Year in Review 2025

As 2025 slips into the history books, I continue my tradition of looking back and considering what I accomplished and how I spent my time. This year I set a goal of spending 1000 hours on my personal hobbies and chores. That's over 19 hours a week, and more than I've logged in any previous year since I started keeping track. Well, I did it. I made it to that beautiful round number. And I don't think I'll try to do it next year. 

New Years' card by H. Th. Wijdeveld, 1973.

It helped me play catch-up and get a lot of little issues under control. It gave me time to start introducing a new project without neglecting my existing ones. I had room for creativity and all the maintenance-and-repair tasks that often go by the wayside. I also, at times, felt very pressured and stressed out. Keeping up with the 1000-hour target while maintaining my social life was pretty doable ... so long as I was at the top of my game and nothing unexpected came up. I felt as though I didn't have room in my life for so much as an "off" day. And this year there were plenty of off days, for personal reasons I won't get into. So I'm rather proud of pulling off the goal anyway, but for my long-term health and happiness, I think I should leave more room in the margins for the near future.

I spent about the same amount of time on Acuitas as I did last year: 365 hours. So I'm poetically averaging one hour of work on him for every day in the year. Acuitas accomplishments included:

*Introduction of rudimentary trial-and-error learning methods, followed by a demo of Acuitas playing a text conversion of the Allergic Cliffs puzzle, from _Logical Journey of the Zoombinis
*Text Parser improvements leading to transfer of all benchmark sentences out of the "unparseable" category
*Introduction of some numerical reasoning and ability to track multiple instances of a type in the narrative scratchboards
*Continued improvements across narrative understanding and conversational ability
*Revitalization of the semantic memory visualizer and question generator

Time put into my fiction writing also came out to be very similar, compared to last year. The big news was publication of my first story in a paying webzine, "Peacemaker's First Strike" in Abyss & Apex. Major thanks to the editors at A&A, and to everyone who shared this story around and helped get it in front of more eyes. There has since been another win on the publication front, but I don't think I should make it public until there is ink on a contract, so you'll all have to wait a bit to hear about that one.

I wrote two new stories in 2025: "Heartspeed," a strange dystopian sci-fi about a bicycle courier who teams up with an outlaw AI to fudge her performance data, and "Seeing," a fantasy about four pilgrims seeking a temple which is only findable by those who've seen it before - each with a different strategy and petition.

The major beneficiaries of my extra hobby hours were Robotics, which jumped from 112 to over 140, and Studying, which went from 23 to 60. The latter led directly into the selection and planning of the new Physics Project. Robotics accomplishments spanned multiple projects:

Five-pocket accordion fluid bladder test

*I finished Atronach's Eye! Well, softly finished - the eye reached a stage of development where I could have it operating on my wall. Improvements are planned, and I put quite a bit of time into trying out new motion detection algorithms, computation speed improvements, and cameras.
*I continued my hydraulics experiments with better pump motors, improvements to bladder design and manufacturability, and actuator design. I progressed this technology development far enough to plan and price out a full robot design, which I hope to move ahead with next year.
*I ran enough motion tests on ACE to decide it was going to need better motors, then purchased and tried out some options.

As planned, I trimmed time spent on the blog this year, keeping my investment under 55 hours, but I've still managed to put up two posts per month. I achieved this by focusing more on my own projects and not doing a research-heavy article series. I spent almost no time on art. I'd like to get back to it someday, but higher-priority things have to be finished first.

2025 was a good garden year. I brought in over 10 lb. of potatoes and successfully grew carrots for the first time. I also seem to have cleared the blight from the main apple tree, though due to previous years' damage it did not produce well. The house and yard are properly maintained, and I've repaired my broken knick-knacks and tools. Time spent on Finances nearly doubled because I sorted out some investments.

Last but not least, I put quality time into some gifts for friends and family. I pushed my 3D printing skills making these, and the Vyper continues to be a solid budget workhorse.

Cryptex by Cees on Printables

 

"Foldable Pontiac Firebird Trans AM 1982" by GOODesign on Fab365

Thank you all as always for following along. I wish you the best 2026 can bring.

Peacemaker's First Strike

My short story of the above title will be LIVE and free to read in the 3rd Quarter 2025 issue of Abyss & Apex tomorrow! It's about a professional curse-remover who gets in a little over her head on an unconventional case; it's got mystery, magic, barbarians, and something to say about the consequences when defense of one's own goes too far. Ef Deal (at that time the Assistant Fiction Editor) was kind enough to tell me, "It has been a very long time since I read a sword & sorcery I enjoyed as much as this tale." So don't miss it!

I put something of myself in all my stories, but this one is more personal than most. It would be impossible for me to explain where it came from without airing some things that are better kept private, but in a roundabout and strange way, it reflects something I went through. So it feels particularly fitting that "Peacemaker's First Strike" should be my first paying publication credit. Turning this story loose means healing for me as well as the characters.

Abyss & Apex has been great to work with, so I'd love it if you would check out my writing and the rest of the issue, and support the zine with a donation if you are so inclined.

Until the next cycle,
Jenny

Last Day of the Year 2020

My sympathies go out to the many people for whom 2020 has been disastrous, distressing, or exhausting. And I want to begin by saying that I've been very fortunate. I was able to stay fully employed while working from home. I don't have any children to care for, and I function well in solitude, so I stayed effective. And because I lost my commute and some of my social obligations, my productivity went through the roof. One small sign of this is the fact that I even have time to write a retrospective.

So here were all the positive things I managed to wring out of 2020:

* Gave Acuitas several important new features, including narrative comprehension and the beginnings of moral reasoning.
* Kept Acuitas development on track with 200+ hours of work put in over the course of the year.
* Wrote a blog post for every month.

* Wrote half a novel.

* Prepared my first novel for submission to agents/publishers and wrote pitch material.

* Learned how to 3D model in DesignSpark Mechanical and Meshmixer.

* Started and finished my first major 3D printing project, the Hissing Silence Ghost Shell.

* Modeled a new case for Atronach, printed Version 1, and corrected problems. Almost completed Version 2.

* Learned to handle more 3D printer maintenance issues, including nozzle replacement.

* Even had time for an impromptu weekend art project.

* Book consumption rate exceeded book acquisition rate for the second year in a row. My unread book backlog is down to 33.

* Finally played Beneath a Steel Sky.

* Had time for a lot of maintenance tasks that had been getting neglected. Sealed the crack in the garage foundation, polished the car headlights, emptied data out of the old computer, got a tetanus vaccine.

* Successfully grew potatoes again.

* Didn't get noticeably sick all year.

Atronach: I'm only half put together! How dare you.
ACE: You made me stand up for this?

Happy New Year from all of us, and good luck.

Novel Worldbuilding Teaser: Lilkirgynyyn

I'm just wrapping up a comparatively long stint of working on a novel. I don't want to post any teaser text from the actual story yet (mainly because I don't really know when it will be done, and would rather not have anyone clamoring for more at this point). Instead, I thought I'd put up a few worldbuilding notes that I worked out before I started writing. These are a work in progress; I find that I learn more about the setting as I work on the story, so I go back and edit my notes now and then.  There are four intelligent creature races in the world I'm working with (possibly five, but nobody knows much about the last one). I'll introduce one of them here, and save the rest for other times when I don't have robot stuff to talk about.  This particular race grew out of my mulling over how a society of wolf-like creatures with human-level intellectual tendencies might operate.  All concept art and notes here are copyrighted by me; please respect that.

The Lilkirgynyyn (singular: Lilkirgyn) are a race of winged quadrupeds, vaguely canid in appearance. Although historical records suggest that they were once widespread, today they dwell in rugged regions that other races find unfavorable: the far north, the peaks of high mountain ranges, deserts, and impenetrable swamps. Proud, serious, and scholarly, they view themselves as the keepers of the world’s knowledge, and mock the other races’ ambitions for territory and sensual pleasures. This attitude means that they are often the losers in any serious confrontation – they simply don't have the ambition to build up a powerful military. Having grown to expect that the Krippin and Rynsor will overwhelm them, they have become withdrawn and elusive, and most of them have few dealings with outsiders. It is believed that they were the first of the races to discover and understand mathematics, and the first to invent a written language. Their patron is Kyrysyn, the Spirit of Truth and Logic.

A full-grown Lilkirgyn attains roughly the same size as a greyhound. They possess some avian features, including hollow bones and a curious respiratory system which allows air to pass through the lungs. Rather than being trapped in air sacs and returned through the lungs to the mouth or nasal cavity (as in birds), the air passes along the whole length of the body and is exhaled from vents on the creature’s thighs. Females of the species are lighter in appearance than the males, grow a short, fluffy mane along the spinal column, and have long upper canines that protrude outside the mouth when it is closed. Barring rare mutations, Lilkirgynyyn are always bicolored, with one color on the main body and a secondary color on the “points.” White with black points (the “mountain phase”) is by far the dominant coloration. Red with pale yellow points, rust or tan with white points (desert phase), and brown or charcoal gray with black points (forest phase) are other common color combinations. A few more exist, but are quite rare – perhaps throwbacks or remnants from Lilkirgyn populations that were nearly driven extinct by past wars. Lilkirgynyyn are long-lived creatures, with an average life expectancy of 120 Senticronian years. Heavily furred, they do not wear clothing, aside from ornamental accessories and protective armor.

The Lilkirgynyyn are obligate carnivores. They do not appreciate this, and associate it with a curse bestowed on them for some great wrong performed by their race in the distant past. Due to the shame associated with the curse, they have a taboo against eating in public. All food is obtained by hunting; the Lilkirgynyyn consider the killing of a tame or helpless animal dishonorable, and thus do not keep livestock. However, they alarm and disgust the other races by eating the bodies of their own dead, and keeping the bones and hides for use as tools. (They do not murder each other for food, as is sometimes falsely claimed in rumors, but the body of anyone who dies of natural causes or in battle is fair game.) The Lilkirgynyyn, for their part, have trouble understanding why the other races “waste” the empty shells of their comrades by burying or burning them.

Like many canids, the Lilkirgynyyn form packs, and these constitute their basic social unit. Packs typically have three to ten members, all of whom are fiercely loyal to each other. Sometimes the descendents of a Lilkirgyn pair remain with their parents into adulthood, forming a multi-generational pack. Others leave their parents’ pack at maturity, and collect with unrelated individuals whose goals and ideals they share. The Lilkirgynyyn recognize a distinction between these two types of groups, calling the former “body packs” and the latter “mind packs.” Both types are more or less equally respected in Lilkirgynyyn culture, and each has a loosely assigned role to play in society. The body packs are seen as a conservative force, whose goal is to preserve tradition and pass down old knowledge, while the mind packs are the champions of novel ideas, and the bringers of renewal and progress. Lilkirgynyyn have one given name, and use the name of their pack as a surname, connecting them with the pronoun tyryn. Most of the significant social bonds a Lilkirgyn forms will be made with pack members; they are known for being cool and formal with anyone not belonging to their exclusive group.

Once firmly entrenched in a pack, a young Lilkirgyn will usually remain with that pack for life, unless he marries a member of a different pack. When this happens, either one of the pair will join the other’s pack, or the two will split off on their own, hoping to become the founding members of a new body pack. The departure of an established member is always trying for a pack, and many of the murders in Lilkirgyn society are motivated by the pack’s jealousy against a lover who is preparing to “steal” one of their companions. It might even be accurate to say that, for the Lilkirgynyyn, pack bonds are generally stronger than pair bonds. Fortunately, young Lilkirgynyyn develop romantic attachments early, and lovers usually end up joining the same pack to begin with. Hence stressful pack splits are relatively uncommon. Although the Lilkirgynyyn take marriage very seriously once it has been entered into, they are less likely to marry in the first place than are most of the other races. About a third of the population remain single (and, usually, celibate) for their entire lives. This behavior partially accounts for the race’s slow rate of population growth. Single Lilkirgynyyn participate in the raising of other pack members' children.

There are very few Lilkirgyn loners. Most of the ones that exist were never truly part of a pack to start with. Other Lilkirgynyyn think of them as aberrant or eccentric, and the more prejudiced among them actively shun loners. For a normal Lilkirgyn that has become established in a pack, isolation or ostracism is devastating. Packs only expel members for the most terrible crimes, and in such cases, killing the offender is usually judged more merciful than sending him away. Individuals who are lost or otherwise separated from their packs may waste away and die, even if they are taken in by another pack. The sole survivor of a slaughtered pack seldom retains the celebrated rationality of his species. He may collapse and let himself be killed or captured, or he may fly into a terrible berserker rage and fight to the death. These social traits have made it impractical for Lilkirgynyyn to be taken as slaves, as the other races have discovered with disappointment over the years. Separated pack members promptly fall ill or go insane, becoming useless for any sort of work, and a pack left united is nearly impossible to break to obedience.

Packs cluster together to form clans, the next level of social organization. The clans form the basis of Lilkirgynyyn government, but the level of formality varies greatly from one clan to the next. Some of the larger clans possess laws or codes of conduct, courts of justice, taxes, elections, administrators, and the like. Smaller clans often function more like extended families or local communities, in which disputes are resolved and needs provided for through informal discussion and action. The most common system for choosing clan leaders is to subject candidates to a contest of skill, and anoint the winner leader. Unlike the individual’s membership in a pack, a pack’s membership in a clan may be quite fluid. Some packs have changed clans several times in a generation, as the interests and loyalties of their members evolved.

The highest level of Lilkirgyn social organization is the nation, but the word has a very different meaning for them than it has for, say, the Krippin. A nation of Lilkirgynyyn is a loose grouping of clans, usually based on geography. It has no centralized government, seldom imposes any universal laws, and most likely does not even have a formal charter. Rather, it exists in the form of understandings and promises of mutual aid between many clans. Although a Lilkirgyn might take pride in his clan, he would think it strange to feel any great sense of loyalty to his nation – it is too vague an entity to excite feelings of patriotism. Nations only exist to bring large numbers of Lilkirgynyyn together in times of emergency or monumental enterprise. They rarely go to war against each other, as conflicts are judged to be the private business of the clans directly involved, even if they belong to two different nations. However, an entire nation is likely to mobilize if it faces an attack by members of some other race.