happy new year

as if i wasnt already a massive fucking nerd, this year happened

2025-01-01

Hihi! The new year is upon us. For posterity (and because I’m not great at remembering when stuff happened unless I write it down), I figured I’d put this little recap of 2024 on the internet. I’ve censored anything that relates too closely to my personal life but I think it’s funnier that way. Feel free to make outlandish speculations.

</2024>

awesome stuff:

• started HRT via a private service
• gave up on the private service after 2 months, started DIY HRT instead
• became SÍODA
• gave my website a fresh coat of paint
• went on my first solo flight abroad
• went on my second, third, fourth and fifth solo flights abroad too
• girlfriend :)
• went to my first proper concert (Food House in London on May 14th)
• met lots of friends from the internet
• developed my sense of fashion a little bit
• developed my artistic goals a LOT (watch this space)
• discovered the overwhelming awe of Power Metal (see above)
• conceptualised and began building Syncmap
• got pretty good with Tooll3
• learned the basics of C#
• learned the basics of C++
• remembered how Python works
• just kinda got more into coding in general
• played around with Arch Linux a lot (still mainly use windows though)
• joined bugmush
• became president of [REDACTED]
• put on some cool irl events
• generally became SO much more confident in myself and in interacting with others

less awesome stuff but still got some good out of it:

• that whole [REDACTED] on campus over the summer
• oh my god it’s been so stressful. i’ve never had to work this hard this CONSTANTLY before… but honestly i kinda enjoy the pressure. kinda.

stuff that I really fell off with:

• i can no longer reliably wake up to an alarm anymore
• my bike broke months ago and i still haven’t fixed the damn thing
• i have become absolutely horrendous at replying to people’s messages. like, i’ve started accidentally ghosting my parents, friends, housemates, people who wanna pay me for stuff, it’s getting really bad

<2025>

I think last year I tried out CGP Grey’s concept of a “themed year”. The keyword here is “think” because I don’t actually remember for sure, so clearly it wasn’t very successful. This year I’ll make a little bucket list instead. I don’t know if I’ll achieve everything on it but I’m sure I’ll do plenty of other stuff too, so it’ll hopefully even out:

• update all my legal paperwork to my new name
• graduate from university
• release a usable version of Syncmap
• ….explain what Syncmap actually is
• put together a proper portfolio and showreel
• start taking comissions for web design, motion graphics, music visualisers
• get a job (please)
• move to Scotland
• finish and release some music (I have so much stuff that’s 80-90% done it’s not even funny)
• visit/meet more of my internet friends
• go to some digital arts meetups around Europe
• start using Linux as a daily driver OS
• begin Actually Paying Attention to my physical health
• same as above but for my diet
• write an artistic manifesto
• see about getting an adhd diagnosis

Perhaps in the future when I’m living a more structured life, the theme idea will work better. For now I feel like I’m still defining who I am, so there isn’t really much to build upon yet. The theme is just “SÍODA”.

Anyway, this year is bound to be an adventure even if I can only pull off one or two of the more likely things on my list. I’m excited :)