Hello 2020

Now that it’s over a week into the new year, everyone else has posted their resolutions, everyone else has read them, and has become bored of the genre. Maybe people are ready to read more again.

What’s 2020 going to look like for me? I won’t give you resolutions, but I will give you themes, random thoughts, and notes on projects.

• Sleep - I have been living the last years of my journey here living a life of mild sleep deprivation to get more done. I’ve decided that I am old and this is probably a bad idea. I’m going to get seven and a half to eight hours of sleep as many nights as I can. I think I’ve hit that almost every day since Christmas. Here’s to another three hundred and fifty five days or so of this.
• Tech - The tech learning side of my life will be more of a focus this year. I do mostly PHP at the day job, but it won’t be around that. If I do much of anything fun in programming, it will probably be in Python. My main area of learning, however, will be AWS and Linux-related.
• Kids - Last year I got more involved with my kid’s schooling. This year I will continue that. I’m really enjoying it, though it can be a lot of work.
• Greek and Latin - My 2019 mental energies were focused on Greek and Latin (you probably noticed). Those will continue to be a major focus for me this year, but I will be changing how I am working in the languages and sometimes reading a bit less to make time for other things.
• Patristics - By “other things”, I mean patristics to a large degree. Some of this will be in the original languages, much of it will be in translation. I’ll be focusing on pre-Nicean history and literature, with a strong preference for reading primary sources first. That being said, I am open to suggestions on secondary literature.

Output

Last year was about learning. That will always be true of me, but this year I plan to channel some of those learning energies into output and learn through that.

• Greek - This year I will be developing some short Greek courses for self study centered around texts appropriate for those at the early intermediate stage of learning ancient Greek. Think readings, videos, and exercises designed for a more active use of ancient Greek. I’ve never seen anything quite like what I am planning as a whole, though all its individual pieces are grounded in things I’ve learned about learning or have seen others do in practice. So in the end, nothing truly unique I suppose, but I am enjoying putting it all together so far. This will be my primary focus for a while. I’m shooting to launch my first one close to the end of January.
• Tech - Expect random videos and writing around AWS, Linux, and maybe Python throughout the year. Nothing particularly systematic or polished, but hopefully helpful.
• 4theONE - I do some programming work (Python, Django) for an organization dedicated to helping with the problem of teen sex trafficking. I will be doing more work for them this year. For those of you who like to give, they accept and need donations.
• Bible - I don’t talk about it much here, but I spend a good deal of time in biblical studies related things to prepare for teaching at church and for my own edification. Perhaps I will start packaging things up and creating things? No specific plans here.
• Digital Humanities - I’ve taken on the task of creating a nice electronic edition of Maloney’s Selections from the Latin Fathers, and am working on Justin Martyr’s writings for greek-texts project. This kind of work is good for those times when I don’t have the brain power to be creative but am awake enough to do other work.

I am looking forward to 2020. I hope you are too.

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