2023-01-01

Ooh, feels weird to type in 2023. I liked 2022 -- it had a nice symmetry to it.

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Listening to Jeremy Blake and thinking of how best to use my last day before I go back to work. I kind of want to wrap up or capstone some of the stuff I did or started: capture how this break felt and try and make room in my life to do more of the things which were good.

Another part of me wants to not spend it semi-productive like that and pretend like I'm not going back on Tuesday. It's funny how the feeling of a break is qualitatively different at the start than at the end, even when there's no reason for it to be like that except for anticipation of the future or regret about the past.

I'm not dreading going back, which is positive. I would not say I'm looking forward to it, totally, but I never do.

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I should probably add a -- to / bar of unicode to my parser. Hmm.

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I think that when I am learning or practising a skill I need a mix between pure skill building and little projects. Successes recently:

• Doing AoC in Clojure (skill building) but also trying to write an ActivityPub web app (little project).

• Cutting circles and squares and testing GCode for the laser, before moving on to trying to make an item with it. (Also it took quite a bit of dialling in, so I'm glad I wasn't trying to do that while I also wanted a finished thing).

• Making a small aluminium cube and experimenting with dial indicators for repeatability on the new mill before converting a spindle into a spindexer.

• Learning how to do all of the different stitches on the (ancient) sewing machine I'm using (and how to wind and replace the bobbin), before trying to make an actual alteration to a garment.

If I want to make something before I know how to perform basic operations I get very frustrated -- I suppose it's separating the learning from the practice.

I think I rarely do this in my work life; I'm often learning something while also solving a problem with it. This is probably not a sustainable way to work but it's definitely not a good way for me to be with my hobbies.

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I am thinking of setting myself little monthly topics to stay creative. Like when I tried to only take 1x1 black and white pictures for some of 2021. Something for photography, something for music, something for drawing. I don't think I need them for programming or fabricating things -- those come up on their own.

Like, would it lead to a good outcome if I set myself "learn how to make drum and bass" for January instead of just putting aside time to noodle on music?

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ok bye