Weeknotes 24:28

December 29, 2024

Week of December 22–28

It was a more chill week with the holiday right in the middle of the week. I applied to a handful of jobs and wrote up a proposal for a potential freelance opportunity with my former employer, Cru. I enjoyed spending time with my family and have enjoyed having our two oldest kids home for the past few weeks.

Apps I use 2024

Last year, I had followed a trend and wrote about the apps that I was using in 2023. I had seen several people on Bluesky post links to a 2024 version of apps they use so I decided to write a new post for 2024. Most of the apps are the same but I did make some changes in 2024.

The big change was migrating to Obsidian from Evernote. I was an early adopter of Evernote and had a lot invested in it so it was difficult to migrate away from it. I had been thinking about replacing Evernote for some time but was not sold on any of the alternatives. I learned about Obsidian and decided to give it a test drive. I like that my files are saved locally and not in the cloud so it would be easy to move to something else in the future if needed. I also like that Obisidian is free for personal use.

The other big change for me was on the mobile side. I upgraded to a newer phone at the beginning of the year that had more storage space. This allowed me to expand my apps. And it happened just in time for me to start using What’s App to communicate with my son while he spent the spring semester in Spain. Two other new apps that got heavy use were Strava and Every Dollar.

Read the full article, Apps I use in 2024

Christmas 2024

I enjoyed celebrating Christmas this year by attending a Christmas Eve service with my family and then celebrating Christmas together at home. It was a pretty low key day. We enjoyed a breakfast of baked oatmeal, “opened” our stockings, and the kids exchanged Secret Santa gifts. After everyone dispersed, I played MLB The Show 23 and NBA 2K25 before watching the Chiefs play the Steelers on Netflix.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch that my wife prepared of ham, roasted potatoes, green bean casserole, white cheddar mac and cheese, roasted vegetables, and crescent rolls. I was not feeling the greatest as I was dealing with some stomach/ GI issues but I was able to enjoy the day and the meal. The afternoon was topped off by watching a couple of NBA games with my son. All and all, a nice chill day filled with family, sports, and video games.

War of the Rohirrim

I enjoyed a late birthday celebration of seeing The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim with my kids on Friday night. It was worth the wait and I really enjoyed the movie.

Articles I read

• It Is We Who Must Be Bent (Tim Challies)
• The Shock of Faith: It’s Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be (David Brooks, The New York Times)
• CSS wants to be a system (Dave Rupert)
• (Still) in Awe of the Aged (Gentle Reformation)
• Why Are So Many Christians So Cruel? (David French, The New York Times)
• Animating Entry Effects (Tyler Childs, 12 Days of Web)
• Aggregating my distributed self (Miriam Suzanne)
• Own Your Web, Issue 16: Under Construction (Matthias Ott)
• Sustainable Hardware Choices (Michelle Barker)
• The Most Generous Gift (Paul David Tripp)
• Chatbots Aren’t a Solution to Our Loneliness Epidemic (Alan Noble)
• My little games workshop (Dave Rupert)
• The underrated <dl> element (HTMLHell) – I can see using <dl> for several solutions that I have struggles to markup without <div>s and <span>s.
• On the <dl> (Ben Myers)
• Ads After You Do a Thing (Chris Coyier) – A trend Chris has noticed that does not annoy him.
• Creativity in Devotional Time with God
• Holy Bravery (Desiring God)
• Vibe Check Number 36 (Dave Rupert) – I always enjoy catching up with Dave through these Vibe Checks.

What I watched

• Elf (Hulu)
• Hustle (Netflix) – My second time seeing this one. Just as good the second time around.
• The Muppet Christmas Carol (Disney+)
• Chiefs-Steelers (Netflix) – It was great to see the Chiefs wrap up the number one seed for the playoffs.
• Timberwolves-Mavericks (ABC)
• 76ers-Celtics (ABC)
• Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) – I have been interested in watching this for a long time. I am really enjoying it.
• George Brett: MLB Network Documentary – I enjoyed this documentary about my favorite player on my favorite team when I was growing up.
• Logan Lucky (Netflix) – Our son’s friend had recommended it to him. It was a funny and enjoyable movie.
• The Franchise Episode 7 (2024)
• The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim (theater)

Books I am reading

I bought the Kindle edition of Universal Principles of UX for $3.99 this week. I just checked and it is still on sale. I have wanted to read this one for awhile now. I have several other Rockport books in physical copies (Universal Principles of Design and Layout Essentials). I checked out a sample and did not feel like I was missing much by buying the digital copy.

• Everyday Gospel Christmas Devotional – I will finish this one on Sunday as I started it on the 5th.
• The Art of Rest – I finished this one on Saturday.
• Design for Real Life
• Dorothy and Jack – I picked this one back up on Saturday.

Walks

• Sunday – 3.95 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Monday – 2.43 miles in 44 minutes
• Thursday – 4.45 miles in 1 hour and 22 minutes (with my son)
• Friday – 4.64 miles in 1 hour and 27 minutes
• Saturday – 2.87 miles in 55 minutes (with my son)

What I played

• MLB The Show 23 (Rays) – I finished playing a season with the Rays on Saturday that I started in July 2023, 536 days later. I ended up winning the division and with play either the Astros or Angels in the Division Series.
• NBA 2K25 – I enjoyed playing several games this week, both with my son and by myself. My son is kicking my butt. I was disappointed on Saturday to find that the difficulty setting was on Rookie when I thought it was Semi-Pro. I thought I had improved more than I had.