I can think about automating it, but it won't be the priority in the short-term.
escape the rental trap - Now that I've got a full-time job the option to escape the rental trap is finally on the cards, so I'm hoping to save up enough money for a home loan deposit.
National Automation Authority article - For years I have been the "Basic Income" guy, among friends and family, but I'm looking to rebrand and this is the first step toward that. Once written and shared I have no clue what the next steps to implementation would look like, but I'm just taking it one step at a time.
upgrade collab interface - As I mentioned earlier, the core is in place and just needs to be made more robust. One key thing I want to implement is a task-management system so that teams of people can coordinate tasks with each other.
project collaboration tool - I made a small start on this earlier this year, but because I was trying to do a dozen projects at the same time, it only made incremental progress. I think this is a really useful tool that should exist and it's something I'd like people to know me for.
keyboard - A lot of work has been done already so I think this is very achievable this year. I just want a split keyboard to improve my posture.
meet non-engineers - As mentioned earlier, I have met a lot of engineers, and this has made me realise that what I am actually looking for is to meet people in an informal context who live in very different worlds.
spend less time on social media - Time flies when in front of the computer and it feels like life is zooming past. I think the solution is to avoid the feed directly, and instead view the pages of people I want to keep up with. I made a tool to help with this, but the user interface could be clearer to make it easier to use. I also have a tool to manage my time, but I think it could use notifications to nudge me to work rather than being too strict.
mechanical design - As I put my projects on my portfolio site, I realised that they are greatly lacking in mechanical projects that use gears, pulleys, etc. I've said this for the last few years but now that I've got an income I finally have the ability to purchase the parts I need.