2024 is starting to wind down. “Best Of/Recap of 2024” lists and shows are popping up, Christmas music, lights, and commercials are on in full force, and there’s about 3 hours of daylight outside. Here’s my recap of the year:
Endings and Beginnings
Endings
Tinder/Bumble. In 2022 (I think), I joined Tinder; a few months later, I joined Bumble. My hopes were to first find someone to casually date, then to just hang out with, with the possibility of casual intimacy and/or sex down the road. While there were some interesting profiles, what I saw were a lot of bots, fake profiles, and a LOT of judgement (mainly on Tinder). And a lot of features that were blocked out if you didn’t pay at least $14.99 for a few weeks’ of access to them. I found myself checking either app too much, especially in the evenings. Ultimately, I dropped both of them back in the summer; no need to keep searching and hoping for the occasional profile like… only to not see it because I didn’t $19.99 for ‘see likes’. The whole experience soured me on possible dating in 2024; a spring ghosting (from a non-app, but online, meeting) was the death knell. Good riddance to Tinder, Bumble… and any chance of dating!
Beginnings
Telus: I mentioned this in an earlier post but, for the first time since 2016, I am working two jobs! Telus International hired me on as an Online Data Analyst – AI. I analyze various responses to queries that the Telus AI provides. It’s been an interesting 2 months with them, so far!
Zucchini: until October, I could count on one hand how many times I’ve eaten Zucchini in my life. However, with me wanting to change my diet, I started adding Zucchini to rice, potatoes, and other foods. It’s actually not bad!
Top Books
I am currently listening to book #21 of the year – a little short of my goal of 25, but still a nice total for me! Here are my favorite books of the year:
(there were a few ‘repeat’ reads that I did not rank, like “The Ballad of Black Tom”)
7. “Savage Dominion” by Luke Chmilenko, G.D. Penman
6. “Vein Pursuits” by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle (looking forward to Book 3 of this series)
5. “We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro Baseball” by Kadir Nelson
4. “Starter Villain” by John Scalzi
3. “The Egg and Other Stories” by Andy Weir and others
2. “The Anomaly“ by Michael Rutger
1. “Gwendy’s Button Box” by Stephen King and Richard Chizmer
Health
2024 was an interesting train ride. My INR – the ratio that my blood clots to a ‘normal’ sample; the higher the number, the slower my blood is clotting – is supposed to be between 2.5 and 3.5; for the most part, it hovered between 3.0 and 3.7.
The feet, however, regressed. Plantar Fasciitis came back, with a vengeance, in both feet. Walking hasn’t been as bad of a challenge as previous flareups, but it has lasted longer than before.
The fight with ’23 Diabetes diagnosis continued. I had my a1c down to 6.1 (from 12.0) and my blood sugar count down to 150 (from 401). However, on my November reading, those number had jumped back to 11.1 and 227 (although, as of 12/21, it was back to 202).
COVID-19 caused a lot of lingering issues, including fatigue for almost all of the spring and summer. The biggest problems have been bleeding and anemia. I’ve written about the anemia in March, in a previous post, but there was a bleeding episode on Thanksgiving weekend. To make a story shorter: I was peeing blood the day after Thanksgiving, plus that weekend. Doctors still don’t know why, even after a Cystoscopy (which SUCKS as a procedure!!!). I have a CT Urogram scheduled in about a month; hopefully, I get some answers.
Top Podcasts
I listened to a few podcasts in 2024, mainly on Spotify and YouTube. Here are my top ones:
3. Black Dice Society, Season 2. From YouTube, I mainly listened to this in January. I started listening and watching Twitch, which pulled my away from the Society.
2. As The Ravens Dream
1. Real Life Ghost Stories: Mainly on Spotify, this is hosted currently by Emma from Britain. RLGS are stories from listeners that are ‘real’ ghost/demonic/paranormal encounters. Episodes are 2-5 stories each, 4-10 minutes per story. They are highly entertaining and some of them are pretty terrifying.
Top Video Games
There were a lot of video games played in 2024. Most of them were played on Steam, but a few fell outside the Steam umbrella. Here were my most-played games:
5. Mass Effect
4. Doom 2016
3. Prey
2. Baldur’s Gate 3
1. Diablo 4. I started recording my plays and uploading them on YouTube (look for ‘ZuriB729’). What pushed D4 over BG3 was the ‘Vessel of Hatred’ expansion – I’ve had a ton of fun playing it!
Top 5 Halloween Movies
A tradition I’ve had on Facebook is watching up to 31 movies in October. This year, my goal (which I reached!) was to watch at least 20 movies. Here were my favorites:
5. Prey for the Devil
4. The Witch
3. Azrael – there is almost no dialogue in this movie
2. Oddity
1. Exhuma – this is one of the better horror movies I’ve seen in a while
Top Sporting Moments
UofL FB vs. Clemson; UofL FB vs. UK; Pat Kelsey; Antron Brown; WNBA revival; Volleyball Makes Final 4
Bottom Moments of 2024
These are the moments that I do not want to repeat ever again:
5. Donald Trump Re-Elected. Grown adults actually typed something similar to this on FB: “My groceries are too high. Trump is the best choice to bring them down.” Trump has already publicly stated that he “may not be able to reduce prices”. Easily brainwashed.
4. The bleeding episode in late November
3. Burnout. The work burnout is severe. I actually like my job and like my co-workers, more than a lot of former teams. However, I am tired of our parent company’s lack of… anything to do with us, tired of working holidays, and tired of a few people’s ‘eating and body habits’.
2. Anemia, likely caused by #1 (early-to-mid March). It put me in the hospital for a week; it took over 5 months to shake the fatigue from it enough to really function.
1. COVID/Pneumonia (late February)
Top Moments of 2024
There were some pretty cool moments in 2024.
Honorable Mention: NCAA Volleyball Final 4 – UofL is not only hosting the Final 4, they will be playing for the National Championship on Sunday (12/22) afternoon. If they win, this will move up to #2.
5. TBT (“The Basketball Tournament”). It’s a winner-takes-all tournament between teams of former college basketball players (they also cannot be active on an NBA roster). On my birthday, the team of former UofL players hosted a game against players from their biggest rivals, the University of Kentucky. Although UofL lost, it was still a fun atmosphere and game!
4. NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis
3. UofL Homecoming
2. Thanksgiving. I got to celebrate with one of my brothers, my Dad, and (for the 1st time for me in 7 or 8 years), one of my uncles and one of my aunts. It was nice!
1. DCI World Championship for the Cincinnati Tradition. I marched for this Drum & Bugle Corps in 2019. In 2024, the All-Age Circuit merged with the Junior (21 and under) Circuit. Tradition won the All-Age Open Class (61-90 members) World Championship! Was so cool to see this happen live in Indianapolis!!
Goals/Resolutions
I didn’t make any solid resolutions for 2024; it was mainly “don’t take steps back.” I think it’s time to bring back resolutions for 2025:
1. Take time off, possibly travel, starting February 16th. February 16th is the day that I went into the hospital, in 2010, and found out that my heart was failing. 2/16/2025 marks 15 years since that date, so I want to celebrate surviving it. Not only do I want to take the amount of time off that I was in the hospital (2 weeks) but I want to travel for at least half of it. The traveling part will depend on money but the rest depends on if my boss gives me that much time off. I’m certainly hoping so.
2. Get my car running; get a license. It’s been on the shelf for over a year (Alternator). I need to get off of public transportation!
3. Get cleared to march Drum & Bugle Corps in 2026. I need to get my feet under control, get answers about the bleeding and anemia episodes, and get strength and stamina back. I also have to be patient – this won’t be an overnight process.
4. Add to a weak portfolio; apply to tech jobs outside of Louisville.
The Nexus 