2015 In Review

Less Wrong Sydney / CFAR

Rationality Dojos

Ran or organised 11 (one every month bar January) rationality dojos for the Less Wrong Sydney group.

Mega Meetup

Went along to the second Less Wrong Australia mega-meetup in Jindabyne. Thanks to Tim for the lift there, and Gavin for the lift back!

New Dojo format

Ran a successful experiment on breaking the dojo format up into smaller sessions led by different people. I highly recommend this format to anyone else running similar events. Engagement is higher, and a lot more material gets covered.

March

Second visit to Taste of Sydney.

April

Visited Camp Cove with my family.

Firsts

Live Jazz

Went with some friends to see Mingus Amongst Us play.

I've wanted to see live jazz ever since I watched Treme.

Travelled overseas

A long time coming, I finally made it out of Australia.

Snorkelling

Went snorkelling at the rock pool at Coogee Beach.

Blood Plasma donation

I've given blood before, but never plasma or platelets. Due to a booking mixup, regular blood was off the table. It's an interesting experience watching a mission remove your blood, separate it, and then pump what's left back into you.

Werewolf

Read about it many times, but finally played it when my cousins brought it with them for Boxing Day lunch.

Credit card fraud

Had my card details stolen and used to steal several thousand dollars at remote ATMs. Not very fun, but all in all, it could have been a lot worse.

May

Awoke one morning to an unexpected visitor.

Accomplishments

Linear Algebra

Finished the Khan academy course on Linear Algebra. I'd need some significant practice before I could actually use it, but it's good to have another learnt model in the mental toolkit.

Websites

Relaunched Illuminosity, and created this website!

Watched a movie in Spanish

Not a very good one (Casa de Mi Padre), but this one is more about the accomplishment than the experience.

Probability

Made it through the Khan academy lessons on probability & statistics.

June

Vivid Sydney 2015

Sydney Opera House tour

Chinese Garden of Friendship

Australian spices chocolate tasting
run by Laneway Learning

July

Attended the Less Wrong Australia Mega Meetup at Jindabyne

Miscellaneous

Foxtrot

I've been doing foxtrot lessons since about March 2014, but it wasn't until the end of 2015 that the foxtrot finally started to click for me. There's still a long way to go, but it's very gratifying to get it, at last.

Lactose Intolerance

If nothing else had been accomplished in 2015, this alone would make the year worth it. Realising some long-standing problems I'd been having were due to lactose intolerance, and better yet, could be fixed by taking some inexpensive tablets before eating has been a huge improvement in my quality of life.