💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2021 › 202112 › 20211231-a-personal-retrospective-on-2021.gm… captured on 2022-04-29 at 12:27:28. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-01-08)
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I won't bother talking about the political or social state of the world at large in 2021. I feel we already pay pundits and analysts too much to do that for us. Instead I want to look back at my own experiences in the year.
At the start of 2021, I had never even heard of older or smaller Internet protocols like Gopher, Finger or Gemini. I used Lynx to browse Gopherspace for the first time in January and got an account on SDF soon after. In February I created Rob's Gopherhole, and in March I created my Rob's Gemini Capsule. Then in mid-May, after only running my Gopherhole for about three and a half months, I decided to close it down and switch fully to Gemini.
As a result of my increasing presence on Gemini, and my subsequent efforts to provide interesting content, I've begun to dive into mathematics again. I've greatly enjoyed the work I've done with my articles so far--I haven't spent this much of my spare time focused on math since my college days, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I plan to supplement my own articles with some bigger projects in 2022--details should be coming soon.
My entry in the small Web wasn't the only change to happen in my life. After over a year of working from home, I returned to my office for the first time in April. A transition phase began, until during the summer I switched to working at the office full-time. Compared to the height of the pandemic last year, I feel much better having a reason to get up in the morning and actually leave the house. Both my morale and my productivity have improved this year as a result.
I had a chance to improve my own health this year as well, and while the results have not been drastic, they have been much welcome. My weight has slowly but steadily decreased, and my physical activity has greatly increased--from bike rides to Pump It Up to walks around the park or around the city. My wife and I have begun trying to drink more water and make low-carb meals at home rather than ordering food through Doordash every night, and the more healthful diet has been good for my digestive system. We aim to get ourselves in better shape and continue to lose weight in 2022.
Even my love for aerospace had a chance to blossom like never before in 2021. I went to the local airports to planespot far more than I ever have before, averaging about one visit per week to each. I began to use digital SLR cameras to improve the quality of my photos, and I got to see more specialized aircraft than ever before. This culminated in three air shows in two months during June and July, and of course seeing Air Force One in person earlier this month. I also got a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator and began learning the basics of flying at home with my own HOTAS.
This year was not all upsides, however. After months of family planning in 2020, my wife became pregnant in October, and just shy of 13 weeks in she had a miscarriage. We have not successfully conceived since then. She has faced a number of health issues during 2021, and a major motivation for our health push now is to help ameliorate some of those issues. We have a long road ahead of us for sure, but we are confident in our ability to traverse it.
There were some material losses as well. We were involved in a car accident in June, which left us unharmed but totaled our primary vehicle. We were able to buy a replacement vehicle fairly quickly, but the expense was still frustrating to deal with.
Overall, however, I feel 2021 was better for our family than 2020. We've focused a lot on our physical and mental health, and while we're not one hundred percent yet, we're already better off for it. We have no specific new years' resolutions for 2022--we simply want to keep on the track we've already started and improve ourselves even more.
And of course, Gemini will be part of that improvement. I've greatly enjoyed my time in Geminispace so far, and I know as more people discover this excellent community and contribute to it, I'll have even more fun.
Thank you for visiting Rob's Gemini Capsule, and thank you for helping to make this year a better one than before. I won't be going anywhere, and I hope you won't either.
Happy 2022!
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[Last updated: 2022-01-01]