It has been roughly half a year since my previous blog post. It was about time and My 2023 goals blog post is finally going to change this. I have been very busy improving my personal life and skills. I am still very busy and I will continue being in the future. There are lots of many different things that I want to try and learn. However, I simply do not have enough time for everything as it is right now. So, I am prioritizing some tasks while slowly advancing all of my other goals. This is why I have not been active much in my website and it will continue being this way. It is not one of my foremost priorities.
Regarding the 2 promised book reviews from last year. I may as well wait to finish the next book that I am planning to read as it is one of my 2023 goals. Though, it is honestly going to be hard to write the reviews. Even considering the fact, that I had written back then the good and bad points of each book.
I originally was not planning in making a blog post. This was just supposed to be a LinkedIn post, but since I like to explain myself a lot. All what I wanted to express, could not fit into the 3k LinkedIn character limit. For those curious, with this introduction, I am already halfway through this restriction. So, here I am instead. Plus, it is also more beneficial to me this way. Anyways, enough of being out of topic.
My 2023 goals summarized
- Pass a mock-up JLPT N5 exam
- Make a 2048 game
- Make a Wordle game
- Stretch a little every day
- Improve my sleeping schedule
- Watch a Git tutorial
- Complete a trading course
- Start investing
- Continue participating in Google Kick Start
- Finish an advanced C++ course
- Read The Unity Shaders Bible by Fabrizio Espíndola
- Add lyrics to all the tracks of my music playlist
My 2023 goals expanded
On this section, I am going to explain and justify why I want to achieve each one of these goals individually. If you simply wanted to know my 2023 goals without hearing about my motives or reasonings behind them. You can pretty much skip this whole section and go straight to the end of the post.
JLPT N5
Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) exams are the official Japanese language certificates for non-native speakers. There are a total of five levels available. Starting from the easiest level which is N5, up to the hardest level which is N1. If you are interested in this topic and you want to learn more about it. You can visit the English website of the JLPT for more information.
Since the N5 exam is in most cases worthless. I am not going to bother doing the official exam. Instead, I will keep doing different mock-up exams until I pass at least one of them. Though, obviously I hope that it only takes me just one attempt if possible.
The requirements for passing the N5 are generous overall. Last year, I practiced some sample questions and it went quite well. This week while writing this blog post, I practiced once again and it also went great. However, the real exam is always a different feel. Even if in my case, it is going to be just a mock-up exam. The whole N5 exam takes 90 minutes and I have already obtained 3 complete exams to practice with.
In the occassion that I pass my first exam, I am still going to do the other two. If by any chance everything goes really smooth. I may feel adventurous enough to try a N4 exam. However, the original goal still remains to only pass the N5 exam unregarding whatever happens to the N4 exam. If I end up trying it, of course.
2048
Not really much to add because this goal is self-explanatory. 2048 is a very simple puzzle game that became popular a few years ago. This year, I decided that I am going to make a clone of the game in Unity. If by any chance you do not remember or do not recall this game at all. Here there is an image that may look familiar.
Wordle
Wordle is a puzzle game that gained main media attention last year which is also when I discovered it. I really like playing Wordle since I enjoy puzzle games and learning new stuff. Fortunately, with Wordle I can do both at the same time every day. Additionally, as a bonus, it takes just a few minutes to play one game of Wordle.
Over the span of last year, new game variations of Wordle like Quordle have started appearing. In my case, I am going to stick to the classic and original game. Since all of my 2023 goals have no priority against each other. I still need to think lots of factors regarding how exactly I am going to develop this game. Such as for example, which language is the game going to be? Is the game going to be multi language? What API am I going to use? Will I even use any API at all? …
As an interesting fact, I once completed a Wordle game with two attempts one day during my work-break. It was a very crazy moment when I realized that happened.
Stretching
I am currently 24 years old (turning 25 this 2023) and my body is very stiff. This is due to not doing any kind of physical activity at all for the past decade. I decided that this year is finally the time that I will change this. As I need to start adding more healthy customs into my life.
In the past, I used to do a daily continuous 15-minute stretching routine. As you may have likely imagined, I got really tired of it and ended up dropping it. This time I will learn from my previous mistakes and keep things very simple and scale as needed. So, from this year and onwards. I am going to start stretching daily again but only 5 minutes each day. Moreover, those 5 minutes of stretching do not even need to be continuous. I can schedule them freely throughout the day as I see fit.
Somebody may be laughing now thinking that 5 daily discontinuous minutes of stretching is pointless, and I kind of agree. However, there is no denying that 5 minutes of stretching is infinitely better than not stretching at all. That was my initial plan and I am going to stick with it. Like I said before, I will adapt and perfect this routine over the years to match my lifestyle and needs.
Maybe in the future, I will also add some basic physical activity to my routine. However, that is a very likely goal to think about for next year.
Sleeping
During workdays, I go to sleep between 01:00 and 02:00, and I wake up between 07:00 and 08:00. Getting therefore 6 hours of sleep per day. However, on the weekends my sleeping schedule gets destroyed. No matter what I do, I wake up around 1 hour before lunch. It does not matter if I go to sleep at 22:00 or at 08:00. The outcome is the same.
As the empiricist individual that I am. I have conducted various experiments on myself to test my sleeping habits throughout the years. My conclusions are that this behaviour that I experience is my body’s obligation or urgency to wake up, let me explain. If I had a school exam tomorrow at 08:00 and I went to sleep at 06:00. My body would automatically wake me up on time without any alarms. Also, when I am under this situation, my body will refuse to go to sleep again. It does not matter if I have slept 2 hours like in this example or 10.
My body must be aware of my schedule and tasks. Artificially creating the urgency or obligation to wake up at any time. With this system probably being managed and achieved by one’s brain and biological clock. Since on the weekends, I have nothing never planned in the mornings. Then, there is really no need for me to wake up. I probably wake up near lunch time because my body requires nutrition or I am hungry. You may think that this is normal but there have been instances of me sleeping more than 14 hours in a day.
Anyways, after providing the whole story and motivation behind this goal. What I want to achieve is to basically have the same sleeping schedule for each day of the week.
Git
If you are a programmer or developer or similar, at some point in your career. You are going to have to deal with Git, if you are not already using it on a daily basis. The chances are that it may be quite possible that you have used Git without even being aware of it. There are lots of programs out there that use it behind the scenes.
The official definition of Git is that Git is just a distributed version control system. However, that really does not clarify anything plus non-technical people will not understand that definition. So, in a simpler way that everybody should be able to understand. Git is more or less akin to a manager of online security copies of a project. With the benefit that you can create, delete or share them instantly. Hopefully that helps in highlighting the importance of Git because it is huge.
I set this as one of my 2023 goals because I have been slacking in learning Git. For these past 2 years as a programmer. I have been using too much the graphical Git interfaces that different software provides. This has let me to not practice much the command line of Git which every programmer should be used to. This is the tutorial that I am planning to watch. Although, I have no idea if it covers some of the complex usages that you can achieve with Git.
Trading
Trading is a very high-risk activity where 90% of traders lose money. However, I am still interested in that world despite knowing its risks. As it is one of the most effective ways to earn money (and also lose it) along other reasons.
Last year, I started researching and learning about trading with free content that I found on the Internet. This year, I decided that I was going to try a premium trading course and see if it ends up being worth it or not. For what I have seen, usually these courses are not good but I am still going to check it out for myself. I have already chosen and bought the trading course that I want. So, the last remaining step is to start it and complete it.
The course that I ended choosing is quite long and with supposedly very in-depth content. Since this is not one of my most important 2023 goals right now. I am planning to focus on this during the second half of the year, near the end of it. I hope that the course turns out to be excellent. Though, if not, the bonus items that came with the course are worthy enough by themselves for the price paid. Regardless of the outcome that I may get, I am happy with my purchase.
Investing
Investing is the safer variation of trading. However, there is still risk involved and you can lose money if you have no idea what you are doing.
I started learning about investing last year along with trading. Back then, I decided not to start engaging on that activity due to my inexperience. But the main reason was because of the incoming global economy crisis that had been foreseen. We are so far in February of 2023, and there are no signs at all of said crisis. Therefore, I am going to start my investing journey very likely this March. As I have already opened and activated the account in the brokerage which I am going to use. The biggest and most annoying step has been completed.
Since this world is kind of new to me, I have been taking the necessary precautions and taking it very slowly without rushing. Currently, I am still deciding on what type of portfolio strategy I am going to follow. The only thing that I know for sure is that I am going to 100% focus on ETF investing. I have not yet decided which types of ETF in particular I am going to invest in also. However, I am making a study of potential ETF investments. That is why I am waiting until March and maybe even April to start my investment journey. Since I am still finishing the remaining final touches which are extremely important. There are thousands of ETFs in the market so the process is bound to take time.
Google Kick Start
Last year, I participated in my first coding competition ever in Google Kick Start and I really enjoyed it. For the remainder of that year, I managed to join in 6 out of the 8 Google Kick Start competitions that were held on 2022. Originally, I had as my main goal for those events to do well in them. But, after participating in a few of them. I updated my main goal to simply improve my programming and C++ skills.
For 2023, I am going to try and attend as many Google Kickstart competitions as I can. While keeping my focus on learning and improving my programming and C++ skills. Unfortunately, with the recent Google layoffs. It seems that some Kick Start organizers were fired causing the whole event to be delayed. The official competition website lists that even with the delays. The event is supposed to resume normal activity on March. However, I have no idea if this is indeed the case, or if they simply forgot to disable the competition’s schedule. It would not be the first time that something like this has happened. The initial coding practice is planned for this 24th of February. So, soon everybody will know.
In the case that Google Kick Start continues as normal, this goal remains the same. Although, if the event does not resume activity by summer, this goal will be nullified. I could find similar coding competitions as a replacement but I honestly prefer to wait and see what Google does. They could pretty much cancel all future Kick Start events like it may happen with E3, or simply delay or cancel this one. With all my other 2023 goals, I have plenty of work to do already.
C++
If you want to dedicate yourself to the development and coding of video games. You must be experienced with C++ or C#. There is no other way. I learned C++ a few years ago but in my current job I do not use it at all. So, as to not lose practice with it. I practice it on my leisure time every now and then to refresh my C++ knowledge and also expand it. I used to mainly practice C++ during my monthly participation attendance in Google Kick Start. However, if you have read the above goal. You will know that this is no longer possible, at the moment, at least.
Since C++ is a huge programming language with almost infinite possibilities. My goal here is to watch a free advanced C++ course that covers most aspects and fields of the language while I document everything to fit my needs. I started watching that course at some point during last year but I stopped near the 5-hour mark. I do not remember why exactly I stopped watching it. But if I had to say, it was probably due to having more important goals to focus on back then. I am not going to bother watching from the very beginning again and I will simply continue where I left off. I checked and all the content that was covered on the first 5 hours of the course was basic stuff.
The Unity Shaders Bible
It is extremely rare for me to fall prey to marketing as I live a minimalistic lifestyle. However, at some point in time during last year. I saw a LinkedIn post of that book and it caught my interest. Mainly, because it was a book about shaders and I had never worked with them. For those who do not know or are not aware. I want to become a video game programmer and join the video game industry. Back on 2021, I wrote a blog post reporting my attempts and failures.
So, I ended up buying the book and I am planning to read it as one of my 2023 goals. It is the same exact situation from last year but instead of two books, there is only one this time. I am going to also make a review of the book afterwards. Yes, I am aware that I still have to publish the other two book reviews that I promised. No need to remind me.
Lyrics
Finally, as the last goal from all my other 2023 goals. I have probably what most people may regard, consider or classify as a very distinct or out of place goal. However, for me this is an important objective to achieve this year. As this is something that I have been doing slowly for the past years and I still have a long way to go.
The goal itself is to add lyrics to all the tracks of my current music playlist. Which as of the day that I am writing this, it contains a total of 1440 songs. With an extra song that I added today. Thus far, I have added lyrics to a total of 250 songs which translates to just a 17% of my playlist. So, to be able to add the remaining lyrics to the rest of the tracks. I would need to write the lyrics of 4 tracks per day which is the same as 28 tracks per week. This may not look like it but it is indeed a pretty big-time investment.
I am not really worried whether or not I manage to complete this feat. As long as I make considerable progress on the issue, it is good enough. Ideally though, I would like to actually complete all the tracks. The main issue with this goal, is that I have several unpopular songs in my playlist from languages which I do not understand or know well. Consequently, as I have already faced this problem. I have not been able to find the lyrics of said songs nor I can deduce them. Therefore, I will have to search for a free online service where I can request for song’s lyrics. While hoping that someone fulfills all of my requests.
My 2023 goals afterthoughts
After having written and reviewed this blog post. I compared my 2022 goals with the ones from this year and it surprised me. Obviously, since it just has been a single year difference and I have not changed dramatically nor I need to. Both yearly goals have many similarities but there are subtle differences regarding the goal’s focus and scope between years.
Also, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to repeat this kind of post every year. It could be a nice tradition to have along with ending each blog post with a related quote of the topic that was discussed. However, this is a decision that my future self will have to manage and decide by itself.
