Reflections on 2024
For me, 2024’s biggest and best events came towards the end of the year! The two most significant ones were getting married to Athena in November (followed by our weeklong honeymoon in Rome) and getting hired by Hydrolix in December (followed by a celebratory visit to my family in the Bay Area for Christmas). The other 10 months certainly had highlights though! Here’s a breakdown of some of those highlights by month:
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January: Athena went to DC with her mom, and my siblings visited Portland
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February: Athena and I got our wedding rings, and we saw our first movie at OMSI’s Empirical Theater (The Boy and the Heron)
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March: We visited Athena’s mom and dog in Nevada
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April: We bought passes for the OMSI Sci-Fi Film Festival and saw 10 films
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May: We sent out our wedding invitations, and we went to the Rose Garden
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June: We went to the coast with a friend, and another friend visited Portland
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July: We visited Athena’s family in Central Oregon for the 4th, and we sat outside the Project Pabst music festival along the waterfront
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August: We got our wedding outfits tailored
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September: We visited Athena’s family in Central Oregon for Labor Day and her mom’s birthday
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October: We visited my family in the Bay Area for wedding prep and went to a corn maze
I also read Ted Chiang’s two short story collections, Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation: Stories, as well as Anil Seth’s Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.
It was an exciting year, and I feel that I’ve grown a lot!
Plans for 2025
Going into 2025, I feel confident and optimistic on a personal level. My plans include the following:
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I’m going to read at least 12 books this year
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I’m going to track my reading on StoryGraph
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I’m going to design a board game
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I’m going to track my board gaming on BoardGameGeek
I recently encountered the idea of "hobby seasons," which I understand to mean that one doesn’t need to (and usually can’t) focus on all of one’s hobbies at once, so it’s best to think of hobbies as things that you cycle through a few at a time. I’m prioritizing reading, board games, and my home server for this "season."