>"I am a book of snow, a spacious hand, an open meadow, a circle that waits, I belong to the earth and its winter.” - Pablo Neruda ‘I’m getting wistful for folklore, for the old stories, for languages whispered around the fire, for dreaming. … Learning about machine learning and the artificial neuron is fascinating. But can it hold a flame to learning about the consciousness of the universe? I do not want to choose. I do not want to be fit into a mechanical box and whirr like a cog day in and day out for money. And yet, without it I cannot afford to live and then I cannot afford to dream. …‘ I’ve rewritten this month’s compost three times and every day it just didn’t feel right. I am and was stuck in indecision brought on by change. Who will I be at the end of this year? Is it someone I want to know or someone who is disappointing? I asked myself this question over and over again while making slight changes to what I am studying and how I think I might be able to use future skills for good. If I’m not in alignment with myself I fall rather quickly into and existential funk. But I’m back on track now and I think this year just might have some suprises in store. I don’t know what they are yet obviously, but this year feels different and I’m going to take that as a good sign. ## Language Studies **Latin** I may be slightly addicted to ‘Legentibus’ app and reading short stories every day. **Attic Greek** Only one person showed up to the first study group session. I fear everyone has bailed on me. But it was a fun session nevertheless. **Hieroglyphs** My eyes have glazed over from transliterating the names of pharaohs. … **French** The holidays and the cold I had this month have pretty much blown French out of the water. I’m doing lessons again by tacking them on to my daily Legentibus reading habit. ## Links - [How I'm learning languages faster than ever](https://azren.substack.com/p/how-im-learning-languages-faster?utm_source=%2Finbox%2Fsaved&utm_medium=reader2) - [Doing Things Differently in 2026 (Mindset Shift)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8FF3kTDlx4) - [You're wasting time while studying](www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31RfZrFnFo) - [Study techniques that helped me SURVIVE my computer science degree](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qww9RjVBHM&t=222s) - [Academia Is Breaking: AI Papers, Mass Retractions, and Funding Cuts (News Updates)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGCpS9-Z6Ro) - [We need to talk about Nolan's Odyssey trailer..](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhrW9d6DB8) ## Reads - 'Lucie Duff Gordon: A Passage To Egypt' Katherine Frank (Finished) - ‘The Science of Middle Earth’ - ‘Why Machines Learn’ Anil Ananthaswamy - ‘On Fairy Stories’ J.R.R. Tolkien (Finished)