What I've Been Doing Over The Summer

This post is inspired by Doug Belshaw's review of what he has been up to over the summer. I don't think I have ten items, but I can live with that.

I have just realized I haven't written a post since May. There are reasons for that; it's not so much that I have nothing to say as it has been my fairly busy schedule. Anyhow, here's the list:

1. Building CList

I worked pretty hard on that from my retirement April 8 through to my departure for Ecuador in June. CList is my personal learning environment software and it's a way for me to explore and express my thinking on the concept. I haven't worked on it since, but I haven't abandoned it, and haven't stopped thinking about it. 

2. Travel

We went to Mont Tremblant briefly and then I went to both Ecuador and Iceland. This takes up about six of the thirteen weeks since April. As always, travel has been both enlightening and exhausting. The Ecuador trip was to give a talk, while the others were personal. I'm always up for a road trip, but as always, my travel usually depends on invitations from others.

3. Cycling

To this point I'm just a couple dozen kilometers shy of my annual goal of 2,000 kilometers cycled for the year. That's a lot of cycling. I did 500 kilometers or so in Iceland, and most of the rest has been around here. It's more than just a hobby; it keeps me fit as I get older and it keeps me mentally balanced. My trip to Iceland was a bikepacking trip, and totally worth doing (next year, though, I will choose a flatter and warmer route).

4. Cleaning

When I got back from Iceland I put my mind to organizing my home environment. After all, that's where I'll be working from now on, and I need it to be as comfortable as possible. I amassed a lot of stuff over the years and though it pains me to get rid of it, it's become a necessity.

5. Retiring

This is an odd category, but the process of retirement has definitely occupied my time. I've had to cut back on expenses quite a bit, so (for example) my entire web presence has been condensed into one $37/month VPS. I've had to fight with insurance companies to get my health and dental coverage transferred. Stuff like that.

6. OLDaily 

I didn't get the monthly support I had hoped from OLDaily but I got a decent amount, and in any case, OLDaily is just this thing that I do. I don't know how much of a reach it has - it feels like both more than it feels like and less than it feels like. And I'm navigating some interesting challenges - how to deal with AI-generated content when I read it, how to stay current in a topic that is fragmenting, how to balance my own views with good coverage. OLDaily occupies my mind daily, and that's a good thing.

7. Photography

Andrea and I go for a hike somewhere every Sunday and this has become where I do most of my good photography (as compared to the smartphone photography I do otherwise). I spend time thinking about how to capture better images, how to make them sharp and clear and interesting in production, all the while keeping them original and accurate, not AI reconstructions. 

8. Losing Weight 

This isn't a thing I'm doing so much as something I'm trying to accomplish. I started on a semaglutide a few months ago and have lost a fair amount of weight (though I've been stalled since Iceland). It's something that occupies me because I have to spend time thinking about and preparing food. My energy levels and stamina fluctuate (I really felt this in Iceland), my internal sensations are opaque, and I'm a bit off-balance. 

So what do I have coming up?

For the rest of the summer, more of the same. I don't feel an urgent need to 'be productive', especially so long as I continue to learn new things and extend my skills (for example, I installed Whisper and have been creating transcripts of my talks). 

I'm planning to get back to CList and, in association with that, to write about the various sorts of issues that arise - everything from data security to decentralized systems to active learning, all against the background of AI, the fediverse, and user-hostile commercial technology.

I don't feel any different from when I was employed, except that I have a lot more freedom to pursue my own interests.  

I want to do more writing generally, but - and this is important - not AI-assisted writing. I still feel I have a unique voice, based on a singular perspective and wide range of experiences. I'll talk about that more in the future.