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---
title: "2021: End of year sum up"
date: 2021-12-31
lang: en
categories: [ blog, personal ]
tags:
- year end
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/
[mk]: https://github.com/misskey-dev/misskey
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.
|
