2019-01-03-2018-in-review.en.md (5377B)
1 +++
2 title = "2018 in Review"
3 draft = false
4 date = 2019-01-03
5 slug = "2018-in-review"
6 +++
7
8 Before anything, happy New Year!
9
10 It's an interesting feeling when the time span of one year gradually becomes
11 shorter relative to the time that has already passed in one's life. If only the
12 actual length of one year also scales with one's age, perhaps we would feel more
13 of the excitement instead of anxiety during the New Year count down. That being
14 said, 2018 was a lot of fun for me, even without ray-tracing graphic cards.
15
16
17 ## The Amazing 2018 {#the-amazing-2018}
18
19 To quote my 2017 self:
20
21 > If I've learned anything from my past failed plans, it would be to always
22 > underestimate my own capabilities when planning...
23
24 Yeah, it's totally just that my estimates about the amount of free time I would
25 have was off, as can be seen from the status of my 2018 goals.
26
27 - ☒ Run 1000 miles. <code>[405/1000]</code>
28 - ☒ Finish a marathon.
29 - ☒ Write 20 blog posts. <code>[10/20]</code>
30 - ☒ Get the first signature for my PGP key.
31 - ☒ Install Gentoo.
32
33 Knowing that I can always change the 'publish date' of blog entries (thanks to
34 `hugo`), I grew into the bad habit of starting an article and just then shelving
35 it for months to come. When I finally remember that one unfinished article, I
36 frequently dismiss the idea as not really worth elaborating. Now that I think
37 about it, maybe this is exactly what blogs are for, providing a snapshot of
38 myself that I can look back later, whether my future self find it silly or 'not
39 really worth elaborating'.
40
41 The number of movie theater visits I had in 2018 probably accounts for 50% of my
42 lifetime total, and with double doses of disappointment from _Star Wars: The
43 Last Jedi_ and _Incredibles 2_. By the way, 2018 also saw 90% of my lifetime
44 popcorn consumption. I've never realized those can be such addicting.
45
46 Although not a marathon, I did ran my first trail half marathon in May. It was
47 the first time I've ever hit the wall while running, due to bad pacing and
48 unpreparedness for the weather. The race started mid afternoon on a scorchingly
49 hot day. After witnessing quite a few people stopped to walk in the first 2
50 miles, I started off quite a bit faster than my intended pace fueled by a stupid
51 sense of superiority, and hit the wall right at the mark of 4 miles. Fortunately
52 the feeling faded away as I walked the next half of the race, gulping ice-cold
53 Gatorade at every hydration point. However, the ice-cold Gatorade was another
54 trap—temperature dropped rapidly as sun started to set and my stomach started
55 to complain about all the chilly liquid. As the finish line appeared within 400
56 meters of my sight, my legs were hit by the strongest cramps I've ever
57 had. After barely making it through while being surpassed by 3 people right
58 before finish line, I could only be happy to learn that I was still not the last
59 one: actually, I'm even the first one in my age group (~~whose size is one~~). The
60 somewhat illegitimate feeling of compliment, mixed with a bit of salt and guilt
61 made the race a wondrous experience.
62
63
64 ## The Spectacular 2019 {#the-spectacular-2019}
65
66 Since Google is deprecating Inbox in the coming March, I've lost my last excuse
67 for clinging to Gmail. I'll try to gradually fade out my Gmail usage for my own
68 email server.
69
70 On the front of searching for best solution for blog comments, quite a few
71 bloggers I follow have started embracing [IndieWeb](https://indieweb.org/) and [Webmention](https://webmention.net/). In a lot of ways, Webmention was the exact thing I wanted: federated
72 blog comments, posts, and more. Yet I'm reluctant to move further away from a
73 static site, not to mentioning most easy-to-follow Webmention solutions I have
74 found relies heavily on third-party services. The IndieWeb movement itself though is
75 fairly intriguing. I've never had much use for [Keybase](https://keybase.io/) aside from it being a hub
76 linking most of my online presences (decryption and encryption does not work
77 without uploading PGP private keys, and I have no one to securely chat with),
78 perhaps I should just replace it with `rel=me` links.
79
80 Diving into C++17 was fairly enjoyable during the past year, so I'm looking into
81 learning other new programming languages. [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/) and [Julia](https://julialang.org/) have been on my radar
82 for a while, especially Rust. Having a full suite of officially supported tools
83 makes writing Rust a smooth and deeply satisfying experience. I'll try to dive
84 deeper into both languages and hopefully put them into some uses.
85
86 As for running and blog posts, I'll try to match 2018's numbers. On top of
87 those, I'm thinking about keeping a record of the books, music, and shows I've
88 read/listened/watched on this blog, along with my thoughts. I actually attempted
89 something similar during this blog's Wordpress days: I once setup a MediaWiki
90 instance for similar purposes, but lacked the motivation to continue maintaining
91 the entries. I'll keep it simple this time, and I should come up with a set of
92 rating system.
93
94 What should I do with the remaining 2018 goals? A separate wishlist is a pretty
95 good idea—let's go with that. As a stretch goal, I should probably clean my
96 desktop computer, which is stuffed with four-year-old dirt, cat hair, and dead
97 skin cells.
98
99 Here's to another spectacular 2.9e+17 radiation periods of Caesium-133!