It’s Christmas time! So that means I delay writing this until near New Year’s Eve. On Christmas Eve we watched Love Actually for the first time and I agree with everything Jezebel said on the film. Absolute dogshit. We had friends over for Christmas Day with a short visit to our local pub for a few hours. On Boxing Day we had our now traditional party for all the Christmas orphans who stay in London like us.
Onto the highlights.
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We got married! It was amazing! It was also the first time our families had ever met, and thankfully they all got on well. We had a huge party with all our friends. Instead of doing a first dance, I secretly taught Lila how to DJ and we surprised everyone with a B2B set.
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With our families coming for the Wedding, we rushed to finish the house and garden renovations just in time. Those are mostly finished, as much as it’s ever mostly finished. Owning a house can be an absolute nightmare.
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2 weeks before her Hen, Lila came off her bike and broke her kneecap in half. The timing was awful, but she was out of the leg brace and off the crutch by the big day. It’s going to be a long recovery, so we recently started back to the gym to aid that along.
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I’m still running, although that’s dropped off a bit in December when I swapped to the gym. Being back at the gym is nice but I’m dreading how mad it’ll be in January.
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Right at the start of the year I got a new job at Sona. Everyone’s very nice, I’m writing Elixir, we work a 4.5 day week, and we get to expense any books. It’s a great job.
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I didn’t travel too much, other than Florida for Kennedy Space Centre, the Cruise, and 5 days in Miami. We’re saving the honeymoon for 2025.
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Other than the Wedding set, my music output took a bit of a backseat to many other things this year. I’ve made a conscious decision to switch from Traktor to Pioneer just to make gigging easier, but Rekordbox is so much worse. Maybe once I get used to it I’ll think differently. I did play my first gig on XDJs at a local brewery, which was lots of fun and a good first step to take. Over the Christmas period I also started learning Sonic Pi, but my soundscapes must’ve been too weird because I blew my speakers.
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I aimed to read 12 books this year, only managing 8: Dune Messiah, Foundation, Children of Time, Children of Ruin, Pathogenesis, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died, Ubik, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. My books per year YoY average has doubled from last year, so next year I should hit 16.
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Game(s) of the year (that I played in 2024): Cyberpunk 2077 was amazing. Balatro was a horrible and amazing addiction. Starfield is a disappointment that I can’t help but keep playing. Animal Well was a beautiful mystery. Elden Ring finally clicked with me, but I’ve dropped off right near the end. Maybe I’ll finally finish it in 2025. Right at the end of the year Indiana Jones and The Great Circle snuck in as a great high budget walking sim.
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For film, Kneecap was my standout. Dune: Part 2 was great. I’ve managed to log everything on Letterboxd as far as I can remember. TV wise, Dune: Prophecy was slightly good, but not great. Like everyone, I loved plenty of zeitgeisty things like Fallout and Shogun, but my surprise hit was From - a Lost like show about a town nobody can escape from. I can’t wait for season 3 to hit the UK.
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My musical highlights were plentiful, and like their film, Kneecap’s album was definitely top. Hudson Mohawke, Special Request, WaqWaq Kingdom, and 4am Kru were my faves from Bangface Weekender. Ladyscraper at The Black Heart in March was incredible breakcore and a flashback to when breakcore was more frequently played. Recently I’ve also attended more gigs, and Lankum was my favourite of those. I’ve never really been into Irish trad music, and listening to Kneecap’s album has pushed me to give it a shot.
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I posted a lot more this year than any other. 1 post a month, if I count this one. Having your own slice of the web is great. My most popular post was on my time working as a one person Engineering team, with my list of pubs coming second. My personal favourite was writing about Cyberpunk 2077
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Speaking of, as Twitter continues its’ death spiral it made more sense to move to Mastodon, but now nearly everyone seems to have settled into BlueSky. That’s good. I’m not sure it’s a meaningful difference from how Twitter was set up, but at this point who cares. I just want to hang out with nice people online.
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Three more tattoos this year, including my first flash, which was my first at a convention. It’s as addictive as everyone says. It might be a few months before I get my next.
There’s probably a lot that I’m forgetting, but I’m too full of cured meat and cheese to remember most of it.
Until next year.