My 2024 in Review

It’s been a tumultuous year. It took a multitude of drafts to complete this short piece. I felt demoralized when authoring this post. Then I reviewed my 2023 in review post and it put my frustration in perspective: Life is pain and joy. It’s an undulation of anguish one day, blissful peace the next. Keep pushing through and learning. That’s all I should expect for myself. The rest is gravy.

§Things I achieved this year

1. I sold my car and lived car free in Milwaukee. Bikes and busses!
2. Became an avid cyclist cruising around Milwaukee. I also went on multi-day a bike tour along Eastern Wisconsin. Stay tuned for bike content.
3. Developed my exercise into an at-home calisthenics program (using the body for weight). I was exerting reps of 60 sit ups, 15 pull ups. While I cannot achieve these metrics today, soon I’ll restore to my peak performance then exceed it. Life had gotten in the way, and I need this for myself.
4. Began going to therapy and working on my mental well being, big time. Wrote 70,000 words in journal.
5. Tutored dozens of students. Computer literacy, Programmable Logic Controllers, Haskell, Python, Java, Perl, Computer Science things. I’ve learned a lot about teaching and my students seem to enjoy working with me.
6. Migrated most of my computers off NixOS and towards Debian Stable/Testing. Life is too short to dink around with self-inflicted NixOS snafus and community invalidating all but the savants’ opinion on UX/DX. Will NixOS look the same in five years, hard to say. I do know Debian will, though!
7. Bought a van to try vanliving in. Sold or donated 90% of my possessions. The less ownership, the better I felt. Turns out freedom (to me) means possessing what I need and enjoy, not what others say that I need to own.
8. Moved out of Milwaukee and visiting with family and missed connections over the winter. Facing one’s demons is the ultimate therapy. Van travel begins sometime in early 2025.
9. Joined two book clubs and read a LOT of books for the clubs and for myself.

§Goals for 2025

1. Continue with my fitness goals. Pain free is the name of the game. And a stronger core.
2. Supplant my irrational desire for a tech job (solely for income) with a healthier way to earn money. 9-to-5 tech work isn’t for me. Search for serenity in the work. Eyes on the flow states. Because tech doesn’t have flow anymore… it’s mostly meetings and jumping up and down whenever boss asks you to.
3. Continue with the navel gazing. Build up the creative muscle throughout. Express myself in more fun ways like art and writing.
4. Continue reading lots. Continue writing lots. Monetize the writing. Poetry is really cool too; I’ll wordsmith them verses.
5. Try vanliving and if it doesn’t work out, consider moving country where car ownership isn’t romanticized despite traffic violence manifesting as a fairly understood, tractable problem, yet we won’t solve it here in this country.

§Thanks

Thanks to all my friends. Thanks to all that listened to me hem and haw about stuff. Thanks to all that were willing enough to take a chance and be vulnerable with me. Thanks to my parents for letting me stay around for a little while as I move on to vanliving. Thanks to my parents dog for being such a sweetie.

Don’t put up with bullshit. Most Americans live for about 2.44 gigaseconds. Make each second count.