# 23

I've been listening to Cortex, the podcast, for a while now, but I never really tried their theme system (or CGP Grey's theme system).

This time I followed their advice and brainstormed something with the help of an AI (Grok).

I was thinking of making 2025 the year of Japan as that's what I'm mostly going to focus on. I want to really step up my language learning, I want to travel there, maybe even find a job. But it felt too narrow, and too close to a resolution. Instead of "The Year of Reading" it was more like "The Year of Reading The Wanderinng Inn".

The brainstorm went back and forth, some of Grok's suggestions were way off, some were good. At some point I also remembered I wanted to write more. A journey towards Japan, while keeping some kind of journal. Like a travel log. Like I'm a sea captain.

In the end, I stopped at "The Year of the Odyssey". It's a bit cringe, but the best things always are. It's a private thing, so it's not like I'm going to come up to people and say "hey, I'm doing The Year of the Odyssey" as if I'm imagining myself an epic hero. Though maybe I should imagine myself as an epic hero more often.

It's a journey, an adventure, something to write. It's more fun.

I'm not going to buy Cortex's theme system journal (do they even ship here?), but I'm going to follow their advice and keep a physical notebook for my Odyssey notes. Yeah. Sounds nice. Sounds like I have a direction, a goal, a plan.