See previous year in review posts.
My view from the end of all things 2024:
A red-tailed hawk plopped itself on our backyard power line this morning, making for a colorful breakfast companion on an otherwise gloomy New Year’s Eve. May we all seek to achieve its steady serenity in 2025.
A few highlights from the year:
- This blog turned 18 and I wrote some posts on:
- the AI typewriter
- the opposition of Saturn and backyard insects
- seeing Back to the Future The Musical on stage
- reading BoyMom as a BoyDad
- going Insta-viral for my reading take
- the masterpiece that is Titanic
- how (not) to decide what movies to watch
- Did fun stuff as a family:
- Went to our local zoo, arboretum, and forest preserves
- Watched the solar eclipse
- Spent Independence Day at the family’s beach cottage in Michigan
- Did a staycation overnight in downtown Chicago for a friend’s wedding, exploring the River North neighborhood and trekking to The Bean
- Stayed at Timber Ridge Lodge in Lake Geneva for the weekend with my family
- Went trick-or-treating in Wild Kratts style: the boys were Chris and Martin, my wife was Aviva, and I was Zach
- Did fun stuff with the 5 year old:
- Classes for soccer, gymnastics, track & field, and fishing
- Went to a minor league baseball game
- Spotted a coyote on a suburban street on our way home from the park
- Went to a mini golf birthday party
- Did a bunch of stuff for Cinema Sugar, including:
- Top 5 High Fidelity Top 5 Lists
- In the Heights Sings of COVID-Era America
- The A24 Enneagram
- 4 Lessons on Creativity from Roger in 101 Dalmatians
- Is your child texting about movies?
- The Guy’s Guide to Watching Dirty Dancing
- Recruited The Typewriter Revolution author Richard Polt for his Top 5 Movie Typewriters
- 7 Types of Letterboxd Users
- Interviewed Matthew Aldrich (Coco, Lightyear), Robin Swicord (Little Women), Antonio Sanchez (Birdman), Erin Moriarty (Catching Dust, The Boys), Michael Felker (Things Will Be Different)
- Introduced a screening of Dazed and Confused at our local community college
- Noted some choice quotes from the 5 year old, including:
- “This bonfire is like a waving hand. I could stare at it every day forever.”
- “It smells like days I remember.”
- [to his baby brother] “Don’t distract me, this is one yummy taco.”
- [about the toilet he just flushed] “It was as dirty as a mud puddle but now it’s as clean as a diamond.”
- Acquired Criterion Blu-rays of Double Indemnity, Badlands, Days of Heaven, and Paper Moon
- Read 9 books and watched 87 movies
- Watched probably the least amount of TV in my life, sticking with just three excellent limited series (Masters of the Air, OJ: Made in America, and Midnight Mass) and one mediocre season (The Bear season 3)
- Held a garage sale and made $52
- Hosted my cousin’s daughter from New Zealand
- Got my first new winter boots in a long time
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