Happy New Year! This was a big year.
M and I moved back to Richmond after six years in Philly. Philly was amazing, but RVA is perfect. It’s so great to be back.
I got a new job where I legitimately get to make a meaningful impact: both within the organization, and to the world. (Also, we’re hiring! Reach out if you want to hear more.)
I tried a lot of things, and some of them were undeniably failures. But even those failures have really helped me out. Here’s hoping I get to fail more in 2025.
This month,
- We got a new 3D printer, which is really nice.
- M won us a new chair for the living room at auction, which I am sitting in at time of writing. It was $14! (Not counting the cost of the van rental to go pick it up.)
- Through Spotify, Nine Inch Nails invited me to purchase a t-shirt that indicates that I listen to too much Nine Inch Nails, which I did in fact purchase.
- We spent some much-needed holiday time with my in-laws.
- We threw a masquerade party, which was a lovely time.
- I played a bit of Cyberpunk 2077, which I’m really enjoying.
code
This month, I released catscroll.com. It’s essentially an app view for Bluesky; you can connect to the firehose and see posts in some categories in real time. Beware, though — sometimes posts get through before the Bluesky moderation service can get to them!
I also filed a PR with this cool website that shows Formula 1 teams and drivers over time to update it for 2025.
I did do some Advent of Code, but gave up relatively early.
music
Here’s my final playlist of fresh music finds for 2024:
I’ve also compiled a playlist of 2024 hits that deserve more listens over here. I hope you check it out!
films
This month, I watched 8 films:
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — (rewatch) (no rating)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — (rewatch) (no rating)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 — (rewatch) (no rating)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 — (rewatch) (no rating)
- Krampus — ★½☆☆☆
- Wayne’s World — (rewatch) (no rating)
- Red One — ★★★★☆
- Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know — (no rating)
Have I mentioned that I love Letterboxd? You can follow me there.
For the year, that puts me at:
- 64 films watched
- 130.5 hours of film
books
This month, I finished 5 books:
- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Viktor Janiš — ★★★★★
- The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage by Ryan Holiday — ★★★★½
- The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow — ★★★☆☆
- State Tectonics by Malka Ann Older — ★★★★★
- Dark Wire by Joseph Cox — no rating
For the year, that puts me at 36 books read. Next year, I’ll get some more sick stats from Hardcover, but I joined midway through the year, so e.g. my page count isn’t accurate.
food
I’m on a quest to go to every restaurant in Richmond that has vegan food.. This month, I visited two restaurants for the first time: Pizza Bones, and The Hill Café. They both earned a 👍🏻.
failbetter
This month, failbetter published:
- “Visitation” by Kaushik Shridharani
- “The Cure” by Scott Nadelson
stats
This month:
- I typed 742,000 keys and clicked 113,124 times.
- I listened to 1,817 songs.
For the year, that’s:
- 8,288,805 key presses and 1,222,933 clicks.
- 18,684 songs played, putting this year in fifth place compared to every other year.
- 1,952 plays of Nine Inch Nails, and 544 of Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross.
