pages/blog/2022-in-review.md (view raw)
1---
2template:
3slug: 2022-in-review
4title: 2022 in review
5subtitle: Late again because I was busy packing
6date: 2023-01-14
7---
8
9Quite possibly the "fastest" year I've experienced -- it feels like
10yesterday when 2022 began. I think I *did* a lot last year, contrary to
11previous years where I felt I'd just squandered my time away. Which is
12partly great because more content! But also not great, because I have to
13write it. It's not that I don't enjoy writing anymore (despite what the
14number of posts in 2022 might lead you to believe), I just find it
15harder to sit and do the thing -- perhaps something to think about and
16investigate in 2023. But I digress -- as I said, I did get a lot done
17last year, so let's get right into it.
18
19## projects & hacks
20
21I'm only talking about software projects here, since this time around,
22we've got some hardware hacks (ooh!).
23
24First on the list is [legit](https://git.icyphox.sh/legit), a web
25frontend for git. A very important characteristic of legit that *needs*
26mention is the fact that it's written in Go -- it's even the name of the
27first major release ([v0.2.0](https://git.icyphox.sh/legit/refs)).[^1]
28On a more serious note, it's probably the nicest thing I've built from
29scratch and it's very cool to see legit instances in the wild. I
30consider it *mostly* feature complete, barring a couple of outstanding
31PRs that I have yet to get to.
32
33[^1]: Some folks on the red site
34 [really](https://lobste.rs/s/trcln1/legit_web_frontend_for_git#c_ybjpfm)
35 [didn't](https://lobste.rs/s/trcln1/legit_web_frontend_for_git#c_hgnuco)
36 [like](https://lobste.rs/s/trcln1/legit_web_frontend_for_git#c_t4tl4w) it. :^)
37
38Next up is [honk](https://git.icyphox.sh/honk). Not really my *own*
39project, but something I spent a non-negligible amount of time hacking
40on. The honk lives in my head, rent-free. A few changes in my honk fork
41are:
42
43- user profile pictures
44- color scheme and UI
45- pretty @ URLs (like https://h.icyphox.sh/@icy)
46- bunch of other miscellaneous thingamajigs
47
48Lastly, I [installed OpenBSD](/blog/openbsd-oci/) on my Oracle VM and
49now everything runs off it, this site included.
50
51Probably not a "project", but I'll include it here anyway: I switched my
52entire [dotfiles](https://git.icyphox.sh/dotfiles) setup to Nix and
53home-manager and rest of that shit I used to filter on Lobste.rs. While
54I like the declarativeness, I won't pretend I understand the half of it.
55Believe me, I've tried. But it mostly just works the way I have it, so
56I'll leave it at that.
57
58## keyboards: my (first) new expensive hobby
59
60Normal 60% keyboards are out -- ergonomic split ortho keyboards are in.
61I built three keyboards this year: the Lotus58, and two semi-custom
6234-key wireless splits: the
63[Ferricy](https://github.com/icyphox/ferricy), and the Ferricy Choc.
64
65<div class="row">
66<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/F9YxI.jpeg" style="width: 500px"/>
67<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/rgVrx.jpeg" />
68<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/LUqg9.jpeg" />
69</div>
70
71There's a lot to write about keyboards and how I use mine, but I'll
72likely write a separate post covering that since it's fairly
73interesting and pretty long-winded. Until then, you can read [Nerdy's
74article](https://peppe.rs/posts/programming_on_34_keys/) on the
75subject.
76
77## my time at Ory
78
79Sometimes things don't work out and it's best to cut your losses and
80bounce. I came away with only positives and I greatly enjoyed my time at
81Ory. I got to work on some rather exciting stuff like:
82
83- distributed tracing using OTel and Tempo
84- centralized multi-cluster logging using Loki and Promtail
85- tackling interesting engineering problems like caching sessions at
86 edge
87- a whole bunch more...
88
89No ragrets.
90
91## travel
92
93A decent amount of travel last year: a week in Goa, three days in
94Jaipur, two days in Chikmagalur and one day in New Delhi. Here's one
95picture from each trip, in order.
96
97<div class="row">
98<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/6CuTI.jpeg" />
99<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/96xo7.jpeg" />
100<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/xc9ty.jpeg" />
101<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/jxhk0.jpeg" />
102</div>
103
104## fitness
105
106My fitness journey has seen considerable improvement. I streamlined my
107routine for the most part, and I've stuck to it. My usual week now
108consists of 3-4 upper body workouts, about 2 core workouts and 2 runs,
109about 5 or 6km.
110
111My ability to run has also greatly increased. I used to struggle to hit
1125ks back in 2021 -- I can now comfortably run 8k and still feel pretty
113good after. Granted, I'm not running for time -- my fastest 5k (the only
114time I timed it) is a rather generous 26 minutes.
115
116One major change I made in the latter half of last year was switching to
117calisthenics for all my strength training. My ultimate goal is to be
118able to do a full planche and front lever unassisted. I can currently
119hold a tucked front lever for about 10 seconds -- but hey, progress is
120progress.
121
1222022 was the year I got decently shredded. Still not quite Chris Heria,
123but we're getting there. I'd put myself somewhere around 15% body fat,
124on a good day. I didn't *strictly* regulate my diet, but I was somewhat
125conscious about what I was eating. A rough daily calorie estimate is
126constantly in the back of my head. For '23, I'd like to be a little more
127meticulous and properly count my calorie intake.
128
129## reading
130
131[Reading](/reading) was definitely on the forefront of 2022. I made a
132conscious effort to spend a set amount of time each day reading -- until
133about late November when I simply stopped. I can't remember why I did,
134but for me, it's really easy to "lose" a habit -- week or two of not
135reading, and I'll find myself moving on to other things. Another thing
136to think about for 2023.
137
138In 2022, I read 15 books (dropped one). I'm discounting *Assassin's
139Apprentice* since I have yet to get around to finishing it. Looking
140back, I can't pick any single standout read of last year, except maybe
141Patrick Rothfuss' *Kingkiller Chronicle*, which I still think about.
142
143I remember mentioning *The Wheel of Time* series in my [2021
144retrospective](/blog/2021-in-review). I managed to read the first two,
145but couldn't get into the third. Jordan's writing doesn't make for the
146easiest of reading, and -- I speak for myself when I say this -- spacing
147it out is probably best. Except I never got back.
148
149This year, I'm hoping to read:
150
151- more of *Dune*
152- *The Doors of Stone* please dear God
153- some more *Wheel of Time*, I think I've taken a long enough break
154- *The Lost Metal*, despite not enjoying Era 2 as much
155
156## this site
157
158Reject modernity, embrace tradition -- only the one tradition where we
159talk about this site and count the number of blog posts I wrote!
160
161```
162grep 'date: 2022' pages/blog/*.md | wc -l
1638
164```
165
166Lowest yet, and the trend year-over-year doesn't look promising. I don't
167think I'll ever *completely* stop writing, but I certainly won't be
168writing as much as I used to. I've largely stopped writing "commentary"
169since it's pretty pointless and inherently tied to the news cycle --
170it loses readability value even just a month later.
171
172## miscellaneous
173
174The catch-all. The flytrap. The part where everything else too small to
175deserve its own subsection get fleeting mentions. Let's run through them
176real quick since I'm losing patience and the date on this blog post has
177been changed four times already.
178
179**The bullet journal**: I [wrote about this](/blog/bujo) in '21. While
180the method largely remains the same, the size of my notebook has
181decreased to A6, drawing inspiration from one of [my favourite articles
182on note taking](https://ratfactor.com/notes). The smaller size allows me
183to carry it around pretty easily, and the thinness lets me clip my
184ball-pen at the current page.
185
186
187
188**Watches**: My (second) new expensive hobby. I went down the rabbithole
189of [HMT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMT_Limited)[^2] watches and
190instantly fell in love. I'll admit HMT watches aren't *that* expensive,
191but I've been looking at some Seikos and Hamiltons that I'd like to buy
192this year.
193
194
195
196[^2]: Also see [r/hmtwatches](https://old.reddit.com/r/hmtwatches)
197
198**Podcasts**: Made some great podcast discoveries last year:
199- [Our Fake History](https://ourfakehistory.com/): deep dives into
200 historical hoaxes
201- [How to Get on a
202 Watchlist](https://encyclopediageopolitica.com/how-to-get-on-a-watchlist/):
203 experts discuss dangerous activities
204- [Off Menu](https://www.offmenupodcast.co.uk/): Ed Gamble and James
205 Acaster run an imaginary restaurant
206- [The Russian Empire History
207 Podcast](https://therussianempirehistorypodcast.com/): what it says on
208 the tin
209
210## in 2023...
211
212There's a lot that happened last year, and there's *a whole lot more*
213that's going to happen this year -- and very soon. I've been hinting at
214it for a while on the [fedi](https://h.icyphox.sh/@icy). I've been
215packing a whole lot for it, and it's a mere 4 days away as I write this.
216It's a massive life update that I'm beyond stoked about -- I'll write
217about it here in few days.
218
219Until then, thanks for sticking around and I'll see you in a jiff.