Closing the book on 2024, that was quite a year.
Not for this blog though. As usual I started off with a couple of posts and then ignored it for eleven months. About halfway through the year I decided to focus on making posts on Substack, and I made one post then abandoned it too. I mean, I’d made one post there in 2023 as well, so maybe that can be a new tradition: a single Substack post in July each year. If you are curious, I recently posted both of those here.
But it was quite a year in other ways.
Work is still good. I enjoy the work and the compensation is enough. It isn’t perfect, of course, and there are issues with some aspects of the job, but nothing that sours the overall experience. I got a promotion this year to “Staff Engineer” which has meaning in tech circles, but not so much outside, and given the small-ish size of the company and the large number of Staff and Principle Engineers, my job hasn’t changed much – though I’ve had it hinted to me that there might be some things in the works for 2025. I generally go to the office twice a week, which is enough. While I am, in general, not one for casual social interaction, I have always loved crowds.
Dante Hicks: You hate people!
from the movie “Clerks”
Randal Graves: But I love gatherings. Isn’t it ironic?
Being around people, knowing they exist, is a good feeling, and enough of a touchstone that it gives me energy and allows me to focus better than when I spend too many days disconnected.
The other side of work is vacation. I may have mentioned it before but one of the reasons I love my employer is that they genuinely understand that turning off and getting away from work actually helps you be better at your job. To that end, this year was the most cruising we’ve done. The first was a New Year’s cruise that I mentioned it my wrap up post last year. Then we had the every-two-years Nerd Boat group of friends cruise. And lastly we went on one for my fiftieth birthday. We have two cruises booked for 2025, and two more for 2026. So yeah, I guess we are cruisers now.
I slipped in that last paragraph that I turned fifty this year. I don’t feel fifty. I’ve always felt younger than my age, because I tend to enjoy new stuff more than people my age who tend to hold on to the things they already love, and because I’ve generally tended to have friends who are older than me, making me feel like the “young one”. But 2025 is going to be the year I finally start doing all the health and doctor stuff I’ve been ignoring for too long, because, you know, fifty.
Anyway, after a 2023 where I blew my reading goal out of the water, I completely tanked it this year. I only read 11 books. There are reasons for this, one of which is that I have 3 or 4 books still “in progress” because they are work/career books that I’ve been reading in bits when I am motivated. Another reason is TikTok. Too many nights, rather than reading before bed, the wife and I have instead scrolled through an hour of videos. I like it, but also, it can be such a time suck. I need to work on tempering it.
Writing, well, this blog is about it. I need to do more.
Exercising went well until it didn’t. However, at work I won a raffle and there is a Tonal home gym coming soon, so I’ll have an excuse to get back at it.
Everything else… I didn’t practice much guitar. I fell off the Making Art Everyday wagon. I didn’t work on the personal projects. Too many home improvements didn’t happen.
And while things weren’t going gangbusters before, that Tuesday in November was a real gut punch. I was so excited, so motivated, everything was looking up, and then… it wasn’t. People voted to drag this country back to it’s worst eras by pretending they were awesome. We’ve elected a narcissistic, lying criminal to the office of the president. Part of me wants to say it is because people have believed the lies and been duped into supporting him, but even though that is certainly true for some, the fact that both times he won it was against a woman a part of me knows that there are a lot of men in the world who are sexist. They may not think of themselves that way, but all of the reasons they pretend are objective for not voting for her are all rooted in misogyny and sexism. I am disappointed. And I am tired. But I will keep showing up, and I will keep voting, and I will keep fighting.
My wish for 2025: May the worst people get none of what they desire and all of what they deserve. For the rest of us, I hope we can all avoid being collateral damage, and success in our resistances.
Happy New Year.