What a chaotic but exciting few months it’s been. We lifted our entire lives and landed at the northern corner of Europe, in a small town near Amsterdam. It’s been tumultuous, learning how to self-checkout at the grocery store, ride a bike again (and survive multiple falls), and walk on the right-side of the street. But nothing short of adventurous (if a little freezing – Dutch winter is no joke).
Now that the dust of moving has somewhat started to settle, and the promise of a fresh, brand-new year unfolds before us, I’m excited by a multitude of projects and things-to-finally-do now that the big life things have quietened down (for now):
Return of the Mac
After twelve glorious years with the good old 2012 MacBook Pro, and a somewhat hiatus from the macOS life, I’m super excited to return. Last Thursday, I fetched my new aluminium companion from Apple Amsterdam, and after hustling back amidst hail and rain, and three modes of transit (tram → train → bus), I booted up my new, silver M4 MacBook Pro. I can’t wait to work on some long-overdue projects with it (as always, watch this space… 😉)
Planespotting
The weather on this side of the world doesn’t seem to relent, and I believe we’re in for more weeks of snow, hail and biting winds. But there are momentary respites, during which I plan to take my Swapfiets out to the Polderbaan at Schiphol for some planespotting. AMS is an av-geek’s veritable Disneyland, and I hope to capture some shots for the ‘gram (if the weather holds up… otherwise, this particular adventure might have to wait until spring).
Quality Kindle Time
Last year, I managed to read 12 books. Granted, there was that part of the year where our lives were preoccupied with moving entire continents, so not much reading could be done. But this year, my goal is to do 14 books.
I find reading the perfect medicine for calming the mind after a busy day. My Kindle has been a trusty companion since I joined the ebook life in August 2023, and since I had to leave my entire library of physical books back home in Durban, it’s become my portable library.
Some of the books I want to get into this year include:
- Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
- The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
- Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi
- Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
- Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Look out for my thoughts on them here at Life in Pixels.
Projects, and Projects, and Projects…
I wrote over a year ago about finishing my first novel’s first draft. Well, that book’s been marinating in the draft refrigerator since then – and in the meanwhile I started work on what might become a new trilogy. I’m over halfway through the first draft of the first book in that series. I’m writing it entirely with fountain pen (as much a means for creative freedom as it is a chance to get away from screens and return to the basics).
The goal is to get that one into Scrivener and polished (to a point where I can finally tell you all more about it). And then return to the world of Devanagari. With the hype and hysteria around AI, I find myself increasingly compelled to get.it.done and get.it.out.there, because let’s just say, when it comes to this new technofad, I have… thoughts.
Then there’s a few tech projects on the roster, one of them being a massive undertaking: a UX overhaul and complete redesign and rebuild of MyDojo. I’m very excited to get into it, moving to a new codebase based on Flutter and utilising more robust UX practices to really deliver a compelling and valuable experience. The scope is huge, the deadline is mid-year, and so we’ll have to see how that one can be sized to meet SKKSA’s 25th anniversary.
Navigating the chaos
There’s a lot planned for this year. Over the past few months I’ve grown increasingly fond of Notion, and this has become my second brain, helping me keep track of all these projects, ideas and research. I plan to showcase my Notion setup sometime soon.
I say this at the end of every blog, and I’ll say it again, with hope that I do stick to my word this time: I intend to keep more active on Life in Pixels, and I have a few plans for this platform too.
Keep an eye out on my Instagram (where I post more frequently), and subscribe to the blog to keep in touch.
From chilly Amsterdam, it’s “all for now”.
Rahul Dowlath 
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