Year in review blog posts are very en vogue this year. Probably because people now have more time on their hand now that they are not constantly doomscrolling on Twitter.

Good stuff

• We have settled in to the new apartment, and it is still great and everything we could wish for.
• I started e-biking and spent over 250 km on the bike this year. While that does not sound much, considering that my fitness level is bad and the terrain here is quite hilly, I feel good about it. Biking helped me to get out of the house and explore the nature around the new apartment. Splendid! Unfortunately, the last few weeks of the bike season were tainted by an inner tube failure and now the need to adjust the back brakes. While I’m quite handy, doing something for the first time is complicated – especially if it has to do with brakes. I need those!
• After building the Space Shuttle Discovery last year, I really got into Lego building. It’s an obsession now. It helps me to do something with my hands and switch off my brain. I built the following sets:
  • NASA Apollo Saturn V
  • Doctor Who TARDIS (Yes, I bought this on eBay for a ridiculous price. Worth it!)
  • Vincent van Gogh - The Starry Night
  • Nintendo Entertainment System™
  • International Space Station (I had to get this before it sold out – and I’m glad I did!)
  • Holiday Main Street
  • Santa’s Visit
  • Orchid
  • XL-15 Spaceship
  • Optimus Prime
  • The Mighty Bowser™
• I read three books, which I enjoyed a lot!
  • Dan Moren’s The Caledonian Gambit and The Nova Incident, including the connecting short stories
  • Antony Johnston’s The Patrios Network
  • I want to read more… but there’s Lego to build and TV to watch, so I don’t really make time for it. 😉
• Speaking of TV: 2022 was a good year for TV. My highlights:
  • Severance (Apple TV+)
  • Mythic Quest (Apple TV+)
  • Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
  • For All Mankind (Apple TV+)
  • Moon Knight (Disney+)
  • Ms Marvel (Disney+)
  • She-Hulk (Disney+)
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)
  • Andor (Disney+)
  • Welcome to Wrexham (Disney+)
  • The Sandman (Netflix)
  • Jet Lag: The Game (Nebula/YouTube)
  • Doctor Who — Eve of the Daleks and Power of the Doctor are fun, and Legend of the Sea Devils happened, too! I’m looking forward to the new era!
• Formula E: I got a little bit obsessed with Season 8 of this motor sport. Electric cars are fascinating, and there is a lot of work going into finding out how to most efficiently use the battery’s power. 2023’s 9th season sees the new third generation car, too. And if it is true what I have seen so far, the World Championship will be a tough competition.
• Snooker: A lot of Snooker happened, too. With a lot of Drama, especially Ronnie’s seventh World Championship and Mark Allen’s success. It really is the sport that keeps on giving with the change of pace. Ultra quick, super attacking frames and long, tense safety encounters. Anything can happen. Brilliant!
• I also re-discovered microblogging and signed back up for micro.blog – you can find my microblog at micro.yatil.net.
• I was invited to two podcasts: Parallel and the German speaking Working Draft.
• Furthermore, I blogged quite a lot here. 15 posts sounds like a record in recent years.
• Working with Axess Lab, who I joined in March this year, is delightful. My colleagues are knowledgeable and insightful.

Not so good stuff

This year was mainly one thing, and that is exhausting.¹ I did pick up a lot of new hobbies and interests. And with the change in work, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the lingering Pandemic, it was just much. But it was also a lot of fun to rediscover hobbies.

In addition, I feel the loss of some of my accessibility community. Firstly, I lost interest helping with and commenting on WCAG. It just felt like a waste of time. The WCAG 3 discussions didn’t feel productive for a long time, and WCAG 2 followed quickly after the release of the Candidate Recommendation Snapshot of WCAG 2.2 which felt not well thought-through. I have seen that some comments are getting addressed, but I can’t fathom being involved as much as I had been in the past.

The second community loss was through Twitter. It was a huge part of my communication and keeping up with peers. Mastodon and microblogging does help with it, but it’s certainly a change. I did blog about both, WCAG and Twitter, in November.

The third community loss is my public speaking community, especially the accessibility community. Due to the global pandemic, I did not travel at all and kept mostly isolated all year. This is a necessary precaution as a person with “preexisting conditions”. I could also not live with the thought that a frivolous activity of mine caused direct harm of someone getting sick or long COVID. Especially people who are interested in accessibility or are disabled.

I do understand that conferences have commercial requirements to fulfill, and after being able to move a conference for two years, that was just not feasible for many in the community. The world pretended normality and forced organizers to hold these events. These events invited accessibility speakers who felt the duty to perform.

That said, it left a huge feeling of distrust in me. How can I trust that a conference keeps me or my disabled peers safe during another health event? I can’t. And that accessibility-focused events happened, with the predictable result of COVID-19 infections, is a reason for grave concern for me. And it’s extra concerning when those events market themselves as “inclusive”, but “not for people with respiratory illnesses.”

I won’t say that I will never speak at conferences who had in-person events this year, but I’m not eager to do so as well.

What’s next?

I don’t have reason to change a lot. I certainly want to get more active on the bike and also tackle longer trips through flatter terrain in the spring. After all, the Radweg Sieg is not too far away. I will work on acceptance of the loss of the communities and concentrate on building new ones. It’s important, and it doesn’t happen on its own. Luckily, the The Incomparable member’s Slack has been a nice refuge.

I hope to keep up the blogging and also go deeper into some topics. I have been catching up on hobby-type activities over last year, and I expect that to continue a little. Life did consist mainly of work in many of the previous years, so I yearn for other activities.