update roundup

_posts/2024-11-29-2024-roundup.md

@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ draft: true
 
 ---
 
+This year I did a little review of what I got up to in 2024, it was a nice exercise and I'm going to use it as an excuse to do a summary here of fun things I did this year.
+
 ## January
 
 The first big project of the year was repainting this ladder up to our mezzanine bed. This ended up being so much more work than we expected, they say it's all in the surface prep and the surface prep here took ages with all the awkward corners. 
@@ -113,7 +115,9 @@ And finally this month, I spent a few afternoons preparing [my Sensor.Community
 
 The workshop went really well, before arriving I had been a bit unsure how to decide how many kits to put together, they were about £30 each so I didn't want to have many unsold kits. Particularly because I was selling them at cost. But apparently EMFcamp workshops are always 100% sold out so this turned out to be a complete non-issue and I kinda wished I had brought more kits!
 
-That being said we filled a large workshop tent with 30 very enthusiastic people and I think almost all the kits worked in the end!
+That being said we filled a large workshop tent with 30 very enthusiastic people and I think almost all the kits worked in the end! 
+
+We also learned to spin yarn and did a short black smithing course at EMFcamp.
 
 ## June
 
@@ -124,17 +128,26 @@ Work trip to Zuric for PASC 2024. Played Hades, what a fun beat em up roguelike.
 <figcaption>A gig put on my one of my favourite bands at the vagina museum in London.</figcaption>
 </figure> 
 
-And honestly a low of what we learned is stuff that any good standard library in any reasonable programming language would abstract away from you. And most of the time that's the best thing! It's still nice to know what's going on under the hood though.
+And honestly a lot of what we learned is stuff that any good standard library in any reasonable programming language would abstract away from you. And most of the time that's the best thing! It's still nice to know what's going on under the hood though.
+
+I also made a huge cube with a draw front for some reason. It's made of 18mm (!) birch ply so it is the heaviest thing in the world and will likely outlive me. Not 100% what to do with it! It current holds all our winter scarves in the living room.
+
+<figure class = "multiple">
+<img src="{{page.images}}/the_box/box_plans.png">
+<img src="{{page.images}}//the_box/finished_box.jpeg">
+<figcaption>A big ol' box</figcaption>
+</figure> 
 
 ## July
 
 This month I played Stardew Valley for the first time. Definitely lived up to its status as one of the best selling games of all time! 
 
-In junas for two weeks
+Was also in the south of France for two weeks, tried out a new swimming spot by the original one is still the best.
 
-<figure>
+<figure class="multiple">
 <img src="{{page.images}}/swimming_in_junas.jpeg">
-<figcaption>Testing out a new swimming spot near Junas.</figcaption>
+<img src="{{page.images}}/ceramics/frilly_plate_finished.jpeg">
+<figcaption>Testing out a new swimming spot near Junas, the frilly plate out of the kiln.</figcaption>
 </figure> 
 
 ## August
@@ -146,20 +159,51 @@ My gaming august was split between Stardew Valley and Tactical breach wizards. T
 
 ## September 
 
-Poznan for work and Brussels on the way back. Three weeks in Italy! Visited my home Italian commune and found my grandmother's grave. 
+Poznan for work and Brussels on the way back. Three weeks in Italy! Visited my home Italian commune and found my grandmother's grave. Some lovely hikes in the French alps.
 
-## October
+<figure class="multiple">
+<img src="{{page.images}}/dog_collar.jpg">
+<img src="{{page.images}}/come_on_says_the_dog.jpg">
+<figcaption>This lovely dog followed me for the entirety a 20km run through the forest, what a lovely run that was.</figcaption>
+</figure> 
+
+## October
 
 This month I spent some time playing Batman Arkham Night - I grabbed this after watching Jacob Geller's video "How Does Arkham Knight Still Look So Good?". It's true that it looks great but predictably for a AAA game the gameplay is quite formulaic. The open world, grapple hook and gliding mechanics are quite fun in combination though.
 
-## November
+Otherwise October flew by, there were some good walks with friends, I got my little PSU PCB back:
+
+<figure class="two-wide">
+<img src="/assets/images/2024/usbc_psu/pcb_top.jpeg">
+<img src="/assets/images/2024/usbc_psu/pcb_bottom.jpeg">
+</figure>
+
+## November
+
+Did a nice South Indian cooking course, visited my parents, thought back on this old project I did many years ago:
+
+<figure>
+<img src="/assets/images/2024/boiler_project.jpg">
+</figure>
+
+This is the pipe work for a shower booster pump that I got off ebay when I was 18 or 19. I installed the pump, cut and soldered all the pipe work, ran it through the attic to the shower and the most nerve wracking part was drilling into the hot water tank with a hole saw to create a new outlet. Looking back I'm amazed I pulled it off. The shower went from a dribble to a gloriously powerful jet and the booster pump is chugging away to this day.
 
 ## December
 
-In December I bought a bunch of games in the Steam sale, including Fallout 4 which has occupied my gaming time for the month. 
+In December I bought a bunch of games in the Steam sale, including Fallout 4 which has occupied my gaming time for the month. I also had the idea to put an orange lasercut cover over my bike display project. I really like how this looks. 
 
+<figure class="two-wide">
+<img src="{{page.images}}/bike_display/bike_display_idea.jpeg">
+<img src="{{page.images}}/bike_display/bike_display_white.jpeg">
+<img src="{{page.images}}/bike_display/bike_display_orange.jpeg">
+<img src="{{page.images}}/bike_display/simulation.png">
+</figure>
 
-### Books
+<figure>
+<img src="{{page.images}}/montys_map.jpg">
+</figure>
+
+### Books
 A lot of Octavia E Butler this year. Also Becky Chambers and Anne Bishop
 
 ### Crosswords