trasta.dev

🔙 Looking Back at 2023

2023/12/30
This article was translated with AI and may contain inaccuracies.

A casual reflection on the year.

University

I was confirmed to be held back at the end of the first semester. I lost motivation in the first semester of my third year and failed too many courses, leaving me short of the required credits in my major to advance to my fourth year. There was still a path to finish my thesis in six months and graduate, but that became impossible too.

The main reason was that in-person classes at university had fully resumed. Having entered university right as the COVID-19 pandemic started, I had become completely accustomed to staying home. Going to campus for morning classes became extremely difficult for me. Since I typically woke up around noon, attending classes was simply not possible.

However, since the tuition for an extra year is no joke, I’ve started earning credits little by little from the second semester to limit the delay to just one year. Recently, I’ve gotten into a morning routine which feels good. I want to keep this going.

My past self conveniently only took the easy programming-related credits, so I’m struggling to make up the deficit now. But if I can get all my credits this semester, I should be able to advance, so I’ll do my best.

Work

It’s already been three years since I started working at CoeFont, and this year we’ve welcomed new engineers, which has made things exciting in a different way. I’m happy that people I already knew have also joined.

Until now, I was handling backend and infrastructure in general, but I’ve been gradually delegating those responsibilities and shifting my focus toward MLOps. It was a challenging year as I lacked experience with handovers and such.

As an AI technology venture, I believe we’re doing things that others aren’t, so I want to focus on output going forward. We’ve also started a company tech blog, and I’d like to share more detailed stories there.

We’re actively recruiting engineers, so please reach out if you’re interested.

Events

I participated in several hackathons and competitive events this year. We won UTE-1 and received 1 million yen, which I used to buy a MacBook Air. The Miyagi Hackathon was personally frustrating, but I was able to apply those lessons at the digi-con hackathon, which was great. I was deeply moved when Professor Hata gave me an autographed board, which I now display at home.

Also, some talented juniors in traP created momentum for doing Kaggle within the club and organized an internal competition, which I also participated in. I came in 2nd place, which was frustrating, but I gained a lot of knowledge, so I’m grateful.

Hobbies

VALORANT

Before I knew it, I had reached Ascendant. ref: The Road to Ascendant in VALORANT (trasta.dev)

My playtime isn’t quite as much as Minecraft, which I used to play a lot, but I feel like it’s getting close. I also went to watch Masters Tokyo and had a great time, so I want to continue enjoying the competitive scene next year as well.

Baseball

The WBC was the highlight - every day was filled with excitement. I think I was screaming at home throughout the semifinals and finals. Also, the Hanshin Tigers finally won the championship. Every year I thought “This year they have a winning roster!” but since I became aware of baseball, the Tigers had never won (the last time was 2005), so I was surprised when they actually did it. Unfortunately, since I moved to Tokyo, I couldn’t go to the victory sales. During the final stretch and the Japan Series, I couldn’t focus on work at all during and after games. Congratulations on becoming Japan champions.

Miscellaneous

Purchases

  • ChatGPT Plus
    • I subscribed to ChatGPT Plus in March. I’ve been using it extensively, and I might not be able to do anything without it anymore. I’m looking forward to what updates will come next year.
  • MacBook Air (M2) (Space Gray)
    • As I mentioned earlier, I bought a MacBook Air with the prize money. I purchased it anticipating going to campus, and as expected, the battery life is amazing and I’m satisfied.
  • RTX 4070
    • Cities Skylines 2 was coming out, and I wanted to run AI comfortably locally, so I upgraded my GPU. I have a custom-built PC, but because I went for a small case chasing aesthetics, the 4070 was just barely the size that would fit, so that’s what I chose. I’m reasonably satisfied.
  • Pillow
    • I bought an expensive pillow from LOFTY. It’s incredibly comfortable to sleep on, as you’d expect from the price. It was worth the purchase.
  • REALFORCE GX1
    • I was using a Varmilo keyboard, but I wanted to try rapid trigger, so I bought this. I thought a Realforce would also be good for work, and I’m satisfied so far. The rapid trigger is indeed impressive.

Going Out

I went on club trips to Kusatsu in winter and Izu in summer. I also took some short trips to nearby places here and there. Every time I go out, I realize how out of shape I am and how little stamina I have, so I want to exercise more next year…

2024

My main goals for now are to focus on output and to earn enough credits to graduate. Honestly, I don’t know what I’ll be like next year, so other than that, I want to give my all to whatever’s in front of me. I also want to commit to interesting opportunities. And I want to work on my English too.

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