A pages/blog/2022-in-review.md

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+---
+template:
+slug: 2022-in-review
+title: 2022 in review
+subtitle: Late again because I was busy packing
+date: 2023-01-14
+---
+
+Quite possibly the "fastest" year I've experienced -- it feels like
+yesterday when 2022 began. I think I *did* a lot last year, contrary to
+previous years where I felt I'd just squandered my time away. Which is
+partly great because more content! But also not great, because I have to
+write it. It's not that I don't enjoy writing anymore (despite what the
+number of posts in 2022 might lead you to believe), I just find it
+harder to sit and do the thing -- perhaps something to think about and
+investigate in 2023. But I digress -- as I said, I did get a lot done
+last year, so let's get right into it.
+
+## projects & hacks
+
+I'm only talking about software projects here, since this time around,
+we've got some hardware hacks (ooh!).
+
+First on the list is [legit](https://git.icyphox.sh/legit), a web
+frontend for git. A very important characteristic of legit that *needs*
+mention is the fact that it's written in Go -- it's even the name of the
+first major release ([v0.2.0](https://git.icyphox.sh/legit/refs)).[^1]
+On a more serious note, it's probably the nicest thing I've built from
+scratch and it's very cool to see legit instances in the wild. I
+consider it *mostly* feature complete, barring a couple of outstanding
+PRs that I have yet to get to.
+
+[^1]: Some folks on the red site
+    [really](https://lobste.rs/s/trcln1/legit_web_frontend_for_git#c_ybjpfm)
+    [didn't](https://lobste.rs/s/trcln1/legit_web_frontend_for_git#c_hgnuco)
+    [like](https://lobste.rs/s/trcln1/legit_web_frontend_for_git#c_t4tl4w) it. :^)
+
+Next up is [honk](https://git.icyphox.sh/honk). Not really my *own*
+project, but something I spent a non-negligible amount of time hacking
+on. The honk lives in my head, rent-free. A few changes in my honk fork
+are:
+
+- user profile pictures
+- color scheme and UI
+- pretty @ URLs (like https://h.icyphox.sh/@icy)
+- bunch of other miscellaneous thingamajigs
+
+Lastly, I [installed OpenBSD](/blog/openbsd-oci/) on my Oracle VM and
+now everything runs off it, this site included.
+
+Probably not a "project", but I'll include it here anyway: I switched my
+entire [dotfiles](https://git.icyphox.sh/dotfiles) setup to Nix and
+home-manager and rest of that shit I used to filter on Lobste.rs. While
+I like the declarativeness, I won't pretend I understand the half of it.
+Believe me, I've tried. But it mostly just works the way I have it, so
+I'll leave it at that.
+
+## keyboards: my (first) new expensive hobby
+
+Normal 60% keyboards are out -- ergonomic split ortho keyboards are in.
+I built three keyboards this year: the Lotus58, and two semi-custom
+34-key wireless splits: the
+[Ferricy](https://github.com/icyphox/ferricy), and the Ferricy Choc.
+
+<div class="row">
+<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/F9YxI.jpeg" style="width: 500px"/>
+<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/rgVrx.jpeg" />
+<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/LUqg9.jpeg" />
+</div>
+
+There's a lot to write about keyboards and how I use mine, but I'll
+likely write a separate post covering that since it's fairly
+interesting and pretty long-winded. Until then, you can read [Nerdy's
+article](https://peppe.rs/posts/programming_on_34_keys/) on the
+subject.
+
+## my time at Ory
+
+Sometimes things don't work out and it's best to cut your losses and
+bounce. I came away with only positives and I greatly enjoyed my time at
+Ory. I got to work on some rather exciting stuff like:
+
+- distributed tracing using OTel and Tempo
+- centralized multi-cluster logging using Loki and Promtail
+- tackling interesting engineering problems like caching sessions at
+  edge
+- a whole bunch more...
+
+No ragrets.
+
+## travel
+
+A decent amount of travel last year: a week in Goa, three days in
+Jaipur, two days in Chikmagalur and one day in New Delhi. Here's one
+picture from each trip, in order.
+
+<div class="row">
+<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/6CuTI.jpeg" />
+<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/96xo7.jpeg" />
+<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/xc9ty.jpeg" />
+<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/jxhk0.jpeg" />
+</div>
+
+## fitness
+
+My fitness journey has seen considerable improvement. I streamlined my
+routine for the most part, and I've stuck to it. My usual week now
+consists of 3-4 upper body workouts, about 2 core workouts and 2 runs,
+about 5 or 6km.
+
+My ability to run has also greatly increased. I used to struggle to hit
+5ks back in 2021 -- I can now comfortably run 8k and still feel pretty
+good after. Granted, I'm not running for time -- my fastest 5k (the only
+time I timed it) is a rather generous 26 minutes.
+
+One major change I made in the latter half of last year was switching to
+calisthenics for all my strength training. My ultimate goal is to be
+able to do a full planche and front lever unassisted. I can currently
+hold a tucked front lever for about 10 seconds -- but hey, progress is
+progress.
+
+2022 was the year I got decently shredded. Still not quite Chris Heria,
+but we're getting there. I'd put myself somewhere around 15% body fat,
+on a good day. I didn't *strictly* regulate my diet, but I was somewhat
+conscious about what I was eating. A rough daily calorie estimate is
+constantly in the back of my head. For '23, I'd like to be a little more
+meticulous and properly count my calorie intake.
+
+## reading
+
+[Reading](/reading) was definitely on the forefront of 2022. I made a
+conscious effort to spend a set amount of time each day reading -- until
+about late November when I simply stopped. I can't remember why I did,
+but for me, it's really easy to "lose" a habit -- week or two of not
+reading, and I'll find myself moving on to other things. Another thing
+to think about for 2023.
+
+In 2022, I read 15 books (dropped one). I'm discounting *Assassin's
+Apprentice* since I have yet to get around to finishing it. Looking
+back, I can't pick any single standout read of last year, except maybe
+Patrick Rothfuss' *Kingkiller Chronicle*, which I still think about.
+
+I remember mentioning *The Wheel of Time* series in my [2021
+retrospective](/blog/2021-in-review). I managed to read the first two,
+but couldn't get into the third. Jordan's writing doesn't make for the
+easiest of reading, and -- I speak for myself when I say this -- spacing
+it out is probably best. Except I never got back.
+
+This year, I'm hoping to read:
+
+- more of *Dune*
+- *The Doors of Stone* please dear God
+- some more *Wheel of Time*, I think I've taken a long enough break
+- *The Lost Metal*, despite not enjoying Era 2 as much
+
+## this site
+
+Reject modernity, embrace tradition -- only the one tradition where we
+talk about this site and count the number of blog posts I wrote!
+
+```
+grep 'date: 2022' pages/blog/*.md | wc -l
+8
+```
+
+Lowest yet, and the trend year-over-year doesn't look promising. I don't
+think I'll ever *completely* stop writing, but I certainly won't be
+writing as much as I used to. I've largely stopped writing "commentary"
+since it's pretty pointless and inherently tied to the news cycle --
+it loses readability value even just a month later.
+
+## miscellaneous
+
+The catch-all. The flytrap. The part where everything else too small to
+deserve its own subsection get fleeting mentions. Let's run through them
+real quick since I'm losing patience and the date on this blog post has
+been changed four times already.
+
+**The bullet journal**: I [wrote about this](/blog/bujo) in '21. While
+the method largely remains the same, the size of my notebook has
+decreased to A6, drawing inspiration from one of [my favourite articles
+on note taking](https://ratfactor.com/notes). The smaller size allows me
+to carry it around pretty easily, and the thinness lets me clip my
+ball-pen at the current page.
+
+![bujo](https://cdn.icyphox.sh/WtFWq.jpeg)
+
+**Watches**: My (second) new expensive hobby. I went down the rabbithole
+of [HMT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMT_Limited)[^2] watches and
+instantly fell in love. I'll admit HMT watches aren't *that* expensive,
+but I've been looking at some Seikos and Hamiltons that I'd like to buy
+this year.
+
+![hmt jhalak](https://cdn.icyphox.sh/X17~Q.webp)
+
+[^2]: Also see [r/hmtwatches](https://old.reddit.com/r/hmtwatches)
+
+**Podcasts**: Made some great podcast discoveries last year:
+- [Our Fake History](https://ourfakehistory.com/): deep dives into
+  historical hoaxes
+- [How to Get on a
+  Watchlist](https://encyclopediageopolitica.com/how-to-get-on-a-watchlist/):
+  experts discuss dangerous activities
+- [Off Menu](https://www.offmenupodcast.co.uk/): Ed Gamble and James
+  Acaster run an imaginary restaurant
+- [The Russian Empire History
+  Podcast](https://therussianempirehistorypodcast.com/): what it says on
+  the tin
+
+## in 2023...
+
+There's a lot that happened last year, and there's *a whole lot more*
+that's going to happen this year -- and very soon. I've been hinting at
+it for a while on the [fedi](https://h.icyphox.sh/@icy). I've been
+packing a whole lot for it, and it's a mere 4 days away as I write this.
+It's a massive life update that I'm beyond stoked about -- I'll write
+about it here in few days.
+
+Until then, thanks for sticking around and I'll see you in a jiff.