My 2022 in review and what’s next for 2023

Colorful fireworks background by @teeraphonphooma with the title of the post for Andrei Jiroh’s blog, made with Canva. Used for social previews and as featured photo when shared within Medium and Substack.

You’re reading this post in Medium, imported from Substack, with some minor adjustments. Read this in WordPress.com, mirror.xyz or in plaintext form at lists.sr.ht.

This content is initially written in plain Markdown via JetBrains Fleet on JetBrains Space Dev Environments and finalized in JB Space by editing this in my personal mirror of the repo. You can find the source and more at the newly-created git repo at sourcehut.

Sorry if I did this in 2023, because school chores and stuff, and for mental health reasons. This is also my first blog post as part of the January 2023 roaster of Bring Back Blogs, a project open to anyone to make a pact to publish at least 3 blog posts for a month, and you can still join the fun. It’s been more than two weeks (might be three when I published this one before my birthday) since 2023 started, and while it may start a bit rocky for me, I have taken some fresh air and even touched some grass (correction: plants within the subdivision) before going back to school.

Okay, let’s do my personal 2022 recap then, shall we?

So what’s happened in 2022?

From going back to school face-to-face to officially using Substack as an extension of my blog and officially part of two tildes, 2022 is surely a hellscape that I survived, even with some hiccups regarding mental health and family/personal issues. Remember my first failed attempt on #100DaysOfCode? Oh boy, I have pending drafts on WordPress that I wish I could, but school need to pass some paperwork then.

My software development skills are still improving, alongside using Linux for remote development and personal use, although it somewhat slowed down due to, well, reasons mentioned earlier in this post. Last year, I added Deno as my primary programming language I use on backend stuff alongside Node.js, but I’ll expect to bring Python and Ruby too soon for backend and scripting needs, plus Flutter for cross-platform apps. I’m also considering Golang and Rust for other side projects, especially at Recap Time Squad. I also extensively use Darklang in subtle ways, including setting up a custom golink server for the crew (good luck with the SSL errors and DNS overrides in Tailscale/NextDNS).

Some of my important milestones as both a Linux user and part-time open-source maintainer are officially joining the tildeverse through Ctrl-C Club and ~vern and using sourcehut since July, the hacker’s forge with less UI clutter and email-based dev workflow. I’m currently using the service for personal projects and for mirroring purposes, although I also use their IRC bouncer, since using Matrix is fine, but I prefer much native option for IRC.

And then, the Musk-Twitter shitshow happened since early November. You know the drill, probably was the worst internet shitshow than post-porn ban pre-Automattic acquisition era of Tumblr, right? (I forgot where did I say that in the first way, other than the content warnings I set in my cross posting service before I disabled completely) So, here we are, I’m at https://tilde.zone/@ajhalili2006 through the fediverse and lessen my Twitter use too, not because of crypto spam hell on my DMs.

What’s in store for 2023?

My new year’s resolution would be simple, and these are:

• better mental health, self-esstem and self-confidence for myself, plus lessen [DIAGNOSIS NOT YET PUBLICIZED] meltdowns and suffering-in-slience (although I’m anxious talking about my struggles with my family due to reasons I couldn’t state yet)
• better work-life balance between school, my open-source and side project work and life (as an introvert and [DIAGNOSIS NOT YET PUBLICIZED], my social life is a bit of a mess not eventful since childhood) as a neurodivergent
• Contributors to different projects, especially the ones I hosted under Recap Time Squad’s banner, anyone?

And here are also some of my goals for this year:

• Use sourcehut more, and maybe contribute back to the community in some ways (currently the Docker-in-Sourcehut project and others)
• Explore more communities and catch up on ones that I missed (this isn’t new to me, but on the onboarding track: the furry community, plus My Hero Academia and other anime series)
• Publish first few posts for The Bloody Hell PH, where I dig deep into the hellscapes of internet $#!tf**kery, mess up in the multifandom multiverse of madness, and talk a bit more about my neurodivergent life in the Philippines.
• Get at least one certificate from freeCodeCamp as a signal booster for future employers, and maybe snag a free sysadmin cert from LinkedIn + Microsoft, too.
• Plus your regular improvement chores across different skill sets

So that’s it! I hope that you and your family is in good condition, and I wish that we’re not going back to the old normal pre-pandemic that broken by design not just for people with visible and invisible disabilities, non-white people and ethnic groups, but anybody else, and towards a better normal (I mean more inclusive and diverse future, much prepared for future pandemics and other emergencies and future-proofing against climate change). And right after this, I’ll post a special post for my 17th birthday, so feel free to greet me in my public inbox if you do.

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