2024

I believe 2024 to have been a good year to me, although perhaps not great.  While I failed to finish
much of my work as planned, I did several new things that delighted me.  I travelled this last year,
and flew on an aeroplane for the first time; I got past not my fear of flying, but my fear of death.
I've neurotically feared some changes with my health this last year, likely unnecessarily and likely
related to normal aging, but this made me accept my mortality again.  It's too hard to live each day
as if it could be my last, I would be hounded by the spectre of regret too harshly, but I've decided
I can live each year as if it could be my last rather easily.  The spectre of regret is then weaker.

I've left too much of my work in an unfinished but nearly-completed state for too long.  Rather than
make the same plans for another year, I've decided instead to work on something different each month
and to see how I fare with this approach.  This first month will be dedicated to toys and gizmos.  I
wrote more in the last year than I've written in any single preceding year, and I plan to write even
more in this coming year.  I'll try to make the first article of each month concern my chosen topic.

Follows is a list of some things I'd like to get done in this next year: playing with neural network
nonsense; implementing a few more standard network protocols, and even some throwaway protocols I've
had lingering in my mind; establishing some serious cryptographic keys and conventions I use to sign
my work, and also a Bitcoin address to be used for donations; targeting another machine code with my
Meta-Machine Code tool, and perhaps writing a video game for some old system beyond CHIP-8; making a
demo for an Elision system targeting English; and of course to progress further in my Latin studies.

I've not had a real computer for Internet purposes over this last year.  I've been unable to do many
of the things I once did effortlessly.  I've had to use my rented server to get back even a tiny bit
of the ability, and have only been frustrated horribly with the shitty state of both the WWW and the
Internet.  A fairly new WWW browser is required unnecessarily for many things, and only a fairly new
computer may run such a WWW browser.  Whether I'll correct the issue in this year or not I know not.

When having a nice and pleasant conversation on a programming forum I've joined within the past year
and some, I was struck by the kindness and how it mixed with the hatred I so often feel in my heart.
The juxtaposition sickened me, and I've resolved to be a little less hateful, at least outwardly so.
My travelling also had me meeting people unlike me in pleasant contexts, further strengthening this.

I need no hope in the future to know things will improve for me with this year; I'll make it happen.
.