You know those Christmas cards that folks send that include a little 1-pager about what they've been up to for the year? I really like those... So, here's my 1-pager for 2024.

Travel

I stuck around North America again this year, visiting...

San Francisco to hang with my team @ Panther
Montana to snowboard and kick it with Kirps, Mason, and Ryan
Moab for the Bronco Off-Roadeo and national parks
Arizona for some golf, baseball, and hangs with Kari's folks
Chicagoland to hang with family
Oregon to visit Kari's brother, Victor
Chicago to run around with our friends, Trent and Maurizio
Canada for some fishing with family.
Cornell for Kari's 20-year reunion.
Minnesota to camp and celebrate Kari's birthday at August Schell's Oktoberfest

... but I’m really itching for some international travel. I need to get back to Europe, Japan, or a new continent. I'm craving something to broaden perspective.

Shows

Man, we saw plenty this year and that felt great!

Bluegrass, EDM, Lil Wayne, Atmosphere, Cake, Willie Nelson, REO Speedwagon, Post Malone, Killer Mike, OK Go, Prof, Modern Life is War, Otoboke Beaver, Slipknot, Till Lindemann, GWAR, Hatebreed, and many others.

Health

I was all over the place both physically and mentally... per yuge (yooge? youge? I have no idea how to spell that)

Anyway, I started the year off with my team taking 2nd place in our broomball league. Then, I went on a humbling snowboarding trip that sent me to physical therapy and left me injured for half the year. I don't know if I'm quite ready to hang up snowboarding, but nothing felt right last time... and that sucks.

That said, golf league remains awesome. I didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped to, but getting outside and walking 9 holes with the dudes every week has been such a great escape.

I also finally convinced myself that I'm not getting any younger and joined a roller hockey league... after literally 25 years off, haha. It's felt so good to get back out there and keep some consistent aggressive cardio going.

But a lot of things this year have really made me feel old. My skin is going to shit, I'm noticing a change in my eyesight, and injuries are taking longer to heal. I don't like it. I'm actually back in physical therapy for what may have been a hockey injury in my shoulder? ...or bad posture.

Other than that, I started tracking my mood every day, what modifies it, and that's been pretty interesting to pay attention to. I also stopped using most social media and wrote a little about that here.

Ok, this section is getting dumb, so...

Some other stuff

I did a chia pet
Started getting tattoos again after a 7-year lull.
Did lots of Bronco and camper mods, and thus...
Got off-road a few times with some buds
Did some camping
Rebuilt the front-end and CMS of my web site
And discovered that courtside seats are a really fun way to watch basketball, and you should do it no other way.

OK, that was way more than you'd ever want in Christmas card.

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