---
title: January 2022 In Review
date: 2022-02-02T08:46:00+01:00
tags:
  - metapost
---

January 2022 is no more. This has been a very productive work month, but a boring personal one. I managed to score a contract with tech book publisher [Manning](https://manning.com/)! I'm writing a book on creativity for programmers, and the first rough draft is more or less done. We've made the first steps toward setting up an editing process. I hope I can learn a lot about writing (not to be confused with [writing specifically in and for tech](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/becoming-a-better-writer-in-tech/)) from these experienced editors. 

Other than that, the last few exams of the first semester are finally behind us---until next semester, that is. I'm looking forward to the teaching of a new Android-based course that'll be done in Kotlin---something new for both our students and the teaching staff. It was decided that the C++ course, where I use [GBA programming](https://git.brainbaking.com/wgroeneveld/gba-sprite-engine), is getting retired. A bit mixed feelings: it has been great fun to use the Game Boy to motivate students the past four years. 

Previous month in review: [December 2021](/post/2022/01/december-2021)

### Books I've read

- [Mindset: The New Psychology of Success](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40745.Mindset) by Carol S. Dweck (3/5). A classic work that could have passed the message in 100 pages shorter. 
- [Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50484473-lives-of-the-stoics) by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (3/5). An interesting book that ended up feeling a bit too Wikipedia-like, as each short article is about another Stoic and can be a bit dry. 

I've picked up a historic book about Dutch non-fiction writers and their readers of the nineteenth century, but it's been a slow read so far. Not the ideal bedtime material. Seneca's essays on happiness are probably next, and I'm still planning to retrieve Herodotus' _Historia_ from the local library. 

### Games I've played

- [Guacamelee](https://jefklakscodex.com/games/guacamelee/) by DrinkBox Studios (3/5). A light metroidvania that is heavy on the Mexican theme but a bit too platformy for my taste.
- [Rayman Legends](https://jefklakscodex.com/games/rayman-legends/) by Ubisoft Montpelier (3/5). All the extra bells and whistles are more irritating than welcome, which is a shame.
- [Wonderland Dizzy](https://jefklakscodex.com/games/wonderland-dizzy/) by The Oliver Twins (2/5). A lost NES cart that is best left undiscovered.

Three rather short games, of which the last is part of the Evercade _Oliver Twins_ collection I've been exploring. Not growing up in the UK, I never played any Dizzy game before. They seem to be very hard to get back in to nowadays, and many of the games are inconsistent: some allow high jumps, some are very finicky, some allow you to carry two instead of three items, etc. I guess it's harder than I thought to get into the nostalgia of others. 

For February, I've been lured back into the puzzle time waster genre by the new _Shovel Knight_ game. Perhaps I might even re-buy a _Puzzle Quest_ version for the Nintendo DS. 

### Selected blog posts

- [The Dunning-Kruger effect is probably not real](https://linusluu.wordpress.com/2021/12/12/the-dunning-kruger-effect-is-probably-not-what-you-think-it-is-and-also-may-not-exist/) by Linus Luu
- [LTTP: Wild Arms XF](https://www.resetera.com/threads/lttp-wild-arms-xf-psp-vita-i-may-not-look-it-but-im-the-complete-package.540674/) on ResetERA---reminds me what a stupid decision it was to sell the PSP.
- [There oughta be GTA5 for the Game Boy](http://there.oughta.be/gta5-for-the-game-boy) by Sebastian Staacks
- [Where does all the effect go? Looking at Python core developer activity](https://lukasz.langa.pl/f15a8851-af26-4e94-a4b1-c146c57c9d20/) by Lukasz Langa
- [The half-life of code & the ship of Theseus](https://erikbern.com/2016/12/05/the-half-life-of-code.html) by Erik Bernhardsson
- [Providing a Publis Salary History Page](https://www.jvt.me/posts/2021/09/09/public-salary-history/) by Jamie Tanna
- [David Graeber's Possible Worlds](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/david-graeber-dawn-of-everything.html) by Molly Fischer
- [Writing interactive stories with Twine (in Dutch)](https://www.ruudbrok.nl/2022/01/06/interactieve-verhalen-schrijven-met-twine/) by Ruud Brok
- [Vladimir Nabokov's Best Writing Advice](https://lithub.com/every-great-writer-is-a-great-deceiver-vladimir-nabokovs-best-writing-advice/) by Emily Temple
- [Street Fighter II, Paper Trails](https://fabiensanglard.net/sf2_sheets/index.html) by Fabien Sanglard
- [Web3 first impressions](https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html) by Moxie Marlinspike

### Coding things I want to try badly

- [Charm.sh: pretty UIs for your Go console apps](https://charm.sh)
- [Fennel: the Lisp/Lua hybrid language](https://fennel-lang.org)
- [Go Releaser: Release Go projects as fast and easily as possible!](https://goreleaser.com)
- [Mail Tester: verify DMARK/SPF/DKIM mail headers](https://www.mail-tester.com/)
- [Libsodium: a Go encryption library](https://doc.libsodium.org/)
- [Dwitter.net: 140 lines of JS code](https://www.dwitter.net/)


What will February have in store? Lots of boring book editing, I fear. I hope a week of rest before the second semester kicks off. We'll see.