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What’s your favorite thing you’ve done in the last year?
I feel like we’re constantly talking about how the last year and a half was the “lost year” and that no one did anything all year. But is there something you managed to do that makes you happy, proud, etc?
My wife and I spent the last few months building an outdoor tortoise enclosure for our pet Russian tortoise, Tortoro. We moved him outside a few weeks ago and he’s much more active and inquisitive.
Taking the time to build him a larger, outdoor enclosure that was designed to maximize his happiness was a nice respite from the stress of the world.
Solo traveling is so rewarding!
Picked up cycling and have done a bunch of impressive things on two wheels.
I’ll also throw in that I quit my job and found something far better.
I finally moved my (music) keyboard closer to my computer, so now I can actually compose on it. Previously, they were across the room from each other for reasons that aren't really relevant. It made recording anything a pain in the ass. But having them next to each other, I just turn the keyboard on, run Logic, and start playing. Then I can tweak to my heart's content. It's been exhilarating writing music again, even if what I've written so far is mediocre.
I also got a replacement 4-track recorder so I could resurrect some old tapes of stuff I had recorded in the 80s and 90s. That was a blast! Listening to both how bad and how good bits of it were was eye opening.
I've rearranged my room a couple times in recent years, and each time, the music keyboard migrates closer to the computer. Now, I am a chair swivel away from the piano, and am in arm's reach of starting and stopping recording in the DAW (ardour).
Hiking in Joshua Tree National Park last August. We hid in the hotel room, only going out to grocery shop, hit a drive-through if we couldn't cook, and make our trips up the mountain to Joshua Tree.
Growing up in and around southern California's chaparral forests, any chance to see a new biome is a thrill to me, and I got to see the most lush environments (Oregonian old growth forest in Peavy Arboretum), and one of the harshest environments (this part of the Mojave) on the west coast, in the same year. I also can't imagine living somewhere where the outside won't get below 85 degrees overnight. I've never been happier for air conditioning, even if it got boring after a week.
We were going to do Lost Oasis Trail, but it was 105 degrees (40C), and there was a sign saying to bring one gallon of water per person per hour. We would've needed four gallons each, to a total of 16 gallons, to safely navigate this hike, and that's if we'd managed a pace of a mile every 30 minutes. Between the heat, altitude, and conditioning of all of us, that wasn't happening.
We decided to reroute to the Mastodon Peak Loop, which was only 2.5 miles, so basically the distance we'd come IIRC. It was a blast fighting our way up that mountain in the heat and altitude, and the view of the Badlands below was worth it. I'd never seen anything like it. It was impressive to look down at miles of red sandstone carved by erosion covered in various evergreen desert plants, and the mountains on the other side of the valley.
It was also the best test I can think of for testing covering yourself head to toe and heading out into the heat. I was the only one who didn't feel absolutely dead at the end of it because I had no sun exposure.
Psychedelics. I did a course of ketamine for ptsd and have followed up with micro- and mini-dosing mushrooms. I do a lot of integration work as well with therapist and groups.
Psychedelics are definitely the most fun I’ve had dealing with mental health (note: psychedelic journeys are definitely not all fun and games. Some serious dark stuff gets made very real), but they are also really effective at getting at trauma and shame.
I fell in love, got engaged and am now living with my fiancée and our three dogs. All during the worst pandemic in the history of humankind. Not bad, I think!
Got back into dog agility. This weekend is my first trial (judged event) in maybe five years. I’ve missed it a ton, and I forgot how much fun it was to compete! I’ve already picked out our next trial, which will be in late July.
What exactly is dog agility? Is it the type of stuff you usually see at dog shows?
It involves the dog running a course, sort of like an obstacle course. They have various ramps they have to get up and down, tunnels to go through, literal hoops to jump through, etc. The handler directs the dog on where to go, but cannot touch the dog during the course. The dog has to run the course in a particular order and the best time wins. There are time faults when the dog either goes through an obstacle in the wrong order or doesn't complete the obstacle properly. For example, there's an A-frame ramp where the dog has to run up one side and down the other. The lowest foot or two of the downward ramp is painted yellow. If the dog jumps off the ramp without touching the yellow part, they get some amount of time (5 seconds?) added to their final time. You can watch the competitions on cable sports channels. A friend of my spouse's was on ESPN a few weeks ago running her dog through the course at an AKC (American Kennel Club) event.
Thanks for answering this! I wanted to add that you need a “Q” which is a qualifying score to move up to more difficult courses. Basically, once you get so many Qs, your dog gets a title, and they can move on from Novice to Open. After that, there’s Excellent and then Masters. For AKC, there are
threefour different agility games: Standard, Jumpers, FAST, and Time 2 Beat. I’m only really familiar with the first two, and they differ only in the kinds of obstacles that appear.What competitions do you go to? I'm only passingly familiar with dog agility, due to once doing some contract work on a software app that tracked statistics for one of them in the Midwest. The lady who ran it was..... unique.
This was an AKC agility trial. There’s a reply to another comment that explains what that is exactly.
And yeah, dog people are weird! Present company included, lol.
I moved my homelab from a raspberry pi to an old server my boss let me have, and deployed a few more services on it.
Definitely: lost weight. I feel better psychologically and physically about my body, healthier, and very encouraged by the progress to go further.
Second favourite is having bought a quest 2 and picked up beat saber :)
Are those two things closely linked? :)
Ha! Only loosely. Beat saber has allowed me to keep up my shape and train my arm strength, not so much lose weight of its own.
Passed the first year (2 years because part-time) of my Open Uni course with distinction in all modules. Probably not any closer to a relevant job, realistically speaking, but I might be able to get some part-time work as I go into the next year.
I'm well known for starting and not finishing projects, so I was really proud of myself for finishing my 3D printed large format camera! I learned a lot about 3D printing and really enjoyed the project. And now I have an awesome large format camera that I never would have been able to afford.
Here is what the finished camera looks like :)
That’s pretty awesome! My wife loves vintage cameras and I’ll definitely show that to her. Are you willing to share more info about the project?
Absolutely! This is a large format camera that shoots 4x5 film sheets. It's also able to shoot tintypes and glass negatives as well (with the right holders). The files for the 3D printer cost $25 USD to download from here. You can get all of the hardware from Lowes or really any hardware store.
The bellows and the ground glass can be made yourself, but together only cost about $100 so in my opinion they are worth buying if you have the money. The site where you get the files from that I linked above sells the bellows and the ground glass
If you don't want to mess with a printer, you can buy a kit or even a pre-assembled camera from that site, it just costs more.
Large format photography is challenging and kind of expensive, but it is a very fun a unique experience.
Quit my job, (got let go from a new one) and ended up as the IT Helpdesk agent for a smaller company. Also went back to school, and applied to the Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship as well as a podcast writing room.
Bought a 12 foot tall skeleton.
I tried to get one for Halloween but they were sold out at every store where I live.
I started a baking themed tilde server! I haven't done as much as I wanted because I wasn't locked down for too long (thanks American South 🙄) but it's pretty alright!