The year has not started well. On the 8th I went into the hospital with heart trouble, which was connected to kidney trouble, which was connected to bladder trouble, which was connected to prostate trouble. I came out on the 16th with a Foley catheter installed. In the meantime, my bank was “fixing” my accounts, which caused more problems than it solved. I got my car paid off, which is about the best I can report, but I’ve taken a big financial hit, with more expenses yet to come.

The new program on the KB seems to be working well. In the current pass, I am starting to get more content in the new version, and not just outline. Egypt during antiquity is showing progress, and I should be able to continue this. I haven’t done much with cartography lately, but I haven’t forgotten it entirely. The hospital stay interrupted my work on cleaning and filing, which most likely needs to precede resuming work on my personal and family history. I’m still progressing, but rather slowly.

I’ve been hacked. Someone got access to my bank account, and the bank has locked access to it. There is a team of bankers investigating the problem, but they are closed for the weekend, so I can’t do anything until Monday.

For the past month or so, I have been working on a new development scheme for the knowledge base, one that’s a bit more focused on the actual needs and current state of development.

For history in general, I am concentrating more on states of the United States. Most of this will be better investigated in modern history, and I would like to pick up with a few major cities. I am reviewing other nations to check which of them actually have links to history. I am also checking my links to religions and particular governments. I have rethought my organization of colonial empires, and I am catching up on the links to history, Prehistory, antiquity, and classical and medieval history are going through a similar review. For modern history, I am doing a similar view, with a focus on states and cities of the US. For the 21st century, I am also mostly reviewing nations. This new needs-based approach is giving me easier access to current events and the new year is getting its own section.

For sociology in general, the history is a bit thin, which is prompting investigation of peoples of the world. At this level, I need to review the connections to religion and government.

Institutions in general are also a bit thin on historical connections. I am working on reviewing the connections to peoples. Culture, anthropology, personal studies, and science are also being reviewed.

But the knowledge base isn’t the only thing progressing. In my cartography project, I have decided to work mostly on my map of North America. I now have the topography with the major mountain terrain filled in to match the contours of the topography. The next step is to add symbols for major mountain peaks. I have major lakes and rivers already, but I might want to add a few more. I also want to overlay some vegetation types with forests, plains, and deserts on top of the topography, I need to fill in some place names, national borders (lightly), roads, and cities, without making the map too cluttered. For the next section of world geography, I think I want South America.

Another major effort is going to be in family and personal history. I am coordinating this with a cleanup of my living space. I am working on a personal history using Personal Historian 3 from RootsMagic, and also on a life history of my father. I also want to do one for my mother.

In connection with my writing, I am thinking of starting a newsletter (planting apple trees, a long-term projects, as one writer put it, and I need to revise my main blog page.)