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Tinkering with my 3D Printer. It's a filament printer, but after a lot of fine tuning, I'm able to print small D&D miniatures with mixed quality. It's not perfect, but it is getting closer.

Ignoring abuse.

I didn't say it was healthy, I just said I've improved at it.

Headshots in video games.

I’ve gotten better about taking book notes.

I was thinking of ways to eliminate as much friction as possible, so I made an iOS shortcut that takes a URL from a share link in The Storygraph (the app I use for tracking my books) and sends it to an API endpoint I made that returns a deep link for Obsidian (the app I use for notes) which automatically creates a note for me with Title - Author format in my preferred subdirectory for book notes.

It seems like a silly thing to go through so much trouble to automate, but it was a tedious barrier to get a new note going when a thought came to me as I was reading, and I actually have gotten much better at taking book notes since I made it.

Cooking. I've been trying new recipes lately and realised I have enough experience under my belt to sorta predict the result I'm going to get based on the ingredients and method.

Been playing a lot with my butterfly knife, and I'm about to perform my first stage act with it. Definitely looking forward to showing off!

Only cut myself three times writing this act

Recovering from concussions.

I’m getting better at it, I think.

I've become better at talking to people. Overcoming my past trauma and social anxiety has made me so much happier and at peace. Now I'm on the path to fostering meaningful connections with people who help me grow as a person, and hopefully the other way around as well.

Cooking with rice. I was never big on rice, so never had particular ambitions for experimenting with it.
Then I found a rice variety in the shops, which actually tastes nice on its own, and also you're allowed to just dump it into a pot of water, then drain the remaining water, which I much prefer for experimenting.

And yeah, that has led to me catching up with experimenting very quickly. Last week I made basically a risotto using:

• rice
• red lentils
• vegetable broth
• coconut milk
• bell peppers
• caraway
• teriyaki sauce
• sriracha sauce

...and last, but definitely not least, orange slices.

And it tasted fucking rad. That's my favorite feature of rice. You can throw in the wildest ingredients and it magically makes them work together.

I'd say drawing textures.

Working out. I finally realized that my psychological issue with working out was doing a long duration thing that I didn't like. My solution was a high intensity short workout which doesn't bother me at all from a mental perspective, so now I do burpees. Quick and over before I have a chance to not like it.

Personal finance, spent too long not giving it proper respect and being scared of anything that wasn't a basic bank account. Used the plum app for a few years and it really opened my eyes to how it all works. This year marked me taking it seriously like everyone wish I started earlier.

I opened this question and realised with a sense of dread that I don't think I have an answer to this question; often it feels like my days are slipping by without making meaningful progress in the things I care about.

That may or may not be true, but regardless, I'm going to use this space to improve at self forgiveness. It's difficult to show myself the compassion I deserve as a human, but it's easier if I try to think of myself as a dear friend. If I were my friend, I'd feel proud of me for my strength, and angry on my behalf at the fact I am having to endure so much bullshit that is holding me back. I'd feel sad, but hopeful for the hypothetical future where I might be more free to make progress on my goals.

Without a frame of reference, I don't think this constitutes improvements on anything per se. However, by setting my flag down here and underscoring my intent to be kinder to myself, I am creating a future where I will be able to look back on this comment and think "wow, such progress". The second best time to plant a tree is now, and all that.

Brushing my teeth.

Recently had a root canal and a massive wakeup call of fragile teeth.

It's been a hard habit to stick with but the wife keeps me accountable.

Picked dwarf fortress back up again, learning all the new things and changes feels really good. Getting decent at it!

Skateboarding. Started at 30 and I'm 31 now. I can drop in the mini half pipe, rock to fakie, and tailstall now. It's a lot of fun pumping back and forth in a mini half pipe. Feels like what I imagine surfing feels like.

Patience. I think I just no longer have the energy to get that uptight about things. Benefits of being a quinquagenarian, it would seem. It should come with some damn benefits other than back and joint pain.

I'm slowly beginning to understand Japanese enough that I can turn off subtitles and still understand like 25% of what's being said.

Meanwhile my ability to read it is starting to fall because I haven't turned the romaji off and I keep finding myself reading that and not the katakana/hiragana/kanji.

Digital art.

Where I started:

How is going:

Understanding computers and networking. I’m so far away from truly understanding it all, but I’m working on studying for the A+ exams so I can get the basics for entry into an IT field. All of this is so interesting to me and I genuinely love learning it!

I worked in marketing, specifically SEO, for the past 9 years. I’m sick of it/Google’s bullshit, and I want to change to a career where I can do some tech work and help people solve problems.