The Last Days of Annus Horribilis
As the countdown to the end of 2021 approaches, I am welcoming the end of what has been an unpleasant year in many respects, whether I consider my unfortunate prescient comments at the start of the year on COVID-19 cases and deaths, or some rather challenging times in interpersonal affairs. All of these have had quite a toll on initial plans ("Events, my dear boy, events", as attributed to Harold MacMillan). When I think in terms of other years it probably counts as the second-worst year of my life; my last year of high school was a little harder in hindsight but I was perhaps too young to realise how bad it was. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties, I really have been fortunate to have sufficient personal resources and caring friends whose support over the year which really have helped me through and I actually feel slightly confident about 2022. As is my wont, I will do a more complete review in a few day's time as I account for the activities and challenges over the year, although I will note that the phrase "annus horribilis" was apparently first used in 1870 as an Anglican response when the Roman Catholic Church established papal infallibility. Mind you, as a pantheist I experience divine revelations all the time.
I have been on leave this week because that's how the University does things, but unlike a typical end-of-year, I haven't gone into a mad panic trying to get things done by the artificial deadline. Nevertheless, four fairly significant events have occurred in these last days. The first was a visit from my dear friend Mel S., with whom we spent a good day in banter over politics, music, the pandemic, etc. The second was putting together an article on "The Political Economy of Workers' Cooperatives", which I must acknowledge that various discussions with AnCaps actually helped a great deal. It must be said that thoughts on the matter are leading me to consider such a body for my Wild Flying Geese project, but that will be something for 2022. The third event was being featured in a case study on supercomputing by Dell, which includes an advertisement for Dell kit on Youtubue. The final was confirmation that I book that I was the lead contributor for a chapter has reached the stage of pre-print, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing Environments. Every so often, prior work that one has done generates results. This entry was originally posted at https://tcpip.dreamwidth.org/330091.html.
I have been on leave this week because that's how the University does things, but unlike a typical end-of-year, I haven't gone into a mad panic trying to get things done by the artificial deadline. Nevertheless, four fairly significant events have occurred in these last days. The first was a visit from my dear friend Mel S., with whom we spent a good day in banter over politics, music, the pandemic, etc. The second was putting together an article on "The Political Economy of Workers' Cooperatives", which I must acknowledge that various discussions with AnCaps actually helped a great deal. It must be said that thoughts on the matter are leading me to consider such a body for my Wild Flying Geese project, but that will be something for 2022. The third event was being featured in a case study on supercomputing by Dell, which includes an advertisement for Dell kit on Youtubue. The final was confirmation that I book that I was the lead contributor for a chapter has reached the stage of pre-print, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing Environments. Every so often, prior work that one has done generates results. This entry was originally posted at https://tcpip.dreamwidth.org/330091.html.