Happy New Year!

It's been a while, since the end of last semester was a bit of a doozy. I just wanted to recap my 2022 and forecast my 2023 here in a few bullet points:

2022 Accomplishments

I started my grad program in Non-Proliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. It's been a fantastic year, with many fond memories to look back on:

  • I trialled the META Lab over the summer, and contributed to their Mirror Gap Analysis project. I ended up making a front-end and an API which went unused due to lack of organization. I also added a Course feature to their Wordpress, which ended up taking years of my life from me when the page went down hours before a meeting with the Provost. Between that and the overall disorganization, I don't really see myself at META Lab for an extended period of time. Factors relating to the personnel, who all joined as friends years ago, also contributed to the lack of clarity in mission or task.
    • Takeaway: I hate Wordpress and PHP. Even student organizations need to engage in rigorous operations procedures, even if you're all friends.
  • I ended up at CTEC, whose mission and goals are much more clear than the META Lab, and has been doing significant work in the field. I joined Jason Blazakis' project, and in the coming weeks, it'll be published!! That was a whole process, but I think I learned how to work more smoothly with others and definitely how to work better with distributed systems. I have also been assigned to a couple other projects at CTEC where my role is a mixture of developer, system admin, and other techy positions we don't have the personnel to fill.
    • Takeaway: Organizations with direction and focus actually offer entry-level positions more impact, whereas flat organizations need to be deliberate if they want to get anything done. Also, nohup rocks.
  • My Japanese skills have improved significantly after two semesters of being forced to do the Intermediate-Advanced and Advanced Japanese courses. Even my ability to throw together thoughts in writing has improved. Very excited to see more development.
    • Takeaway: I'm still illiterate, but boy can I convince people I'm good at Japanese.

When it came to Moonstripe Design: 2022 was a big year:

  • I wrapped up a contract with PrivacyCode, adding their slider and blog systems.
  • I just finished a contract with Navab Law, adding their digital presence to the internet, and also engineering an email forwarder to ease client intake.
  • I also built the Open Ethereum Map and learned D3.

Socially, I've had a lot of fun. From backpacking trips, to hikes with grad school colleagues, I think I've really been able to start growing my social safety net for the first time since 2019.

2023 Goals

My goal of attending MIIS was to finally get published, and it's looking like a reality with CTEC. That being said, there are many more objectives this year to attain as well.

  • I want to see the CTEC paper all the way through.
  • Start a portfolio of research and expand on my research.
  • Build my knowledge of programming, and continue to develop devOps skills.
  • Finally utilize my Pi Cloud for something.
  • Go backpacking more.
  • Work on my posture.
  • Wake up earlier.
  • Cook more.

Otherwise, I'm just going to continue to be me. Starting with a trip to see friends down South.

Can't wait to see what 2023 brings!

  • Best,

  • Kojin