Memoro MMXX, Praedico MMXXI
There is no doubt that 2020CE was a very difficult and challenging year and even in the relative safety of living well in an advanced economy, it still took its toll. Personal reflections on the year that recalls these challenges, yet also recalls some small successes along the way. Knowing all to well that our times are remarkably fluid (considering how little travel we do) and recognising that hard predictions are always off, there are justified reasons for some ambiguity in planning for the year. Nevertheless, once again, a summary of my personal life in the past year and thoughts about the coming year.
1. De Vita Quantcast
Memoro, in this past year, my fifth year at the University of Melbourne, I managed to achieve well above and beyond the planned objectives for the year. We introduced a new build system, which required every single application to have a new installation which was mostly my work, which also meant a massive increase in the number of sample scripts provided, and the number of workshops conducted, including some new ones for the Gadi supercomputer at NCI and some mathematical programming. Despite the circumstances, I managed to deliver five conference presentations (two at eResearchAustralasia, one short one at eResearchNZ, and one the International HPC Certification Forum Workshop) and a paper published, along with some more journal citations for the year than the aggregate of all previous years; I didn't see that happening! Plus, bookending the year were two VPAC books released on Smashwords, "Supercomputing with Linux" and Sequential and Parallel Programming with C and Fortran.
Praedico, in this future year, the usual objectives (workshops, operations, job scripts etc) will have small and incremental improvements. As the demands on software optimisations must decline, I suspect that I will have an increasingly active role in the Cultural Working Group, which already people are making use of my skills in qualitative surveys. I foresee the first certificates being released for the Internal HPC Certification Forum very soon, and I already have a speaking engagement with eResearchNZ. It is certainly highly probable that I should get three more of the VPAC publications in an acceptable format for release this year as well. There are already two book chapters in the works from last year, so those publications are expected. To put it all in a nutshell, this year I will concentrate more on project work in comparison to operational work.
De Vita Academic
Memoro, in this past year, I finished my dissertation for a MSc in Information Systems (with some very positive examiner's comments), and was subsequently awarded the degree, my fifth, from the University of Salford. I also completed two papers, as they call them in New Zealand for my MHEd at the University of Otago, thus completing the coursework for that subject. No further developments in the GradDip in Economics at LSE University of London this year, but I did complete a UC Irvine MOOC course on Macreconomics, along with a short MOOC course from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and another for psychology from the University of Toronto. Linguistic-wise I only added Bahasa Indonesian to my Duolingo collection of golden owls; instead, I have concentrated heavily on French (topping the diamond league in May), Spanish, and German. I cannot leave out that I also became the Academic Outreach Officer for the International Society of Philosophers.
Praedico, in this future year, I will complete the thesis for my MHEd - a year shorter than the suggested timeline, but there's naught else for me to do in this course, so I may as well save myself a year. Further, I am going to have a crack at finishing the GradDip in Economics, which requires just the exams for Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Econometrics, although it's something of an awful and comic tragedy that LSE runs a 100% exam method for grading as that format has little to do with real-world experiences. I am also starting a GradDip in Applied Psychology at the University of Auckland this year, with an interest in organisational and educational psychology. After several attempts, I really should complete the Duolingo standard Chinese tree this year as well!
De Vita Politica
Memoro, in this past year, the world witnessed an extraordinary unfolding under the guide of COVID-19 the conflicts between truth, falsehood, and manipulation, between freedom, responsibility, and authoritarianism, with some victories there in battles that should not need to be fought in the first place. I wrote twelve articles for the Isocracy Network (up four), twenty-nine 'blog posts, and a state government submission on homelessness, a federal government one on religious discrimination for the Victorian Secular Lobby, and an internal review submission for the ALP state branch on membership. A very special event that received rather widespread coverage in the mass media and a mention in state parliament (and a federal government submission) was Bramble Cay Melomys Day, for which I was a co-organiser. It must be said that this was not a good year for any of the organisations I head in terms of membership; the lack of face-to-face meetings really makes a difference in this context.
Praedico, in this future year, I am hoping (like last year) for improvements in policy development, membership, meetings, and publications. I made tentative steps in delegating tasks in said organisations this year, mainly in a partnership model and, it must be said, it went quite well. This coming year will certainly see at least one of the Isocracy publications come out, of that I am sure, and perhaps a second or third. Most importantly, with the introduction of hybrid meetings, the membership and participation of Isocracy and the Victorian Secular Lobby will recover.
De Vita Ludens
Memoro, in this past year, two major gaming-related events. The first was a massive sale I carried out of my gaming goods for charity, raising approximately $10K for Medicines Sans Frontiers just as COVID-19 was hitting the developing world (also part of my personal "dostadning" project. The second was organising and running the Cyberpunk 2020: Year of the Stainless Steel Rat convention with Walter Jon Williams as keynote and other amazing names on the speaker's list. The convention will generate a special double issue of RPG Review; in addition to this, there were three issues of said journal released in the year. I almost completed a cyberpunk supplement for Emails and Direct Deposits as well, and I did see eight of my reviews make their way to RPG.net.
Praedico, in this future year, that I'll continue making efforts to pull back from participation in gaming and related fields. Surprisingly, neither my Eclipse Phase and HeroQuest games ended the former with a twist in direction and the latter with ongoing near-climatic resolution. Both I foresee finishing within the first few months of this year. I had made a decision that I was going to set down as president of the RPG Review Cooperative and as editor the 'zine but there doesn't seem to be anyone prepared to take up the reins yet. Maybe next year, or the year after. In the meantime, there is a priority to finish the Emails & Direct Deposits supplement and restart the Imagined Worlds publication. The latter, in particular, has great importance to my mind.
De Vita Personalis
Memoro, in this past year, relationships, health, love, and death all featured rather louder than in previous years. The relationship I had been in for seventeen years ended, as I increasingly found our Weltannäherung impossibly incompatible. I found love, lost it for a while (falling into a period of driven dysthymia), and now find myself navigating a new path. The other great change of the year was, of course, my health. At a point, I was overweight, outside of the acceptable range for liver enzymes, low-density lipoproteins, and blood pressure. I am pleased to say that that a determined regime of exercise and diet made a significant difference here, shedding just shy of twenty kgs from the time of diagnosis and now with all levels in a healthy range. Alas, for a number of friends this year recovery is not possible; there were at least four deaths among those in my circle of friends, two of who were quite close. That was their final journey; in previous years I have also given travel adventures. Unsurprisingly for the year, I still managed two wonderful trips to New Zealand and Western Australia before the planes were grounded, perhaps a positive being the opportunity to dive into some matters of the aesthetic dimension; literature and film in particular, but Rocknerd also saw six articles by yours truly.
Praedico, in this future year, there will have to be some big decisions on the impending separation and disposal of assets. Where shall I go? I have, over time, become a person with a modest financial buffer, so I have little fear there even if the greatest effects are always outside one's control. The bigger immediate question is how shall I live? "Vivre sans temps mort et jouir sans entrave" is an objective. Keeping myself very fit and healthy is another; I probably have less than 25 good years in my life. In this, and all years subsequent, am determined to use them engaging in continuous self-improvement, becoming the best version of myself, and make the world a better place: Nemo vir est qui mundum non reddat meliorem. This is the path I wish to take, and until our revels are ended I will engage in this tempest, confronting the adversaries, for "Hell is empty and all the devils are here". The co-pilot will be welcome and appreciated, if they can tolerate this alien in the tempest.
Despite the new year heralding a vaccine (of sorts) for COVID-19 and a new occupant in The White House who isn't completely deranged, I am concerned that 2021 will actually be worse than 2020 as the rate of daily new cases and deaths continues its upwards trajectory, especially in developing countries. The global economy, in this wake, limps along in a lacklustre fashion. The stage is set for some determined, global, interventions, but the political will is lacking. The personal is political, the political is personal. As reflective as I may be looking inwardly, I am so very aware of how public policy, such as health policy, can have very real and visceral effects on the lives of others. This entry was originally posted at https://tcpip.dreamwidth.org/308488.html.
1. De Vita Quantcast
Memoro, in this past year, my fifth year at the University of Melbourne, I managed to achieve well above and beyond the planned objectives for the year. We introduced a new build system, which required every single application to have a new installation which was mostly my work, which also meant a massive increase in the number of sample scripts provided, and the number of workshops conducted, including some new ones for the Gadi supercomputer at NCI and some mathematical programming. Despite the circumstances, I managed to deliver five conference presentations (two at eResearchAustralasia, one short one at eResearchNZ, and one the International HPC Certification Forum Workshop) and a paper published, along with some more journal citations for the year than the aggregate of all previous years; I didn't see that happening! Plus, bookending the year were two VPAC books released on Smashwords, "Supercomputing with Linux" and Sequential and Parallel Programming with C and Fortran.
Praedico, in this future year, the usual objectives (workshops, operations, job scripts etc) will have small and incremental improvements. As the demands on software optimisations must decline, I suspect that I will have an increasingly active role in the Cultural Working Group, which already people are making use of my skills in qualitative surveys. I foresee the first certificates being released for the Internal HPC Certification Forum very soon, and I already have a speaking engagement with eResearchNZ. It is certainly highly probable that I should get three more of the VPAC publications in an acceptable format for release this year as well. There are already two book chapters in the works from last year, so those publications are expected. To put it all in a nutshell, this year I will concentrate more on project work in comparison to operational work.
De Vita Academic
Memoro, in this past year, I finished my dissertation for a MSc in Information Systems (with some very positive examiner's comments), and was subsequently awarded the degree, my fifth, from the University of Salford. I also completed two papers, as they call them in New Zealand for my MHEd at the University of Otago, thus completing the coursework for that subject. No further developments in the GradDip in Economics at LSE University of London this year, but I did complete a UC Irvine MOOC course on Macreconomics, along with a short MOOC course from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and another for psychology from the University of Toronto. Linguistic-wise I only added Bahasa Indonesian to my Duolingo collection of golden owls; instead, I have concentrated heavily on French (topping the diamond league in May), Spanish, and German. I cannot leave out that I also became the Academic Outreach Officer for the International Society of Philosophers.
Praedico, in this future year, I will complete the thesis for my MHEd - a year shorter than the suggested timeline, but there's naught else for me to do in this course, so I may as well save myself a year. Further, I am going to have a crack at finishing the GradDip in Economics, which requires just the exams for Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Econometrics, although it's something of an awful and comic tragedy that LSE runs a 100% exam method for grading as that format has little to do with real-world experiences. I am also starting a GradDip in Applied Psychology at the University of Auckland this year, with an interest in organisational and educational psychology. After several attempts, I really should complete the Duolingo standard Chinese tree this year as well!
De Vita Politica
Memoro, in this past year, the world witnessed an extraordinary unfolding under the guide of COVID-19 the conflicts between truth, falsehood, and manipulation, between freedom, responsibility, and authoritarianism, with some victories there in battles that should not need to be fought in the first place. I wrote twelve articles for the Isocracy Network (up four), twenty-nine 'blog posts, and a state government submission on homelessness, a federal government one on religious discrimination for the Victorian Secular Lobby, and an internal review submission for the ALP state branch on membership. A very special event that received rather widespread coverage in the mass media and a mention in state parliament (and a federal government submission) was Bramble Cay Melomys Day, for which I was a co-organiser. It must be said that this was not a good year for any of the organisations I head in terms of membership; the lack of face-to-face meetings really makes a difference in this context.
Praedico, in this future year, I am hoping (like last year) for improvements in policy development, membership, meetings, and publications. I made tentative steps in delegating tasks in said organisations this year, mainly in a partnership model and, it must be said, it went quite well. This coming year will certainly see at least one of the Isocracy publications come out, of that I am sure, and perhaps a second or third. Most importantly, with the introduction of hybrid meetings, the membership and participation of Isocracy and the Victorian Secular Lobby will recover.
De Vita Ludens
Memoro, in this past year, two major gaming-related events. The first was a massive sale I carried out of my gaming goods for charity, raising approximately $10K for Medicines Sans Frontiers just as COVID-19 was hitting the developing world (also part of my personal "dostadning" project. The second was organising and running the Cyberpunk 2020: Year of the Stainless Steel Rat convention with Walter Jon Williams as keynote and other amazing names on the speaker's list. The convention will generate a special double issue of RPG Review; in addition to this, there were three issues of said journal released in the year. I almost completed a cyberpunk supplement for Emails and Direct Deposits as well, and I did see eight of my reviews make their way to RPG.net.
Praedico, in this future year, that I'll continue making efforts to pull back from participation in gaming and related fields. Surprisingly, neither my Eclipse Phase and HeroQuest games ended the former with a twist in direction and the latter with ongoing near-climatic resolution. Both I foresee finishing within the first few months of this year. I had made a decision that I was going to set down as president of the RPG Review Cooperative and as editor the 'zine but there doesn't seem to be anyone prepared to take up the reins yet. Maybe next year, or the year after. In the meantime, there is a priority to finish the Emails & Direct Deposits supplement and restart the Imagined Worlds publication. The latter, in particular, has great importance to my mind.
De Vita Personalis
Memoro, in this past year, relationships, health, love, and death all featured rather louder than in previous years. The relationship I had been in for seventeen years ended, as I increasingly found our Weltannäherung impossibly incompatible. I found love, lost it for a while (falling into a period of driven dysthymia), and now find myself navigating a new path. The other great change of the year was, of course, my health. At a point, I was overweight, outside of the acceptable range for liver enzymes, low-density lipoproteins, and blood pressure. I am pleased to say that that a determined regime of exercise and diet made a significant difference here, shedding just shy of twenty kgs from the time of diagnosis and now with all levels in a healthy range. Alas, for a number of friends this year recovery is not possible; there were at least four deaths among those in my circle of friends, two of who were quite close. That was their final journey; in previous years I have also given travel adventures. Unsurprisingly for the year, I still managed two wonderful trips to New Zealand and Western Australia before the planes were grounded, perhaps a positive being the opportunity to dive into some matters of the aesthetic dimension; literature and film in particular, but Rocknerd also saw six articles by yours truly.
Praedico, in this future year, there will have to be some big decisions on the impending separation and disposal of assets. Where shall I go? I have, over time, become a person with a modest financial buffer, so I have little fear there even if the greatest effects are always outside one's control. The bigger immediate question is how shall I live? "Vivre sans temps mort et jouir sans entrave" is an objective. Keeping myself very fit and healthy is another; I probably have less than 25 good years in my life. In this, and all years subsequent, am determined to use them engaging in continuous self-improvement, becoming the best version of myself, and make the world a better place: Nemo vir est qui mundum non reddat meliorem. This is the path I wish to take, and until our revels are ended I will engage in this tempest, confronting the adversaries, for "Hell is empty and all the devils are here". The co-pilot will be welcome and appreciated, if they can tolerate this alien in the tempest.
Despite the new year heralding a vaccine (of sorts) for COVID-19 and a new occupant in The White House who isn't completely deranged, I am concerned that 2021 will actually be worse than 2020 as the rate of daily new cases and deaths continues its upwards trajectory, especially in developing countries. The global economy, in this wake, limps along in a lacklustre fashion. The stage is set for some determined, global, interventions, but the political will is lacking. The personal is political, the political is personal. As reflective as I may be looking inwardly, I am so very aware of how public policy, such as health policy, can have very real and visceral effects on the lives of others. This entry was originally posted at https://tcpip.dreamwidth.org/308488.html.