Happy 33rd Birthday

Oh wait, I am already 33 years old. Well, I certainly don’t feel or look like it. Even so, I want to briefly reflect on the past year of my life along with some plans.

As expected, in 2021, I thought we would finally be out of the pandemic. But, sadly, in November, another variant of Covid-19 came, which is Omicron. So, while this seems like a name for a Transformer, we are in a Groundhog Day loop.

Of course, people believe the pandemic is over, go maskless, and get sick. That is because the vaccines aren’t updated, but they will soon. It remains to be seen if Covid-19 will finally get under control. I still wear N95 masks and refrain from attending big events until cases are under 100. It’s because I don’t want to get Long Covid, which will ruin your life forever as there is a chance for that.

Furthermore, full-time work at home ended at the end of June. Thus, I adjusted to the new normal of hybrid work. While I still telework on Mondays and Fridays, I go to the office Tuesday thru Thursday. It’s challenging to wake up an hour earlier to catch the train. When I get home, I only have about 5-6 hours to myself before doing the same. On the plus side, it forces me to get off my butt, so I won’t get fat.

Also, in May, my younger sister finally did her defense, passing it and graduating with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. While I bought her a graduation present, she needs to start adulting, which is a meme. For sure, she will end up making more money than I do.

Blogging-wise, the last half of 2021 was good regarding comments and such. I thought the trend would continue. Sadly, the same can’t be said for 2022. It’s a far cry from what it once was with the possibility of getting worse. Comments mean everything as not only a way to socialize with others (besides on Twitter) but show that people are enjoying my content. Also, I’m more comfortable socializing online in text than in real life.

As expected, I made numerous changes to try and improve the situation. That means improving my writing quality and changing the theme to an all-in-one solution. The plus side is that the blog loads a lot quicker.

Still, not seeing comments on recent posts is extremely frustrating and hurts my motivation to blog. This is why I grown to hate WordPress Likes a lot since I feel it’s the cause of the lack of comments while feeling increasingly left out of the blogosphere. Still, I push on to see if the trend reverses, although it’s starting to become hopeless. So, if you want to support my blog, the best way is to leave a comment, not just a like.

Moreover, I finally ended the experiment with WordAds, which I implemented at the beginning of 2017. Sadly, it’s not worth it anymore as they aren’t paying out as well compared to pre-pandemic. Now, it’s only a penny a day when I have the ads enabled. While I don’t necessarily need the money, as I make enough to cover the hosting costs, it’s always nice to see readers support what I do. Therefore, I recently opened a Patreon in addition to the Ko-fi, which I had for a while. Patreon will mainly be there for those who want to support what I do monthly.

Lastly, I have made huge progress in my Japanese self-study after two years of going nowhere. Like I said many times, WaniKani is what allowed me to break through the lack of progress. Looking back, I should have started in 2020, but it’s better late than never.

I am reading Japanese text faster than before and immersing myself in more Japanese content. For now, it’s primarily manga and some video games. In addition, I’m also watching Love Live Superstar 2 only with Japanese subs and understand mostly everything with some lookups. Maybe I will know 1200+ kanji by the end of December at the rate I’m going. I should be finished before taking the JLPT N3 or N2 in 2023, which is my goal. Afterward, N1 is my end goal.

Despite the setbacks, to me, age is mostly a mindset. Things will improve as long you remain optimistic and live a healthy lifestyle. Sure, there are a lot of bad things that happened this year, but underneath, it is not all that bad. With the new normal set in, I’m curious what it will have in store.Also, feel free to say Happy Birthday to me in the comments.