Happy holidays to everyone! Instead of sending personalized hand-crafted gifts, I'm emailing a link to a web page. Lame.

General

No big changes in my life. I'm still living in the Berkeley ghetto, renting out the back apartment to my friend Seth. Still doing Friday afternoon hikes with old friends (Seth, Ray, Rob), newer ones (Ellie the Greek, Maryse the Frog) and more recently Noah.

Rob, Seth, me, Ray

Still doing the monthly amateur music group, which has become increasingly popular (we now get ~50 attendees). Still rock climbing (indoors) every week or so.

I hang out with the same group of friends, most of whom share my love of Bach and double IPAs. My doppleganger pal Nikolai Ostgaard, from Norway, visited me last week; I hadn't seen him in 4 years. Woot!

I go to LOTS of concerts, at various venues: SF Conservatory, Old First Church, Center for New Music, Mosswood Chapel, etc. I had a stretch of 10 concerts in 11 days recently; that was perhaps a bit much.

My health is good, except that my aorta, where it leaves the heart, is bigger than it should be. It's been that way for 10 years, but in the last MRI it was a bit worse. Apparently it has to do with blood pressure, in particular the spikes during extreme exercise (my regular BP is low). So I'm taking beta blockers, limiting my rock climbing to easier (< 5.11) routes, and (reluctantly) abandoning my goal of doing 20 pull-ups.

Also my hand arthritis is a bit worse. It makes my fingers slightly weak and clumsy - not good for piano playing. But I can still play pretty well. I gave a recital at Lauren Sullivan's house this fall, playing a bunch of solo pieces (many by Federico Mompou) and accompanying Gareth Loy on a song, and a flute player on the Poulenc sonata. It was a magical event. I recently had a piano gig (with Maryse) at a retirement home in Walnut Creek.

Travel and hiking

I'm trying to travel a bit more, while I still can :-(. In July/August I went to Europe for ~3 weeks. First to Italy, where I had never been: a few days in Rome,

then 3 days of rock climbing in the legendary Dolomites,

then Milan, then to France for ~10 days in the Pyrenees, attending a couple of the Ancient Music concerts organized by Maryse. I rented a bike and rode up Hautacam, one of the big mountain climbs in the Tour de France.

I did hiking trips to Sequoia National Park (with Ann), to Mt. Rainier (with Dave and Ron), to Yosemite (with Noah), to Anza Borrego (for the first time, with Maryse), to Palm Springs (to visit Rich Kraft) and to the Sierras in May for snowshoeing.

In October I did my annual Birthday Reference Hike up Mt. Diablo (3600' vertical), this time with Seth, Rob, and my new friend Kevin (Chelsea's hunky BF). Somehow, in spite of advancing age, we did it fast (2'30") and I felt great afterward.

In September I went up to Seattle to hear Dave Gedye recite an epic poem he wrote (with editorial input from me) about a guy who walked from NYC to SF in 100 days. I caught up (after a long COVID gap) with my beloved sister-in-law Laurel and nephew Kenny. Laurel took me to the Djangofest NW, a jazz guitar festival on Whidbey Island.

I continue to do nocturnal bike rides in SF and the East Bay. Seth has been joining me on some of these, which makes them even more fun. They're all on Strava.

Noah

Noah is now a high school senior! He's in the independent study program at Berkeley High School; he meets with teachers for an hour or two each week, and works on his own a lot. After getting iffy grades and hating school for 3 years, he now seems to like it, and is getting straight A's.

We hired a college application coach - a good move. Noah applied to a bunch of places and - to my surprise - is getting into almost all of them: Denver U., Western Washington, Oregon State, Willamette College, Montana State, Cal States: SF, Humboldt and Chico, and so on. We did some campus visits this past summer and will have to do a bunch more next month.

Work

I wrote an obituary for BOINC but somehow it keeps rising from the grave. A startup in Berkeley wants to use it to train large AI models. I'm skeptical, but am working with them. A bunch of energetic young guys are making YouTube videos on how to use BOINC; I'm working with them too. There's going to be a BOINC workshop (the 20-year anniversary!) in Geneva in May.

With SETI@home, nothing has changed since my last holiday newsletter: the paper is 90% done, but my colleagues (Dan and Eric) haven't done a damn thing. Very, very disappointing - 20 years of our lives are spiraling down the drain. Not to mention the carbon emissions.

I continue to develop Numula, a Python system for creating nuanced 'virtual performances', and used it to create renditions of some of my favorite (hard) piano pieces.

I continue to try to create systems that let classical musicians discover music and other musicians. Music Match is in limbo; I haven't figured out how to promote it. My involvement with IMSLP ended abruptly in March; the guy who runs it (Edward Guo) seems more interested in being in control than in doing anything useful. I wrote a very long essay on my ideas in this area. I'm trying to get people (like you!) to read it and react.

Speaking of which, the NY Times published a sort of article about my essay on Universe feature requests. Sadly (and inexcusably) Dennis Overbye got my name wrong in the print edition - I am NOT David Peterson. And the article describes me as a 'SETI enthusiast'. Don't they have fact checkers?

Summary

A good year, except for the SETI@home and IMSLP debacles. I got a lot done and had a good time.

At 68, the effects of aging are starting to accumulate. A slight reduction in physical and mental energy. More frequent senior moments. I increasingly have the feeling that whatever I want to accomplish going forward, I better quit screwing around and get started. But I'm happy with what I've already accomplished.

In any case: as long as I have friends (like you) life is good.

-- D