[An even more mundane topic, unless you like visualizing data] So I wrote a few newsposts ago that I've been watching the world go by since around mid-2022. One of my #100 resolutions/challenges/goals/projects for 2022 was to rank each day with a numeric score- and I did just that.

Never got around to publishing the results until now. Or any stuff from 2022 for that matter...

January 2025 went by quite fast. It was a better January than 2020, 2023, and 2024, but not 2021 and 2022. I've been staying busy, working a lot and for the first time in years working out a little bit, and trying to get back into some hobbies. So there's less time for wallowing like I have been doing the past couple years, but also less time to be lazy and have fun. I'm slowly getting a bit more control of my life following my December midlife crisis (which I have yet to write about) and I've got a long road ahead of me. I definitely have some health issues I need to properly address, anxieties that lower my quality of life, and bad habits to correct. So doing better, but still feel like I'm not doing enough.

I think the practice of new year resolutions is quite silly, the day is arbitrary, real change should be made at any time and when one is ready.

But I suppose it's okay to like silly things for fun. I also have fun putting arbitrary time periods in perspective, giving them 'power rankings' like each year or month are sports teams competing against each other.

All 365 days in a cool heatmap. Blues are bad pinks are decent. First glance looks like an overall not bad year...

Best month was February with a 5.96 and worst month was November with a round average of 5.00.

There wasn't a specific favorable day of the week; worst day was Monday with an average of 5.33 and best day was Thursday with an average of 5.63.

Same info as the heatmap but easier to visualize chronologically with a scatter plot. No discernible trends.

Histogram shows vast majority of days were okay and slightly positive.

Frivolities abound...

Days are ranked from 0-10 with 10 being a once in a lifetime enriching experience (e.g. birth of first child) and 0 being an absolutely horrible day (e.g. death of a loved one). I only had days ranking from 2-7. Most were 5-6; never too high, never too low. 5 is supposed to be the midpoint and neutral; but if you saw a 5/10 on a movie or flash animation, you may not think it's very good, and a 5/10 on a test is a failing grade.

0: Worst Days Ever

1: ???

2: Terrible Day

3: Bad Day

4: Not a Good Day

5: Meh Day

6: Slightly Positive Day/Content/No Major Complaints

7: Good Day

8: Great Day

9: ???

10: Best Days Ever

Not sure how much great days I've had as an adult. Last one was in 2021...

A bit of mundane topic. But as previously mentioned...I'm shooting to blog more this year.

Here's one I wrote on January 1st.

Currently I'm only comfortable with Matlab, R, and Python.

I'm by no means an expert programmer but I think I've racked up a decent amount of exposure over the 2+ decades I've been coding? Through work experience, academically, and personal projects

List of Programming Languages I've used over the years

Based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programming_languages

Doesn't include subvariants and dialects. Also missing some obscure ones not worth mentioning.

Actionscript

Ada

Agilent VEE

Assembly

AWK

Bash

BASIC

Batch

C

C++

C#

Csound

Executable UML

Fortran

GDScript

Java

JavaScript

LabVIEW

LilyPond

LegoScript

MATLAB

Max MSP

Ocaml

PowerShell

Processing

Prolog

Python

R

Scheme

Simulink

SQL

TeX

Vim Script

Wolfram Language

Please use this newspoast to talk about programming, computer science, big-tech, English & languages, other nerd sh*t...or anything really...what better place to blog and shoot the breeze than NewGrounds

Okay. So as a new years resolution I'm going to try and blog more in 2025...about whatever I feel like.

Comments about w/e always appreciated.

The first one will be a Musicalish.

@Cyberdevil triggered a repressed memory, although not a bad one, of music that I was listening to cope with a girlfriend ending the relationship with me.

That was over two decades ago.

My main source of music then was the radio and MTV. This is not the type of music I listen to nowadays, it's closer to being diametrically opposed. However, it's fun to reminiscence in the lens of the styles I used to enjoy.

Most of the music is from 2003, because that's when the breakup happened, but it wasn't uncommon for the radio to spruce in tunes from a decade earlier or so.

Sevendust- Enemy

This one isn't half bad. Song is simple but nice. I really like the chorus, wish the track was longer.

Foo Fighters- Everlong

The track that inspired this newspost. Foo Fighters is one of my least favorite bands, I find their style boring, don't like Dave Grohl's voice, and their instrumentals trite. However, I forgot about listening to this track in the early 2000s, it's pretty good and may even appreciate it a little more now. I like the atmospheric verse with the fast hi-hats against the smooth guitar and calm vocals. I'd say I like Dave Grohl's vocals when he's more subdued and isn't yelling.

Metallica- Frantic

So popular opinion is Metallica has sucked since the change of millennia and I'm inclined to agree. What happened to Kirk Hammett's memorably melodic soloing? However this song doesn't need it. Frantic Rolls along nicely with good variations in pace and accomplishes setting a tone of (st) anger and mental instability. I might be biased by the situation- first heard while lifting weights in PE class. I also used to rock it out while playing GTAVC. So a perfect backdrop.

Trapt- Headstrong

What a meathead song lol. It kinda sucks, but I enjoy it an ironic type of way. Also am I the only one that hears a frickin' pigeon in the bridge?

Switchfoot- Meant to Live

Not a bad track. Bodes nicely for the bittersweet vibe of the time.

Smile Empty Soul- Bottom of a Bottle

I like this one. The guitars have a good deep reverb and melancholy sound to it.

Alice in Chains- Would?

Quite a bit before 2003- but it was still a popular play on the radio at the time.

Alice in Chains was my favorite band at some point, and this track among my favorites.

Catchy and simple Phrygian riffs. A dark song but not too over the top.

The unplugged version is great too.

Mushroom Head- Sun Doesn't Rise

Not a fan of the song anymore, but the music video is pretty cool.

Megadeth- Symphony of Destruction

Megadeth > Metallica. I should listen to them more often.

This track was released long before 2003, but it was still played on the radio.

It was also in the PS2 Game True Crime: LA released that year, so that may have contributed to some resurgence.

Also I ran into Dave Mustaine once or twice while he was living in Phoenix.

Staind- So Far Away

I really dislike this song. I don't even think I liked it back then, but it was played so much on the radio/TV and fit the mood.

Just kidding. Nothing eventful to report since mid 2022.

Nothing has happened post-COVID. And 2022 was supposed to be my year

I mean they are are a few things I'd like to share...when I feel I can articulate it interestingly enough...but overall been sh*t...sleepwalking through life. living in fear.

it's basically been groundhog day except the inverse, the world improves and I'm left behind. But it feels like the same day.

maybe I will fill this in at some point. but I doubt it.

haven't posted here since. 2021. what did I miss

hehe sike

I don't know what to say...

if I did, I'd be a writer. But I'm more of a musician or something

all I have to give is a stream of thought fragments...my introspective hell if you will

I try to be poetic and deep and funny and stuff

what is it, being sincere over serious

I'm just sleepwalking through life. Nothing is real

but I seek the surreal over what is real

lack imperative and that's the option

to milk the dream as long as you can...even when you are well-rested and it's time to wake up and face reality

and logic, rationality

facts don't care about feelings- it's a cold uncaring world

but what people deem as 'facts'...are often totally based on our feelings...it's called confirmation bias

I say that I act according to principle and innate duties

IOW: a veil to act like a pretentious jerk (not my words)

language is a necessary pragmatism but ultimately a prison

restricting and incapable of expressing pure sensation

which are just temporary, sporadic actions that will never be enough

the only option is to fade back into a cloud of innocuity

peace out

I'm close to peace

are you?

t

edit: t2

Since I've returned from my 'hiatus' in mid-December I've been attempting to conjure-up a poetic, elaborate, unavoidably cringeworthy in retrospect, biopic grand finale of a newspost for the 2010s but my ideas are increasingly fragmented and fleeting, like trying to recover lost patterns in sand beneath the shore. That won't be happening with this newspost. I believe reaching potential can be attributed to 10% circumstance (the financial and social situations one is born into, IQ/cerebral anatomy & physiology/natural talent, and the stochastic processes that propel our f*cked up world), 50% hard work, and 40% faith/inspiration/ability to tune out the noise. These factors have some degree of overlapping effect, and my bullsh*t detector (serving as noise-cancelling headphones) is at 5%. What I'm trying to state in a needlessly elaborate and muddled matter is: this newspost will not near its potential.

summary of 00s: despondent, ruing lost opportunities, exploring

summary of 10s: despondent, ruing lost opportunities, exploring

What I can say that is different, I've grown more sensitive and thin-skinned. 4chan-types and edginess was where it was at back in the day, now I'm an SJW atoning for past sins. On the norm I'd presume the opposite happens with age. Speaking of which, I wrote a lot of hella insensitive and embarrassing stuff back in the day; independent of intention, still insensitive and embarrassing. And while I get comfort in berating myself and the stuff I make, there's several poetic nuggets and quotables to be found among the rubble/cacophony.

NewGrounds remains my sole artistic outlet: yet the majority of my work, both written and audible, remains unpublished (on this website). The majority of my work is unfinished or hasn't approached its potential imo, hence its segregation in private, local hard-drive space. Collectively, infinitesimal value lost for NewGrounds and the Interwebs, but I'd like that to change purely for personal reasons. (Of course any feedback/listens/attentions is sincerely appreciated as always.) I think it would be fun and relieving to reflect and let go of any unfinished business of the 2010s, and prior to that.

my entire adult life has been enveloped in existential dread (a consequence of circumstance: coming from an overly-privileged life), and despite having decades of empirical proof that sh*t doesn't and won't get better, I still reserve a tiny portion of headspace for hope, as there are plenty of beautiful gems old and waiting to be discovered, in the form of science, art, good food, sexual energy, and most of all cherishable moments.

Here's to the wonders that await us in the 20s

temporary, sporadic chemical reactions that will never be enough?

the only option is to fade back into a cloud of innocuity?

peace out?