Complex Numbers

Three Years

On December 14, 2019, I wrote a blog entry. It wasn't a big deal at the time, just my default: commentary on something I found on the internet.

What I didn't know, didn't plan on at the time, was that it would be the first in what is, as of today, a three-year streak of daily blog entries.

I also couldn't have known that, a mere three months later, shit would change because of a global pandemic. I almost certainly wouldn't have this streak if it weren't for that; I had travel plans. In truth, I'd rather have been able to do the travel plans. I still want to visit Belgium, dammit. It's been put off due to travel restrictions, crappy airline service, and World War III.

To that end, I have another streak going: over 1200 days on Duolingo. Which, if you do the math, is longer than my daily blog entry streak. I'm very close to being done with the French course, which absolutely doesn't mean I'm fluent in French, though I certainly know more than I did three years ago.

I might try Dutch again. Learning two languages at once proved difficult for me, and Dutch is similar enough to English to confuse me. But it's one of the other languages they speak in Belgium. Yeah, I know, lots of people speak English there as well, but this way I might have some idea if someone's insulting me in a different language.

My progress is slow, I know. But that's what I get for waiting until my 50s to try to learn something new. Lots of people my age don't even bother.

At least I found out that I could do something daily. About the only thing I could do on a daily basis, before this, is breathe. Even eating didn't happen every day. The breathing thing was questionable there for a while, too, but I managed to keep doing it.

So, am I going to keep the streak going? Well, I'm not going to deliberately break it at this point. If I do manage to go abroad, I might not have the means. I'll be okay with that, because at least I'll be traveling. Then there's always the chance of the unexpected: no internet access, computer craps out, I get injured or get sick or die, that sort of thing. You'll know that one of those happened because I won't announce it in here beforehand.

Tomorrow I'll have another article to comment on, but today I just wanted to reflect on what is, to me, a mighty achievement.