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+---
+title: "2021: End of year sum up"
+date: 2021-12-31
+draft: true
+lang: en
+categories: [ blog ]
+tags: []
+translationKey: "2021-12-31-year-end"
+---
+
+So... it's the end of the year, let's look back at what I've achieved this year.
+
+## Starting a blog
+
+I felt like it was longer, but it turns out [I started writing a blog right at
+the beginning of this year][blog-start].  I tried switching around multiple
+solutions, namely Wordpress, WriteFreely, to static site (Jekyll) hosted on
+GitHub, later SourceHut and currently [on a tilde][blog move],
+[envs.net][envs].  I'm quite content with the current clean setup and not
+planning to change.
+
+[blog-start]: /posts/2021-01-02-wordpress/
+[blog-move]: /posts/2021-05-29-move-site/
+[envs]: https://envs.net
+
+## Graduating & getting a job
+
+It's also the end of my life as a university student.  I intended to go for
+higher study, but due to my lack of planning, I missed my opportunity.  On the
+other side, I believe me getting my current job is another chance to acquire
+more experience in programming and teamwork as well as some cash to fuel my
+hobby.  While this means I spend less time developing free software, I feel
+better having an income and not staying in an idle state.
+
+## Leaving Facebook
+
+While escaping from Big Tech is impossible, [I have made a step away from
+it][leave-fb]. Facebook is a bad actor of the web, and I do feel less irritated
+after I left it.  On the contrary, the current social media that I use,
+[Mastodon][masto] and Pleroma, are full of nice and chill people---not that
+there aren't heated ones or trolls, but it does feel like the lacking of a
+manipulative algorithm does make the content better.
+
+Of course I'm biased, so [try it for yourself][join-fedi].
+
+[leave-fb]: /posts/2021-09-12-facebook-censoring-mastodon/
+[masto]: /posts/mastodon/
+[join-fedi]: https://fediverse.party/
+
+## Being more active in free software contribution
+
+I don't lead a big free software and I also am not a regular contributor for
+any particular project, but I did participate in them.
+
+### Discovering the fediverse
+
+While I joined Mastodon since the end of last year, it is not until this
+year that I tested out other various ActivityPub-based federated projects:
+[PeerTube][pt], [Pleroma][pl], [Misskey][mk], [PixelFed][pf], [Lemmy][lm],
+lotide[lt], [WriteFreely][wf], and [Bookwyrm][bw].
+They are all great projects.
+
+[pt]: https://joinpeertube.org/
+[pl]: https://pleroma.social
+[pf]: https://pixelfed.org/
+[lm]: https://join-lemmy.org/
+[lt]: https://sr.ht/~vpzom/lotide/
+[wf]: https://write.as/
+[bw]: https://www.bookwyrm.social/
+
+You might question the fediverse's premise: what is the point of making it
+possible to interact with another server which uses entirely different
+software?  I just think it's great that we can freely choose whichever software
+that suits their need and still can communicate with each other, whether it's
+the nice and simplistic Mastodon, the customizable Pleroma with richer
+features, or the even more feature-rich Misskey.
+
+I also tried out federated chat protocols, [Matrix][matrix] and XMPP, and I'm
+sticking with Matrix because its clients look nicer generally, and they often
+handle <abbr title="End-to-end encryption">E2EE</abbr> in less headaching way.
+I also try out IRC during the Freenode drama, and decided to stick to a lesser
+known server, [hackint.org][hackint].  The channel for IPWHL is thereon.
+
+[matrix]: https://matrix.org
+[hackint]: https://hackint.org
+
+### Packaging
+
+If you subscribe to my blog or follow me on social media, you probably have
+known about [*Floating cheeses*][ipwhl], more formally known as
+<abbr>IPWHL</abbr>, which is a Python distribution on <abbr>IPFS<abbr> and has
+its dependency tree pre-resolved.
+
+[ipwhl]: https://sr.ht/~cnx/ipwhl/
+
+I also try packaging packages for GNU/Linux distributions I use.  I tried to
+add [Badwolf][badwolf], a minimalist web browser, and update the outdated noto
+emoji font on openSUSE, though the submissions sadly were not approved.
+Though, the update nheko on Void Linux[^0] to version 0.9.1 was.
+
+[badwolf]: https://hacktivis.me/projects/badwolf
+
+### Contributions to other projects
+
+I have contributed a fairly large amount of code to projects I use.
+There are tiny ones, such as correcting typos or updating outdated information,
+and there are non-feature ones, such as adding <abbr title="International
+Phonetic Alphabet">IPA</abbr> layout to [Florisboard][fboard].
+
+[fboard]: https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard/
+
+I also fixed a bug on [flit] that prevents people with non-ASCII characters in
+their names to have them written correctly in the `pyproject.toml` file, and
+added another redirect to [Privacy Redirect][pr] add-on, though sadly the latter
+still hasn't been fixed.
+
+[flit]: https://github.com/pypa/flit/
+[pr]: https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect
+
+### Writing my own pieces of software
+
+Using badwolf, I found it cumbersome to write a small tool to generates XBEL
+from a YAML template.  Unsatisfied with the default lotide frontend, I decided
+to write an alternative one, *Luna*[^1], and later, *Yue*.  I've given up on my
+attempt to rewrite a conlanging tool [PolyGlot][pg], since I realize using such
+software is against my plain text workflow.  It's true that a software is only
+born when it scratches the developer's itch.
+
+[pg]: https://github.com/DraqueT/PolyGlot
+
+## Advent of code
+
+I've participated in the first half of Advent of Code for the first time, but
+it is increasingly less fun to do, so I dropped it prematurely.
+
+## Rekindle my old hobbies
+
+I have hobbies of making creative works, like many other nerds on the
+internet: drawing, [conlanging][conlang], world building, writing fiction.
+Though I only keep them to myself, it feels great to come back after a long
+time neglecting them.  I have a few [scribbles][comic] on here, though they're
+not representative of my drawing (they're representative of my drawing *with
+mouse, on a computer*), not that I draw that well.
+
+[conlang]: https://huyngo.envs.net/ravna/
+[comic]: /comics/
+
+## Next year
+
+Looking back at these achievements in the last year is inspiring me to plan for
+the next, though I'm leaving the details for tomorrow.
+
+- Host an public IPFS node to support IPWHL
+- Make more advancement in developing Yue
+- Make a Mastodon bot for the sake of it?
+- Try out the gemini protocol
+- Renewing my IELTS certificate and take a DELF test
+- Publish my first usable conlang and start [translating my blogs and software
+    to it][conlang-sw]?
+- Start drawing a comic with ideas I'm having in mind?
+- Donate to good software and services I use
+
+I guess I should have more coherent plan but as I said, let's leave it for the
+new year.
+
+[conlang-sw]: https://nixnet.social/notice/AEU0tveYyya0MgFRoG
+
+[^0]: Sorry to the majority of poll voters, I don't make decision based on
+  polls
+[^1]: Sorry again, I promised this one will be about Luna but well, let's save
+  it for the *luna*r new year.