Drop #168 (2023-01-02): Time Keeps On Slippin' Into The Future
Drop #168 (2023-01-02): Time Keeps On Slippin' Into The Future
Your 2022 Annual Report; Calendar Wheels; Pointer Pointer
It's Day 02 of 2023, and I've already typed “20223^H^H3” just under 20 times since Sunday. I take that as a sign that it's going to be a really weird year.
Your 2022 Annual Report
Most of us, even in just some small way, tend to use the arbitrary demarcation of another solar orbit as a chance for reflection on what was and what will/may be. Often, the work-product of such activity is a set of “resolutions” for the new annum.
I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions. So much so that when I do fall — every gosh darn year — into the trap of making them, I mentally just add them to the Resolution Pyre. Said pyre is where all unmet goals are burned together at the end of the year.
I am a fan of assessing the past and thoughtfully contemplating and planning the future.
The folks over at Farnam Street (hit that link to learn more about them) have a workbook (direct PDF if you don't use throwaway email addresses — like 10 minute email — for things like this). They bill it as “7 Simple Questions To Help You Reflect On The Past Year And Make The Next Year Unstoppable.”
Now, the language used in some of the sections of that report template are cringe-worthy (plenty of self-help, business coach, etc. lingo). However, I promise if you can look past that and put real time into the answers (they estimate you should spend around an hour per section) it will have a positive impact on 2023 (NOTE: I did that “20223^H^H3” again just now).
I recommend reading over the questions in a section and then taking a walk as you mentally churn through your responses.
If you have a different framework you use, please take a second to drop that link in the comments, so I, and others, can benefit from your experience.
Calendar Wheels
I make it a point to read through the local community timeline on vis.social every day. The brilliant, creative minds on that Fediverse Mastodon instance inspire me to think more deeply and differently than my own mental box would otherwise, and there's usually at least one resource that I bookmark (on Raindrop.io) from it.
Flavio Gortana (@flavio@vis.social) posted their poster-sized calendar wheel template, and it gave me pause to consider just how “boxed in” my concept of time is (which is odd, given how much of a Doctor Who fan I am).
Calendar wheels are far from a modern creation, but I think they help convey the annual cycle much better than their boxy counterparts, and allow for easier-to-grok layering of important milestones/markers.
If you don't have access to a big honkin' printer, or don't feel like using CLI tools and tape to stitch one together, there are other options.
Plandisc (freemium/digital) has a neat webapp that can integrate with online calendars. Substack won't let me embed too many images, so check out this example. While all their examples are at some “organization” level, there's no reason you cannot use this for personal temporal purposes.
This Circular Calendar (order print/pdf; $) visualizes the possible hours of sunshine for the year 2023 with the yellow area inside. By a concentric hourly scale, the possible hours of sunshine for the days in 2023 can be read. All around, the calendar displays all months and days for the year. Following Versions are available: for Latitude North of the equator: 60°/50°/40°/30°; for Latitude South: 20°/30°/40°
Another take (freemium) on the annual disc view lets you generate your own disc and either use a lower-quality bitmap version or pay a small fee for a higher resolution one. Adept Developer Tools users can grab the generated SVG if they wish. It does include an astrological layer (not my cup of tea), so being able to edit said SVG is a nice option.
Finally, there's a neat Observable Notebook Circular Calendar which you can customize to use any year, location, and inner text (hit me up if you need help doing so).
Pointer Pointer
Just for fun, go here and move your mouse pointer around. (NOTE: I haven't come across any image that truly offends me, yet, but many images seem to come from [college] parties with obviously inebriated folks).
Talk about unexpected uses of modern object detection.
FIN
I posted this on socmed, but want to re-up it here for readers (b/c y'all are the bestest!):
I wish an uneventful 2023 for each of you. May the pandemic subside. May the evil that has consumed the hearts and minds of far too many be cast asunder. And, may all who yearn for justice find it and be made whole. ☮