2023 is coming to an end, and I’m not unique in taking the opportunity to reflect. At first I thought that this was a year where nothing much happened. It’s true that there was no one “huge” change like there were in 2020 and 2022 with the births of my children. And yet, December 31, 2023 is going to look very different from twelve months earlier.
Changes to My Working Setup
This was the category that made me realize that there was a lot more that happened than I originally thought.
QWERTY to Colemak
The first, and probably biggest change, is that I went from QWERTY to Colemak for my keyboard layout. I had thought of this for a long time, ever since I got my Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, which had a Colemak layout built in, but this was the year when I actually decided to make a go at it.
I think I started for the first time somewhere around June. At least, that’s when I first created an account on keybr to practice the layout. I probably did practice five nights in total, preferring instead to learn “on the job” and just struggle my way through until I picked it up.
First thing I did was to switch the layout on my mechanical keyboard and keep QWERTY on my laptop. What I found myself doing, though, was to use my laptop keyboard a lot more, so I finally switched it to Colemak as well, sometime around August.
Right now I am at about 55 to 60 wpm, which is still off of my old QWERTY typing speed of 80 wpm, but isn’t enough of a difference to be a big impediment. I do still make more mistakes than I did before. I’m probably averaging about one a sentence on bad days, and one a paragraph on the good ones. My most common mistake by far is switching d and g. (I did it when typing that sentence.) I imagine I’ll be even slower when coding, but I’ve, sadly, only done that a few times since changing layouts.
One thing I missed when moving to the Windows Colemak layout that I linked above was that I lost the international keyboard that I was using. This allowed me to type accented characters easily by typing, for example, " followed by u to get ü. I found a good replacement Windows Power Toys, which I had been using for other purposes. With Power Toys, you hold the “base” character, hit the space bar, and then you can cycle through the variations. It’s far from the fastest option, but I’m not typing accented characters enough for it to be an issue.
I’ve kept my phone keyboard in QWERTY, but I’ve otherwise found that the few times I have to type on a computer with a QWERTY keyboard, I’m back to hunt and peck.
Software Changes
I’ve made a few changes to my software setup, the most impactful of which is probably my move to Obsidian.
Before Obsidian, I was using OneNote for note taking, and I was pretty happy with it. I’d be using it since 2104, when Springpad went under.
However, I started to have sync issues, and I also was worried about the lack of interoperability of the notes. I liked that Obsidian used a format that I could take with me if it ever stopped working.
I’m never going to be a zettelnerd, but I’ve got a pretty good setup so far. There’s definitely diminishing returns on configuring the app (it reminds me a lot of foobar2000 in that realm). I see people online creating courses, tying a dozen services together, and… it’s all too much.
The only “service” that I’ve connected to my setup is Obsidian Sync. For two reasons. First, I want to support the group behind the app. Second, because all of the other options seemed subpar. I tried syncthing for a while, but it wasn’t really ideal, considering I’m using Obsidian across five different devices.
These are the community plugins that I’m using:
- Code editor shortcuts: this one is exclusively for
ctrl-d, which will select multiple occurrences of a string - Custom file explorer sorting: so that I can sort my top level directory alphabetically, and my child directories by created date
- Dataview: right now this is just for my periodic notes (more on that below), which allows me to collate all of my wins, challenges, todos, or even notes created during a time period
- Editor syntax highlight: for code blocks
- List callouts: this doesn’t work as perfectly as the tags in OneNote, but it will work until I have a chance to write a plugin of my own
- Natural language dates: allows me to insert dates in notes via natural language
- Periodic notes: will create my daily/weekly/monthly/annual notes in the right directories with the right templates
- Quick add: I’m barely doing 5% of what quick add can do, and I’m really only using it to make notes quickly in the correct place (e.g., meeting notes go in
./meetings/) with the right template (e.g., my meeting template) - Tasks: better TODO support (though I still use Todoist to track my items)
- Templater: unlike many, I don’t us this much within notes as I’m writing; instead it’s exclusively there for full note templates (something, ironically, I never really did all that much in OneNote)
- Text format: just a nice small plugin to change the capitalization of texts
Not only did I replace OneNote with Obsidian, but I’ve also (for now) replaced the personal CRM Monica. Monica is nice, but too much for what I need, and it always seemed more of an aspirational subscription than anything. (I had a hard time keeping everything updated.) So now I’m creating pages for each person. I don’t get the reminders that I got with Monica, but that’s okay.
Another change that I made was to switch from NextDNS to ControlD for my DNS. I had been using NextDNS, but I continued to have problems with it and the customer support was non-existent, even for paying members. I’m not saying it was bad, I’m saying it is literally non-existent. I don’t know if ControlD is going to be any better in that realm, but it is already infinitely better in the “not causing issues” realm.
Finally, this wasn’t so much of a change as it was a renewal, in that I renewed my usage of Anki for spaced repetition learning. Technically, this started in 2022, as I committed to this for a goal I abandoned in 2023 (more on that below), but in 2023, I have only missed 6 days the entire year. Since June, I’ve only missed once. I’ve also expanded what I’m using it for, including more information from books I’m reading, as well as every day information I want to better remember. My latest addition is Paris Métro lines and stations.
What Happened at Home
This was the first full year with two kids. I wondered going in whether two kids were twice as hard as one, or if there was some type of scaling that happened.
Well, I can definitely say that two is more than twice as hard. Before, it was easy for one parent to have some time alone while the kid slept or the other parent watched guard. With two, not at all, at least not at the ages of 1 and 3.
However, two is also more than twice as enjoyable. Near the end of the year, the two were both old enough that they could laugh and play with each other. The oldest still dotes, but in between those tender moments are more than a few bouts of intense laughter. What’s so funny? I don’t understand 95% of the time, and I suspect that’s how it’s going to be from here on out. And I like that.
Illnesses
Of course, with kids come illnesses, and it’s been quite the year on that front for us.
My son was hospitalized twice with bronchiolitis, each time for a week. I was never very worried–it always felt like we were where we needed to be at the hospital and we just needed to see it through. Nonetheless, he didn’t enjoy the tubes very much, and his sister didn’t enjoy him being gone. (Strangely, there were some benefits in the hospital stay. The second time, I stayed all of the nights with him, and it was a really nice bonding opportunity. Plus, separated from my computer, at night there was nothing to do but to pull out the chair, lay down and read. It was a nice routine.)
I didn’t escape the illness train, either. With seven months of sickness bookended by the flu, with pneumonia in between. It’s no coincidence that this was the most intense year of work, as well. It was a good reminder to prioritize health.
Sleep Training
The absolute best thing to happen at home happened at the very end of the year. Both of our kids are now sleeping through the night!
Well, the three year oldhis was the first full year with two kids. I wondered going in whether two kids were twice as hard as one, or if there was some type of scaling that happened.
Well, I can definitely say that two is more than twice as hard. Before, it was easy for one parent to have some time alone while the kid slept or the other parent watched guard. With two, not at all, at least not at the ages of 1 and 3.
However, two is also more than twice as enjoyable. Near the end of the year, the two were both old enough that they could laugh and play with each other. The oldest still dotes, but in between those tender moments are more than a few bouts of intense laughter. What’s so funny? I don’t understand 95% of the time, and I suspect that’s how it’s going to be from here on out. And I like that.
Illnesses
Of course, with kids come illnesses, and it’s been quite the year on that front for us.
My son was hospitalized twice with bronchiolitis, each time for a week. I was never very worried–it always felt like we were where we needed to be at the hospital and we just needed to see it through. Nonetheless, he didn’t enjoy the tubes very much, and his sister didn’t enjoy him being gone. (Strangely, there were some benefits in the hospital stay. The second time, I stayed all of the nights with him, and it was a really nice bonding opportunity. Plus, separated from my computer, at night there was nothing to do but to pull out the chair, lay down and read. It was a nice routine.)
I didn’t escape the illnesses, eitherlness train, either. With seven months of sickness bookended by the flu, with pneumonia in between. It’s no coincidence that this was the most intense year of work, as well. It was a good reminder to prioritize health.
Sleep Training
The absolute best thing to happen at home happened at the very end of the year. Both of our kids are now sleeping through the night!
Well, the three year old has for a while. The 16 month old decided to join the party. And, I know what you’re thinking: 16 months is late for sleep training. Especially when you’re up three times a night, sometimes for two hours at a time.
So we were prepared for a disaster, for noise and child protective services complaints. And, yet, when we went in, Ferber in hand, there was none of that. Don’t be mistaken: the first night was hard. He screamed for nearly two hours. We dutifully went in every ten minutes to remind him that we were still there, but I think that just made it worse. (I came out of convinced that Ferber is for the parents, not the baby.) But we didn’t have to go in during the night at all. The next night he went to sleep after twenty minutes, and almost immediately every night since. There was a nasty extinction burst on night five, where he screamed for an hour at 2 AM, but that was it, and now he’s a perfect sleeper.
Favorite Products of the Year
I didn’t buy a ton of things this year, but there were four things I was very happy with.
Magimix Food Processor
I convinced myself that this was a good idea by saying that we could save a ton of money making our own baby food (we did this maybe three times) and nut butter (more often, but I still buy as much as I make). But despite that false promise, this has been a seriously good addition to the kitchen.
The best thing that I’ve used it to make is salsa. It’s hard (maybe impossible) to find salsa in Paris that isn’t full of sugar. So I’ve been making my own. I’m shocked by how easy it is, and I’m wondering why I didn’t do this sooner. I use it most often on breakfast burritos that I make ahead, vacuum seal, and freeze.
I’ve also tried making pasta sauce, but, I don’t know. The cost and time investment isn’t worth it compared to what I can get at the store. The store brand is fine, and it has no sugar. Taking it and adding tomato paste is worth not having to babysit a pot of tomatoes for hours.
Nintendo 3DS and Tears of the Kingdom
I have always been perplexed by the DS and 3DS. I never heard anyone talking about them and never knew anyone who owned one, so I was surprised to discover that, you know, they actually sold really well. I think I was just at a time in my life where I didn’t really care about video games.
Nonetheless, I got one because I wanted to finally play Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. Both lived up to expectations, but A Link Between Worlds completely exceeded what I expected.
Tears of the Kingdom, however… I liked it. And, I think, if I had never played Breath of the Wild, I would be more positive about Tears of the Kingdom. But it wasn’t as magical as Breath of the Wild. I missed Rivali’s Gale, and I was rather disappointed with the depths. I can accept that it’s amazing to see what people are building with fuse, but it’s not something that I’m into.
Kobo E-reader
I got a Kobo e-reader for a couple of reasons. One, we’ve had three Kindles between my wife and I (plus one Kindle Fire), and I feel uneasy about the near monopoly that Amazon has on e-books and audio books (through Audible).
Second, because the Paris library system digital lending works on Kobo e-readers, but not with Kindle.
The hardware is really nice. I don’t need physical page turn buttons, but they are nice. The backlight is much better than what I have on my Paperwhite, and I like that the color is warmer.
The software is not as good. I like the Pocket integration a lot, but everything else is worse than the Kindle. There is no translation ability built in and the dictionaries are terrible. And then there are little things, like the fact that you can have dark mode for your books, but not for the menu.
In Closing
As I said at the beginning 2023 wasn’t a “big” year, and in some ways just getting through it—through illnesses, work stress, and more—was a victory itself. But in smaller ways, the year was a success. What will 2024 bring, and what do I want it to bring? That’s the topic for another post.