Well it already is a year since the previous thing, so let's have a look back and see what I've done over the last month.
My own programming projects continue at their own glacial pace. The primary thing that was done this month is some work on my first project in Lisp: a program to turn a Betza Funny Notation string into a move diagram visualiser.
During this month I finished making the image part of the program, allowing for a pieces to be placed in arbitrary positions and their moves indicated using circles and numbers, as well as being able to annotate the image with the piece's name and save to disk or display. However, the automatic placement of these pictures is still not done, and the assets are copyrighted so I can't distribute them.
Otherwise, I have done some abortive attempts at working with mkvid2 and bocproc8 but I haven't had much success with those. I have been thinking about moving mkvid2 to Racket because it has better GUI and image manipulation libraries, but a closer look makes it seem like that's not the case.
The Drsk grammar has hit 700 000 characters.
The scans have slowed down a bit after a flurry on Wednesday, but I'm coming close to finishing book 37. The scanning facility is still not fully functional yet so the Tumblr is still stuck four years ago.
After my interesting escapades in the hospital I have slowly recovered, and my weight have gone up a bit in the meantime. I have been trying to arrest that gain by exercising a little but I'm always tired for it.
Right now I'm just using the stepping machine for 15 minutes of workout plus however much is needed to push the step count to the next multiple of 100. It has helped a little bit but I think the real thing is to stop eating so much. Which is not easy as I just want to eat everything.
A new secondment is on the way and will start fairly soon after writing this. I would probably not be able to work from home with this. I have benefited greatly from this, not the least from being able to work on my own pursuits during downtime. That's always helpful in my opinion.
I think there will be some kind of war coming around these parts in the next ten years or so. Specifically, I predict about a 50% chance of war within the sea to the south of me before midnight 1 January 2030.
The reason why this is the case is because of certain chicken-shaped countries is currently beating the war drum and there are some important dates coming up that would be great if those dates have some interesting trophies to go with it. With weak leadership elsewhere and distractions everywhere, the whole thing could escalate very quickly.
I've read some news some time ago that seems to indicate that the new wars would be different. There will still be boots on the ground, but there is the distinct possibility that various other things would be in the crosshairs, such as the Internet. I'm not sure if this relatively forgotten corner of the network would be affected, but of course that means very little if there is a blanket network ban.
My immediate problems with health and the like have been solved, but there are still more issues on the horizon. The worst thing is that I just barely have the authority to change things but it would be a mass upheaval.
I think in particular there is a distinct possibility that if I don't leave soon I might not be able to do so in a long time. There is currently a bill in process that would deny exit from the city for no particular reason whatsoever, and with no opposition in the chamber it's expected to become law in August. I've been trying to secure some way to move to the UK as part of a job move, but the damn virus has prevented that, and so if I want to go I would have to drop the job.
There's been a thought that I would take up a PhD in the UK and that would preclude a job anyway, but perhaps I'm just too loyal and I want to see to the end of the agreements as far as I could. Or maybe it's just because of the penalties that are imposed for early contract termination.
I dunno. The door is closing, and I feel effectively powerless to do something about it even though perfectly feasible schemes are possible to execute even now.