2024 In Review
Some Books, in Brief
There were a few books that I did not finish (DNF). I was trying to branch out and stretch myself a bit, but I gave myself permission to put a book down if I didn't want more of what the author had to say.
The Spear Cuts Through Water - Original fantasy. I found the writing a bit obfuscated. In the end it all comes together beautifully but the baroque style takes some work to get through.
Lord of a Shattered Land - Fun "sword and sandal" fantasy. A bit in the flavor of Edgar Rice Burrough, just not as sexist.
City by Clifford Simak - Short but thought provoking sci-fi. Lots of interesting ideas that I haven't encountered elsewhere.
The Left Hand of Darkness - Le Guin is phenomenal as always and timely. She examines such fundamentals of the human condition as gender and patriotism through a deeply personal story. "I wondered, not for the first time, what patriotism is, what the love of country truly consists of, how that yearning loyalty that had shaken my friend's voice arises, and how so real a love can become, too often, so foolish and vile a bigotry. Where does it go wrong?"
Sister Light, Sister Dark & White Jenna by Jane Yolen - Fun YA fantasy. In a kind of unique format that interleaves myth, history, and the actual story. Clever, but the format got tiresome quickly.
Getting Things Done - DNF. Ironically ran out of time to finish this. I find GTD full of good advice for getting organized. And while these techniques help, they don't fundamentally address the problems that I have right now with more holistic emotional health.
Sunlit Man - Fun Sanderson fantasy.
Skyward, Starsight, Cytonic, Defiant - Fun Sanderson Fantasy (but in space).
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - DNF. Confirmed my suspicions that the author is an ableist, flirting with eugenics. He also loves to hype non-traditional (polyamourus) marriages without any rigorous discussion, which feels naive and bored me.
Dune Messiah - Dune does two things I really like. The first is rare, world building that is detailed and still rich with hints and rumors. The effect is one of a being drawn into a fascinating world by the impression that there is so much the author doesn't describe, that it invites the imagination. The second is something I have never read anywhere else. It is the idea that powerful people are sometimes faced with choosing between a bad and worse path AND that choosing the less bad does NOT make them the hero. In fact, they are still the villian.
Time Enough for Love - Less of a story and more of a collection of proverbs. There's some things I agree with, some witty and funny. The investigation of human nature from the vantage point of extreme longevity could have been interesting, except it was all argument from consequences and the consequences felt contrived or naive. Finally there were some deeply problematic ideas throughout (manifest destiny, eugenics, and ableism) that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Neuromancer - Would have been more fun if the bits of philosophy weren't wrapped in such pretentious language. Also, several characters speak in slang/pidgin alien enough that it makes the story hard to follow.
Snow Crash - Really enjoyed this but also depressed that the tech industry has made so much more progress on developing the capitalist hellscape than on portable VR.
The Thursday Murder Club: The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet that Missed, The Last Devil to Die - Highly entertaining who dunnit with a group of retirees, running around, solving crimes. There's a lot of drinking involved. Beware the last one, while still being very entertaining, covers some of the heartbreak of aging. It does so with clear eyes (IMO) and that was very good but it's a tear jerker.
Dune - Reread shortly after watching the new film. I really felt the film captured the feeling of the novel. I was also struck by how this is a story with no good guys.
Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War - Needs more Avasarala & Bobbi.
Uprooted, Spinning Silver - Novik is phenomenal as always.
The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, The Siren Depths, The Edge of Worlds, & The Harbors of the Sun - Martha Well's earlier fantasy series. I thought it had very interesting world building, including reversed gender roles (kinda) and a caste based society. I love the main characters so much.
Altered Carbon - DNF. Was on someone's list of the Sci-fi canon. Felt like a excuse to write weird sex scenes.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - The inspiration of Blade Runner. I found it moody in a good way. I didn't feel it had anything profound to say but enjoyed nevertheless.
A Memory Called Empire - Enjoyable Sci-fi. Interesting ideas to explore with characters you grow to care about.
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter & Tress of the Emerald Sea - A couple of very fun fantasies from Sanderson, but I would rather he worked on Stormlight.
Personal Dev
I continued work on my C++ text editor including an alpha version of a LSP client, terminal tool, editor margin, and autocomplete. Design for my dynamic language continued with a couple options for block syntax, OOP and type system design. I explored using LLVM to compile and run IR. The scavengers MVP made progress but I grew impatient with the MVP concept and took a break to integrate my work into a single WIP project. That renewed my motivation and I made some good progress on building out a few sectors with space docks and hyperlanes. I hope to post a WIP to itch.io soon.
I did not get better at sharing WIPs nor did I tackle many of the small(ish) projects that I sketched out at the beginning of the year. But I did get a little more organized in tracking my projects and next steps, especially towards the end of the year. A lot of the time I felt so overwhelmed with work and home responsbilities and with the many dev projects I wanted to do that I was paralyzed. In the coming year I'd like to be more focused and disciplined about getting work done, even if only in small chunks.
Outdoor Adventures
It was another amazing year for adventures starting with a trip to Kauai in February. A rolled ankle in August was a bit of a downer but I focused on swimming and working out while recovering. In October I was mostly house bound but spent quite a bit of time building and improving trails in our forest patch. This was a year of expanded modes of travel, including snowshoes, skis, and kayaking.
19 nights backpacking including:
- 7 nights in Kauai, 3 on the famous Kalalau trail
- 2 nights snowshoe backpacking
- 6 nights in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
- 26 new miles of PCT-H
I summited Mt Adams, did two nordic ski trips, kayaked 4+ miles, swam in alpine lakes and at the gym. Cut ~1700ft of trails through our woods and covered more than 360 miles despite a rolled ankle in August and October.