Things That Happened in 2023

This post is part of a collection on Life.

2023 was definitely a year. Here are some things that happened.

  • the neighorbood around my house was demolished
  • left Explosion and started a new job
  • went to Hakone, enjoyed wood puzzles, a wide waterfall, and the dragon shrine
  • participated in the Global Game Jam in Okutama
  • participated in Famicase
  • went to Miura several times
  • visited Kanonsaki Lighthouse
  • bought a Steam Deck
  • caught Covid-19
  • replaced my apartment's fire alarm after the ten year battery expired
  • gave up on the Fediverse after my host deleted all my data by accident
  • visited Hamamatsu and had some good gyouza, unagi, and mikan
  • got a new phone, an Xperia 10 V
  • played through the Super Mario RPG remake
  • got a nice camera, a Sony RX100M3, for a trip
  • went to Aomori and Sendai
  • got a quality coffee grinder, tea kettle, scale, and rice cooker
  • used an Utsurundesu instant camera and got into film
  • kept up weekly board game night
  • maintained my open source projects: fugashi, posuto, cutlet, etc.
  • helped run Tokyo Indies

I managed not to break any bones or otherwise end up in the hospital this year, which is always a good start. One other change is that I accomplished my goal of travelling more domestically - while I mostly stuck to day trips, I also went farther afield a few times. I hope to continue that this year.

Tsurugisaki Lighthouse, taken with a disposable camera.

In particular, this is the first year I stayed overnight in Misaki in Miura. Staying late allowed me to spend more time in the town and get to know people in addition to exploring the area, and I'd like to visit it regularly. Luckily I already know it's easily accessible, as I've been going a few times a year for five years now, though previously only for short day trips.

Since I started printing photos regularly in 2022 I've been more conscious of how I take photographs, and after talking about cameras some in Okutama at the start of the year, I finally bought a dedicated camera in October. Learning about all the photographic settings that a phone just does for you and learning how to manipulate them to get pictures you can't get automatically was a lot of fun. This ultimately led to me getting an interchangeable lens camera in early 2024, but that's another story.

A view from Sayama Park.

Separately, a disposable camera I took on a trip in December produced results beyond my wildest expectations, and so I've also gotten into film photography. The process of not quite knowing what you'll get and the character of the resulting images is very enjoyable, even if film has gotten a lot more expensive the past few years.

I went here again.

On work, I've continued to maintain my projects and work with NLP. I didn't have any big releases I was directly responsible for in 2023, but I've managed to contribute to a few good things behind the scenes.

In 2024 I'd like to spend more time making games, both analog and digital. I have ideas and just need to make time for it.

I still use deltos every day.

Here's to a good year. Ψ