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+---
+title: "2022 in Review"
+date: 2023-01-01
+lang: en
+categories: [ blog ]
+tags: [ "new year", "2023" ]
+translationKey: "2023-01-01-2022-in-Review"
+---
+
+So 2022 has ended, at least for me, at least in UTC.  It's time to review what
+happened in a year and plan for the next.  Some in my circle already did that
+one or two days earlier, but well, I have, uh, *reasons* to be late.
+
+## Last year
+
+### Work
+
+Last year I officially started a full-time job as a software engineer.  Well, I
+started it before that, but the official contract started in 2022.  This means
+that I had much less time for my personal projects or for free software
+contribution (not that I did a lot of that before).
+
+I wouldn't exactly say I'm satisfied with this job, but there are certainly
+benefits I wouldn't have had had I hadn't it, such as a stable income, health
+insurance, annual health checkups, and two vacations a year.  Pretty much that,
+I think.
+
+There are a few things that stresses me, but I guess I complained enough about
+them.
+
+### Free software
+
+<a href="https://sr.ht/~cnx/ipwhl/"><abbr>IPWHL</abbr></a> didn't last, sadly.
+The co-maintainer [cnx](https://cnx.gdn/) took a hiatus (around April, I think?
+I have no archive of that), and I in turn had a burnout later around June or
+July as well (and I felt guilty having never announced that).  I also dropped
+development on Yue and some other projects I started within the year, mostly
+due to my day job.
+
+I guess the most notable contribution of mine last year was probably packaging:
+I packaged honk for NixOS and am still packaging dictd for alpine linux
+(again).  Well, that and about six months packaging Python packages for
+<abbr>IPWHL</abbr> too.
+
+In the last two months I have been making a server for managing small
+shops---mostly stuff like prices and sales of products.  It would probably be
+done in a day if I just use a framework like Django, but then I feel that such
+framework is an overkill, so I instead decided to implement everything from
+scratch (well, not everything, I don't rewrite the encryption and database
+connectors or something like that).  It was a bit overwhelming, I think?  It
+shouldn't take that long at all, I suppose I need to rethink my approach.
+I also decided to learn Vala, a language that compiles to C and is designed for
+developing with GTK, too.  I intend to make some flashcard app as an outcome,
+and I hope without the network bits it might be somewhat easier to make.
+
+### Personal
+
+Last year, I finished reading a second book in French, <i lang=fr>Ellana</i>,
+with a higher difficulty than my previous one, <i lang=fr>Le Petit Prince</i>,
+I suppose.  I have been reading <i lang=fr>Tous les hommes sont mortels</i>. 
+I'm quite amazed that my French has been still quite fresh enough to read such
+books with little trouble.  Well, I still have to look up a lot of words, but
+over all, I feel comfortable with that.
+
+Also language related: I got my IELTS test, and to my surprise most are good
+despite my lack of active practice.  I suppose my constant shitposts and
+occasional rants in English helped.
+
+I did not have much time for conlanging for conlanging, but still a bit for
+writing.  Aside from this blog, I'm slowly rebooting my fictional world for the
+third time, and [spoiler alert] why not merging them all together?
+
+Lately, I started to have some trouble with figuring my meaning of life and
+wondering if I'm living an authentic life or I'm just keeping making bad
+decisions in [bad faith][bad].
+
+[bad]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_faith_(existentialism)
+
+On my physical health, I started being on a diet plus going to the gym since
+August.  Over all, I felt much better than the previous sedentary life mostly
+sitting in the office.  I also lost some weight, but sadly still have some
+health problems in the last checkup.  Well, more works on that this year then.
+It was only possible thanks to me working from home, but sadly it is no longer
+the case.
+
+## This year's plan
+
+I have a lot of things going on, so let's keep this short.
+
+It appears that no one other than I am the one to cause my own suffering,  I
+think this year will be the year for me to look inward, and start asking
+myself the big questions.
+
+![Iroh: It's time for you to look inward, and start asking yourself the big
+questions](/images/big-question.jpeg)
+
+That sounds vague, basically I will do less things that make me unhappy and do
+more things that makes me happy?  Yep, spending more time writing software I
+use, worldbuilding, making shitposts.  I will find time for more physical
+activities and recaliberating my diet to address my health problems,
+additionally.
+
+I'm applying for several master's programs abroad, so let's hope that passes,
+too.  On a related note, learning a new language or strengthening my French
+significantly will also be a goal of mine this year.