2024 goals

2024.md

General:

• Save 20% of our income
• Take a family vacation
• Get a nice (professional) family photo taken
• Consolidate my old retirement accounts

Cooking:

• Cook five new things, from at least three from different sources (cookbooks, websites, etc)

Projects:

• Launch at least one project from my brainstorm list
• Make a game other people can play
• Generate at least $1,000 in revenue from side projects

Exercise:

• 60 minutes of cardio per week
• 60 minutes of stretching per week
• One Darebee, Yoga for BJJ or other exercise program every month

Books to read:

• American Spy
• Kettlebell Simple & Sinister
• The Pope and Mussolini
• Star Wars: The Eye of Darkness
• Lift
• Star Wars: Temptation of the Force
• The Last Ronin
• The Discovery of Pasta
• Automate Your Home Using Go
• This Is How You Lose the Time War
• God Emperor of Dune

Books in consideration:

• Moby Dick
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• The Great Gatsby
• To Raise a Boy
• These Truths
• Rich, White and Blue
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• The Round House: A Novel
• Southern Cross the Dog
• The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese
• The Goldfinch: A Novel
• Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel
• The Good Lord Bird: A Novel
• The Underground Railroad: A Novel
• Exit West: A Novel
• Educated: A Memoir
• Sourdough: A Novel
• Pachinko
• The Dutch House: A Novel
• The Island of Sea Women: A Novel
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Horse
• Learning to Optimize Movement
• Heretics of Dune
• Chapterhouse: Dune
• Demon Copperhead
• Remarkably Bright Creatures
• Mother Night
• Let Us Descend
• West with Giraffes
• Travel Light
• The Three-Body Problem

Workouts

January: Hard Reset: Cardio
February: Simple & Sinister, warmups and swing technique, 16 kg kettlebell.
March: Simple & Sinister, warmups and swing technique.
April: 100 swings a day, five days a week
May: 100 swings a day, plus 10 floor presses, five days a week
June: 100 swings a day, plus 10 floor presses, five days a week
July: 100 swings a day, plus 10 floor presses, five days a week
August: 100 swings a day, plus 10 shoulder presses. Still working on Turkish getups.
September: Continuing S&S, moving up to 24 kg.
October: S&S with the 24 kg, working on different parts of the getup.
November: 100 swings with 24 kg, 10 full getups with 9 kg
December: 100 swings with 24 kg, getup in parts. (Hurt my back early in the month and took some time off.)

Books

Jan. 31: Simple & Sinister is the first book I've read on weightlifting of any kind. Bought myself a 16 kg kettlebell and planning on trying it for a bit.

Feb. 21: American Spy was sort of fun, but it took its time getting to the action and then ended without a real resolution.

May 26: The Pope and Mussolini was a lot to get through, but it's an amazing read. Highly recommend.

June 24: Finished the latest Star Wars High Republic book, and all I can say is the jedi of this era are preachy, indecisive and whiny, and the book is a lot of nothing happening. Not sure if it's worth continuing.

July 23: Lift was interesting for historical perspective, less so as an ad for CrossFit.

Aug. 10: I almost held off on Temptation of the Force, but finally, things happened. People fought. Jedi hooked up. The good guys still did dumb things, but at least they did them quickly.

Aug. 24: Would not have expected a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novel to be the best fiction I've read this year, but here we are. The Last Ronin is one of those books where someone takes a story you liked as a kid and grows it way up.

Oct. 24: Finally finished The Discovery of Pasta, which was a fun ride through Italian food history. It's much more complicated than I'd known.

Oct. 27: Sped through Automate Your Home Using Go, without actually doing the projects. I decided early on that this was a book to give me ideas, rather than a guide I'd actually follow. I don't think I need a central REST API for my house with Prometheus and Grafana for observability, and everything wrapped in Docker. Going to come up with smaller ways to accomplish the same goals.

Nov. 18: Tore through This is how you lose the time war. Might be my favorite fiction this year (edging out The Last Ronin). Added Travel Light to my list because the characters in this book read it.

Nov. 30: Finished Travel Light and going to look for more of Naomi Mitchison's books. Lovely little fairy tale.

Dec. 29: I finished God Emperor of Dune, and I'm surprised how much I enjoyed it. Everything I'd heard about it made it sound like a weird slog, but it moved well and got where it needed to. It made me more excited to push through the rest of the series.

Side projects

I've gotten a pretty good handle on self-hosted maps, which I've been thinking about since last year. Presenting that at NICAR in a couple weeks. Counting that as a side project even thought I've made it a work thing (which might make it the best kind of side project).

Presented this at NICAR 2024 and people seemed to like it. Feeling pretty good about this stack now.

Built a "Harry Potter wand" with the 9-year-old and my dad. And it sort of worked. Done enough to move onto the next project.

Finally set up a PiHole and wish I'd done it sooner. Makes the whole internet better in the house.

Cooking

May 8: Pad See Ew, from The Wok. Had to use narrower noodles, like you'd use with pad Thai, but flavors were good. Will make again.

May 27: First attempt at pastrami, using corned beef from Tony's on sale after St. Patrick's Day. Followed the Smoked BBQ Source recipe. Good but too much fat; probably should've trimmed more. Might try again with a cheaper corned beef.

June 22: Smoked chicken drumsticks in the rain and make Alabama white sauce.

Sept. 1: Attempted Memphis-style ribs. I think I overcooked them, and this method is less forgiving than saucier, wrapped versions. Worth trying again, but I'd like to try someone else's, too.

Oct. 13: Did Lyonnaise potatoes for dinner. Probably could've gotten a better crust on them, but pretty good.

Nov. 11: Cooked Kenji's sweet and sour pork from The Wok. It was good but should've velveted in water first. Also could've punched up the sauce a little more. Will make it again.

Nov. 30: Made Rajma masala and it smells promising (but haven't actually eaten it yet).

Dec. 25: Re-smoked a ham for Christmas and it was great. Roughly followed this method. Had to shovel out the smoker to do it, but it was worth the effort.