First, a quick rewind... without much ado:
This is a very difficult test with a ~40% pass rate, and was the last official hoop I needed to jump through before I am allowed to apply for Danish citizenship, which I will do now as soon as possible.
If I am lucky, I may have an approval by the end of this year. If I am unlucky, maybe by the end of next year, or the next. They do like to take their time, but I have made my application as straightforward as possible.
I never thought I would gain a second citizenship, and even throughout this process (which has been laborious and long) the actual getting of the thing has always felt so abstract, and remote. I have concrete reasons to do this, of course, my son has dual citizenship and I've lived here for nearly a decade now. My wife is Danish, also, obviously.
I have learned the language toto what I'll say is a serviceable degree. In my honest moments I must say that Danish culture has truly influenced me a lot, and that I feel very aligned with it, and that I feel very at home here much of the time. I'm proud to be pursuing this, but the reality of it will, I think, still catch me off guard.
But! I passed the test. It was the last hoop. Now I just apply, and wait. That test was a huge stressor in my life, and before it the language test, which I failed once and passed the second time... I am no natural linguist as it turns out. It was years of Danish classes, module tests, practice and finally the PD3. It took a lot of time and a lot of headspace. Having jumped through these hoops frees up an enormous amount of both of those things in this new year.
On a video call from my childhood bedroom, which was a bit surreal.
This has been a long term career goal. I'll be working on a new project this year and there is still so much to learn. I'm having a really great time, professionally.
Some intense stuff, involving emergency surgeries and scary moments. Recovery, patience, time. Things are better now, and I am thankful for that.
So, like I said, it's been a year.
I have designs to write more, and to be more creative in general, in public. I have time to do it. I have the resources I need to do most of what I'd like to try to do.
People often ask me if I "still play guitar" or music in general, which is a reasonable question, I guess, but to me sounds like "are you still breathing and eating?" What?? Yeah? Wth. I practice or play almost every day, and although I do go through periods where I don't as much, it's a vital part of my life and always will be.
Over the holidays I was cleaning out some old materials from my parents' house, finding recordings and experiments, flyers for shows I played... I've never regretted anything I've made, and all that tells me is that I should make more. So that is what I'm hoping to do. And in public.
In codeland... learning Erlang a bit this spring for work and play, hoping to get into some light homelabbing, reading more, going to the gym regularly again... I've got some hardware projects in mind, and learning more about embedded systems. This job is an endless font of new challenges and things to learn, and I love that.
2026 is a big year for me; I feel like I can finally start having a "normie life" after decades of being a nomad, then a creative class near vagabond, then an expat dad... it's maybe strange to say, I know, but for the first time in my adult life I have real, reliable stablity without any swords of damocleses hovering directly over my personal head.
I may retire this blog. I may start a new one somewhere else. That feels like it might be the right time.
If you've been a reader of this blog at any point, thank you. If you're reading this on RSS, double thank you. And let me know that! I have no idea if that is actually being used much.
Over and out.