This sums up my love for bigger dogs. It does make me sad that Boots doesn't get to do this in his life though. Guess he's pretty happy being lazy and greedy.

2024 was a year of patience.

It was a year of of saving money for our wedding whilst still paying off our mortgage.

It was a year of family days with Boots and Emma; walking on rail trails in Red Hill and exploring the Dandenong Ranges.

It was a year of growth and learning at work. Becoming a more senior member of the organisation. Picking up new skills like React Native.

It was also a year of fun! We had our engagement party. We went camping in the Cathedral Ranges. We went to multiple weddings.

My goals for 2024 (2023, 2022) were as follows:

1. Work on my mental health
2. Keep doing what I'm doing at work, hopefully be up for promotion and more money at some stage in the year
3. Continue to love Boots, maybe join up with the Southern Obedience Club, they have their first classes back on the 31st of January
4. Be a 15 handicap at some stage in the year, keep doing lessons with Jack, be more aggressive, hit driver on long holes, work on chipping and putting
5. Get the garden in awesome shape for our engagement party, pray for good weather on the night, plant seasonal vegetables and flowers throughout the year
6. Keep up regular posting on my blog, game reviews are something I enjoy doing so maybe focus on that, get subscribers up to 50, probably need to have some kind of presence in the tech community (maybe via Threads) if I get serious about it

I think I achieved most of this!

I'm in a way better place compared to last year with my mental health. I feel happier and healthier than I did this time last year. I feel like I'm much more in control of my emotions. This might be because it was a very stable year both personally and professional. I had good hobbies and got out in the sun a lot. I had a good routine. Emma tells me I'm just like Boots as I'm "routine based". This is definitely true. Having a good routine just makes everything in life flow and just be a lot easier. I'm excited for the future. Getting married will be awesome. Our honeymoon will be awesome. Interest rates seemingly will be lower in 2025 which would be huge help for our financial situation. There's a lot to look forward to.

I've kept up some good momentum at work. I'm on a decent salary (like everyone I'd like to be paid more) and the work is interesting. I feel like I really contribute within my mobile squad team. I keep saying this every year but the title of Senior Software Engineer would be awesome. I feel like I'm close.

I definitely continued to love Boots but his obedience didn't improve much. He walks okay with me and Emma on common routes. He just pulls in the early parts of a walk or when he sees other dogs. His recall is fantastic when he's off leash. I have no worries at all with him playing with other dogs in a dog park. I joined up to the Southern Obedience Club but only went ~4 times. I just got lazy with it so this was a bit of a fail. In hindsight, joining the dog club again in Moorabbin was a mistake. It's a little too far to travel especially on a cold winters night.

My golf really came a long way this year. As of today I'm a 15.8 handicap which achieves the goal of:

Be a 15 handicap at some stage in the year

I've been floating around the 15-16 handicap range since August. I wrote last week that playing old man golf is "my game" and I still 100% agree with that. I hit a lot of 5/6 iron off the tee and get the ball in play. In saying all of this, I need to work on all aspects of my game. I need to chip a lot better. I still miss a lot of my long irons left and right. I need more consistency generally. I'm still keen on going down to the club to get fitted for a 2-3 hybrid just for a bit more distance off the tee. This will also need some practise and potentially some lessons to perfect.

The back garden is in very solid shape. I love tending to it and ensuring the area that is boots proofed is well watered and weeded. The front garden needs some work but might be easier to contain once we have a front fence. I need to water the lawn a bunch in the next few weeks for my annual backyard cricket event. I'm also keen on planting more kangaroo paw around my plum tree.

I posted regularly on this blog. I never really tried to get more subscribers but that's okay IMO. I'm quite happy keeping this to being my own little private place on the internet. A place where I can share things with family and friends.

This year I'd like to:

1. Live in the moment for the wedding and honeymoon
2. Commit to a regular workout schedule
3. Maintain good mental hygiene
4. Get my golf handicap down to 12
5. Have the "senior engineer" job title
6. Work on more coding side projects
7. Go on more fun dates, and continue doing family days with Emma and Boots

I just want to make the most of this special time in my life when it comes to the wedding and honeymoon. Enjoy and cherish every second of it.

Committing to a general work out schedule is key for me this year. I got a little better towards the end of last year with my weights but need to keep this up. Being fitter and stronger also helps me with my golf.

I mentioned my mental health is a lot better right now than it was this time last year so this is more maintenance. I need to continue to sleep well, play golf, get out in the garden and play video games. These things make me happy.

My handicap is still sitting at 15.8 as of today. I think getting it down to 12 is pretty much keep doing what I'm doing. I don't need to practise like crazy. I just need to play competitions regularly.

It's time for me to have the Senior Engineer job title. Have this by the end of the year.

I want to work on learning Svelte in more depth. Some small projects using Svelte would be a great start here.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the most memorable aspects of 2024 was me and Emma's family days. I want to keep this going. I'm also hoping to take Emma out on more fun dates (like to The Nutcracker) and more regular dinners in the city.

This is pretty messed up. The cartoon isn't even controversial. It depicts exactly what is currently happening which is tech billionaires donating money.

I've made some big changes to the way in which I consume media over the break. These are the things I've done are as follows:

1. Cancel Spotify and switch back to Apple Music
2. Cancel YouTube Premium
3. Continue using Overcast for podcasts

My reasoning for each:

1. I'm done with Spotify and the app, I want to switch back to a clean Apple based UI that's a no fuss music player, also the UI in CarPlay is much better I'm finding, it also has a couple of artists that Spotify doesn't have (Joni Mitchell, Cannibal Ox)
2. I want to watch much less YouTube this year, what I'm going to do is to subscribe to certain channels via my RSS reader (NetNewsWire) and only watch videos that come through via the feed, taking steps even further (to ensure I watch less YouTube) I've deleted the YouTube app from my phone and I'm using the Focus for YouTube extension to ensure that YouTube has a clean interface with no temptations
3. I experimented a bit with other podcast clients (like Pocket Casts) but Overcast continues to be the best by far

The overall ethos of this philosophy is to:

consume media local first

That means:

1. Download music (albums) and podcasts
2. Have an RSS reader only on my Mac, don't sync this to iCloud or have the RSS reader app on my iPhone
3. YouTube doesn't provide a local first way (sadly yt-dlp is a bit of a hack and you can easily get hit with 403 status codes) but using the aforementioned Focus for YouTube and not consuming YouTube on my phone is a good strategy

Some other goals for mine for media this year include:

1. Continue to play more games
2. Watch more TV and movies especially with Emma
3. Discover more music
4. Watch less TikTok but keep the app on my phone as it is a brilliant way to kill time
5. Be more present with talking to friends, reach out to people more first, be the person to initiate contact

What an all time test that was. I was captivated all the way through. The thoughts from the TGC guys are spot on.