2024 – Year in Review

Housekeeping / Website Notes

Pages with bookmarks and software have been updated over the year and the plan is to keep them up to date. The pursuit for a solution to continue to curate youtube videos exists but for the time being a telegram channel exists for this purpose. The idea of having the website migrated to markdown to better integrate with Obsidian is consciously under consideration but given the 4th bullet point under projects below, WordPress will be used likely until that point.

Edit 01/07/2025: Added links to things I found interesting / read over the past ~12 months at the bottom. Some good stuff is present there,

2025 vision

I am brought back to the 2020 MAXX Many of the same ideas hold true and have evolved over time. I seek to bring more into the world than I consume. This creation and connection to the spirit of expression remains one of the largest focuses for the coming year.

Memories

These came to mind but may be added to in the near or distant future:

Sofi Stadium Kanye West Listening party 03/14
Visiting North Carolina 03/15-03/17
Kindergarten Graduation – Class of 2036 let’s go 05/31
Lake Havasu visit with trampoline park and jetskis 06/14-06/16
Blink182 07/03
Aquarium birthday 07/28
Trip to San Diego with Wife 08/20
Halloween, kids dressed up as characters from “The Wizard of Oz” 10/31
Sending a birthday gift box to a friend 11/20
Basketball Begins 12/2
Christmas 2024

Projects

NAS
- Plex
  - Self hosted media solution to avoid having subscriptions to multiple streaming providers
- Image hosting
  - Ideal for the continued cataloging of photos / videos and as an alternative for Google Photos / iCloud.
Obsidian
- This has been a game changer for managing my own thoughts, ideas and daily writing entries
Passive Income
- Distraction from my distractions! I likely will have a longer post about this at some point.
Baby4
- As of writing we are around ~10 weeks, from what I have read “If a person knows about the pregnancy, the chance of loss is about 15%.”. I have written up the timeline of this project but God Willing, it will be posted in late July to early august 2025. This has been the biggest project of 2024.
War on attention span via long form communication
- I have a couple of longer form posts that are sitting here that I would like to complete and make accompanying videos if I find that to help expedite the ideas shared in the articles. I have had long form communication running with a couple of my friends over a lot of different methods over the year and it has been a joy to expand on ideas and topics in less of a short form manner.

Purchases

NAS
- Full writeup here
Thinkpad X1 Carbon
- Bought this with the idea of using it for my side projects / side consulting. Purchased off of ebay and have been nothing but impressed with the machine.
iPhone 16 Pro
- Part of the plan to migrate off of the “lightning cable” but this didn’t go as planned due to the fact that we are keeping the old phone and have an iPad that uses the same cable. A bit short sided but maybe I can just get adapters.
- Additionally the iPhone being retired is an iPhone 12 pro which is still very usable. I plan on switching all of my professional stuff to it and then move my Pixel 7A back to Graphene.
3d Printer
- This has been loads of fun, I hope to develop additional skills in 3d modeling in the coming year to bring additional ideas to life that have yet to be created. I have mostly just used other peoples models at the time of writing.
Migration to Helium Mobile
- This was off of “Ting” due to the iPhone 16 pro purchase which only uses esim. I tried to activate via Ting which said they have zero esim support. This made migration to another carrier the only possibility. Helium is pretty impressive and boasts a large network with $20/month unlimited service.
Living Room mini pc
- This was mostly just for emulation with the kids. We have a Nintendo Switch but I wanted to emulate some of my childhood consoles with my kids in the living room.

Reflections

Reading the 2023 post, I believe I delivered on some of the promises and fell short on others. Can’t hit them all out of the park!

I’ve written a lot this year, more than I have any other year. At this moment my daily entries have ~16,243 words. Larger ideas are still developing and will eventually be published. It turns out thoughts and projects don’t stick inside of an arbitrary 365 day calendar year, who would have thought! This makes it a bit more difficult to figure out what I want to write here as it has been a year of all time. Ideally, I would have some tool that would refine anything that was written that I could expand on for publishing inside of my writings as mentioned above. I have been using AI based tools for this and I believe this can help as an objective editor and curator of patterns that may be missed. A larger post about this is in the works and is tentatively titled “AI Framework of use”.

Here is the summary that was written for me given this analysis:

Personal Growth and Self-Reflection

● This year has been a journey of intense self-reflection and introspection. Journaling has become a valuable tool for processing emotions, grappling with internal conflicts, and gaining a deeper understanding of oneself.

● There’s been a lot of exploration into personal philosophy, particularly the concept of self-determinism. The goal is to live a life driven by principles and take responsibility for shaping one’s own reality. Another key takeaway here is regarding the Hegelian dialectic method of reasoning.

Challenges and Frustrations

● Faced challenges and frustrations throughout the year, both personal and professional.

● Fueled a desire for greater autonomy and purpose in labor.

Striving for Balance

● The pursuit of balance has been a recurring theme. Recognizing the tendency towards distractions and the allure of “easy payouts” has led to seeking more focus and discipline in pursuing goals.

● Life feels like a constant juggling act, spinning multiple plates representing different areas of responsibility and aspiration. Finding ways to keep those plates spinning without dropping any is an ongoing challenge and a key to a fulfilling life.

Creativity and Expression

● This year has also seen a rekindling of creative passions, particularly writing and video editing. The desire to create and express oneself has become a source of joy and a way to connect more authentically with the world.

● Exploring different tools and platforms like Obsidian has opened up new avenues for organization and creative output. The process of refining workflows and systems has been both rewarding and a source of ongoing learning.

Relationships and Connection

● Reflections on relationships, both with family and in the wider online world, have highlighted the importance of genuine connection and the dangers of vulnerability being exploited.

● There is a longing for authentic communication and deeper relationships with people who share similar values and aspirations.

Looking Ahead

● The end of the year brings a sense of both accomplishment and anticipation. There is gratitude for the lessons learned and the growth experienced.

● There is a continued commitment to personal growth, a deeper exploration of creative pursuits, and a desire to build more meaningful connections in a world that often feels disconnected.

Overall, I would agree with this synopsis.

Impactful Reading

Creators and Creations

Miscellaneous Reading

I exported all of the pinned things I read on ycombinator’s hacker news via hacki, Some good stuff in here, at the top is miscellaneous things I read not necessarily on HN.