2024 in Review

January 4, 2025

Travel

This was a significant year in travel because I got to go back to Europe for the first time since 2007. My son spent the spring studying abroad in Barcelona. I flew over at the end of April. As we had planned the trip, we narrowed it down to two destinations: Barcelona and Budapest. I wanted to be able to see the city he had called home for four months and he wanted to visit Hungary, a country that has played a significant role in my life.

  • 4 flights – Atlanta to Barcelona, Barcelona to Budapest (Ryan Air), Budapest to Barcelona, Barcelona to Atlanta
  • 6 road trips – In March, I joined my two daughters to travel to Eastern Tennessee to pick up two rescue guinea pigs for my oldest and transport them back to Nashville where she lives.
  • 8th trip to Hungary
  • 2 countries – Spain and Hungary
  • 3 states – Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky
  • 2 reunions – We met up with one of my treasured friends (we met on my first trip to Hungary) and his boys. And then we had breakfast with two friends from the year I lived in Debrecen.
  • 11,050 miles flying
  • 33 miles walking

Learning & Coding

Writing

Walking

One of my goals going into the year was to improve my health. I started walking around my neighborhood in March to prepare for my trip to Europe. I knew I would do a lot of walking on the trip and I didn’t want my poor physical shape to impede me from enjoying that trip. I used Strava to track my progress and continued walking after I returned home in May.

  • 176 activities
  • 601.8 miles
  • Made several new friends in the neighborhood, 2 of which I have walked with from time to time

Reading

I borrowed a lot more of the books that I read this year than in years past. I also read several books that I had accumulated in the past and not read.

  • 5th time reading through entire Bible (I used The Navigators plan this year)
  • 25 books finished
  • 31 books started
  • 3 still working through
  • 3 Kindle books purchased
  • 2 books gifted
  • 1 hardcover purchased
  • 5 rereads
  • 6 from Hoopla Digital
  • 2 borrowed from local library
  • 3 borrowed from friends

Books read

I failed to meet my reading challenge for the year on Goodreads. I completed 25 of 32 books. This is the second year in a row that I have not met the goal that I set for myself. I have decided to shoot for 28 books in 2025.

Books I am still working on

Favorite articles

I compiled a separate article of my favorite articles from the year.

Entertainment

  • 5 movies seen in theater (Dune, The Two Towers, Laufey Movie, Interstellar, War of the Rohirrim)
  • 1 NCAA basketball game (UTC vs. Bryant)
  • 1 graduation
  • 4 plays
  • 3 concerts
  • 2 art museums
  • 4 other museums
  • 5 tours of historical buildings (Matthias Church, Parliament, Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, Basilica at Montserrat)

Music

I got into Stray Kids this year. My youngest is a big fan and she likes to watch their music videos with my wife and I at night before she goes to bed. We have also watched several of their performances on a K Pop channel on Samsung Plus, which is free to us because we own a Samsung Smart TV.

I had bought Rock Star for my daughter for Christmas in 2023 along with a Skzoo Plush Toys Wolf (Bang Chan).

I started listening to them regularly when ATE and GIANT were released. I think GIANT is my favorite album of theirs but I have not listened to a lot of their other albums as much to make a fair comparison.

Stray Kids was my top artist on Spotify Wrapped this year. I didn’t listen to as much music during the day as I have in the past because my daily tasks involved the need for more concentration. Laufey was also in my top five, another artist that my youngest got me into.

Gaming

  • 53 MLB The Show 23 games
  • FIFA23 ~130 games
  • NBA 2K25 11 games (8 solo and 3 with my son)

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