After, let's see... EIGHT MONTHS?! I think my website is due for an update. Some pretty major changes happened since my last post; most notably being that I now live halfway across the world in Hong Kong. Why there? While I could say that it's the culture or something, the simple answer is that it's home to the only university that wanted to pay me a stipend to do my PhD (as opposed to me paying a university to do one). I'm not entirely sure why, but the government throws a bunch of money at PhD fellowships, if I had to guess it's some kind of soft power thing. So if you're looking to do a PhD, think about doing one here. Anyway, after securing one of those fellowships the amount they were offering went up considerably from the initial offer, so I'm able to live quite comfortably here (albeit in a very small room with no kitchen).
The change hasn't been too drastic, but that's mostly down to me being a recluse. Turns out if you put me in a room with my computer and some Japanese crap I'm more or less happy regardless of where that room is. In a weird way I'm concerned that I'm not feeling more lonely than I think I should be, considering how infrequently I leave the house.
I went into 2024 with very low expectations. I'd sent off my PhD applications near the end of the year and wasn't expecting them to go anywhere. Same with my job applications. In the end, life decided to throw me a bone and I was able to do some part-time work at a local-ish university. I would have been quite happy to work that job for a few years. Later I got my offer to do my PhD in Hong Kong, and I slowly started preparing to move later in the year. About a month later I received an offer to do my doctorate at Oxford. Unfortunately, there was no funding attached and I was not born into wealth, so I had to pass up on that. Oh well.
I wish I had more to say but life has been pretty uneventful after moving but I think that's mostly a consequence of me being something of a recluse. I sat a data science/machine learning course as part of my studies, and am now immune to all AI buzzwords. Before moving I made some good progress on the game I was making, which I should definitely resume at some point. I suppose 2024 has just been kind of a blur for me, even with a bunch of diary entries.
Next year I need to start making the most of living in a different country and actually explore the place that I live now. I don't even have the excuse that it's too hot now.
Anyway, I hope that 2024 was as good for you as it was for me, and I hope your 2025 is even better!