The year 2024 is over and we begin a new year.

Family

My daughters continue to grow up. Raising teenagers can be challenging but technically I only have two now as Madelyn turned 20. I believe I’ll only have my children living with me full time for the next 4 years. Thats made me a little more introspective about what comes next when the nest is empty. I’ve also tried to focus on enjoying the time I have with my daughters more as its now getting shorter.

My Father in law had a lung transplant in May. This was a huge event for the family as it probably extended his life significantly.

Work

I left Shopify in May and took a month off before starting a new job at Equinix in June. I’ve not found my work at Equinix very fulfilling but its given me gainful employment and bit of a break after the last two years at Shopify. Switching jobs has helped me recharge a bit and work doesn’t feel like the same level of toil that it did my last couple of years at Shopify. I do miss Shopify, it was a challenging work environment with a lot going on, but I was no longer thriving there. I’ll be surprised if I’m still working at Equinix when 2026 starts, but I’m not sure I’ll easily find something better. Only time will tell.

Health

I’m 43 and struggled to lose weight this year finishing the year around 184 lbs. This is actually an improvement over a couple of months ago when I weighed nearly 190 lbs. Overall my health is good. I’m hopeful I can progress to losing a little weight between now and summer and get back into weightlifting a bit. My back continues to be a issue. I think the cause is so much desk sitting at work, I’m attempting a self designed set of exercises to counter all this sitting. I’m hopeful it will help out.

After the presidential election of Trump I stopped paying attention to the news. This has been a good choice as I feel like its cleared up some of my mind space for other things. I’ve noticed I’ve started reading more and generally have more energy for other things. I didn’t realize how much the stress of the election was impacting my mental health. Tuning it out has been a positive adjustment for me.

Hobbies

This year I read ten books. Nexus was the most entertaining. 2054 was probably the worst. Quit and Adrift 76 Days Lost at Sea were both very good and I may read them again.

I wrote five blog posts in 2024 of reasonable quality which I think is a good year for me.

I continued to be active in the Sailing club. I did end up teaching three classes again this summer which was a bit more then I wanted. I was better about backing off my participation later in the summer and getting a little more balanced in how much I was doing. I failed to get US Sailing Instructor certified this summer (see Getting Humbled). I’m ok with this though as it taught me more about teaching sailing and a little more about what sailing is like outside of the muddy river I sail in. I did get basic sailing certified in the Keelboat which was a good experience for me.

Tech

Leaving Shopify refreshed my interest in tech a little. At work I spent a lot of time learning and working with PostgreSQL which as been nice because it gives me some perspective on another database. Related to this I read two tech books Mastering PostgreSQL 15 and High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails. I’ve spent some time writing python and Ansible at work which has been fun. The idea of doing some playing in my homelab actually sounds kind of fun/entertaining when last year it seemed like a chore. All in all that feels good.

Goals and looking forward to 2025

From 2018 to this year I’ve keep a quarterly personal journal. This year I failed to do so and recorded pretty much nothing. I think the issue is that the quarterly journal became a bit of a todo list where I was overly focused on my “productivity” and as such it became a chore. I’m not sure I want to restart this journal but by not doing anything I think I’m missing out.

In 2025 I’d love to find a new job. Something I feel more engaged with then what’s happening at Equinix. I’m hopeful I can capture another opportunity like what I had at Shopify in 2018. This will be hard as that was a pretty unicorn job, but there’s no harm in looking and trying to find it.

The goals for sailing this year is I’m going to buy a new boat and keep sailing school operating for anther season. I would love to find another sailor willing to get as invested I have been in the sailing school. I don’t think what I’m doing is sustainable for the long term and the cracks in my interest are starting to show. It would be fun to travel to another clubs regatta but I’m not sure I have time for that.

I think 2025 will be a less stressful then 2024. I think between changing jobs, my father in law’s health and the election I was carrying a lot more stress then I realized. This had some negative impacts on my physical health. I was eating more and gaining weight. My mental health I was struggling to focus. I’m hopeful to change jobs in 2025 but I think this will be less stressful then it was in 2025 and my father in laws health seems to be good in the near term.

At the end of 2023 I wanted to better understand what I wanted to do with my life. I’ve concluded that I’m not much closer to that then I was last year. I know I want a fulfilling job, engaging hobbies and stronger relationships with friends and family. Working on all three of things at the same time is hard, but its not impossible. In 2025 I’ll continue to strive towards those things.