2024 a year in review

I wanted to compile everything I did during 2024 to reminisce, analyze, and plan for the future.

All of the things I mention below are things I've finished or haven't dropped because some are not exactly new, but I kept doing them because I find them interesting and/or rewarding.

Blog posts

This list goes from newest to oldest.

• Neovim
• You should probably use 3-way conflict style for Git
• How I Computer in 2024
• When a computed prop updates faster than the DOM
• Improving performance on Jest locally
• Notes on maintaining Python on my systems
• Debuting as a Vtuber

Streaming

According to my year on Twitch, these are my current stats

This year was my debut, which means I didn't get to grow a whole lot, but at the same, I managed to experience what it is like to be an indie VTuber. It has been super cool to meet a bunch of new people, make new friends, and even have a small following:

I appreciate all the time people have spent chatting with me and hanging around the stream. Thank you so much for your time.

I kept it nice and simple; the things that I like to stream are:

• Games
• Software Development
• Just Chatting

As for this year, I want to do more Software Development and work on the Neuro-sama clone, but that might take a while; I have a couple more projects in mind, but I'll work on those as I refine some ideas better.

Software Engineering

• I started working with Zig and went through the Ziglings exercises. Regarding "esoteric" languages, I love how Zig feels if C would if it got released during this time. This helped me deepen my understanding of more low-level computer things. I plan to contribute to open source when I feel more comfortable with the language.
• I have read the Fastbook course by Jeremy Howard. It helped me understand how LLMs work and how I can leverage Deep Learning to solve problems from different spaces to the ones I usually dabble into. The accompanying course, "Practical Deep Learning for Coders," is a must-watch. Some of the blog posts I published this year are information I've learned from this course and personal experiments that I've done.
• I have caught the "dabble into too many programming languages" virus. I've been binge-working with Python, Golang, Zig, Ruby, and Javascript, creating various side projects to help me improve as a Software Engineer. So far, while I work with Python, Ruby, and Javascript professionally, I love Zig and Python, the former being my absolute favorite new programming language, while the latter became sorta like a workhorse where I can work with Jupyter notebooks and try stuff to see if it works, absolutely excellent developer ergonomics.
• On the ops side, I've been working with Ansible on my home network. On the professional side, I've been reading about Kubernetes, but I can't say that I'm convinced to use it for personal projects; maybe if I read about some fun use cases, I could attempt to create a small Kubernetes cluster for photos or something. Chezmoi is another cool tool I like to use to manage my dotfiles.
• Did I mention that I use Neovim?

Books

• Piranessi by Sussana Clarke
• "Encuentro con la Sombra" By Jung

I want to read more. These two books were fantastic reads, and I'd like to find more like this. I only included these two books as I read a couple more, but I haven't finished them, so I won't count them for my 2024 year in review.

Anime

• Frieren, Beyond Journey's end
• Dungeon Meshi
• Hime-sama, "Goumon" no Jikan desu (Tis' time for torture princess)
• The Elusive Samurai
• Tomo-chan is a girl
• Lycoris Recoil
• Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi

I also have an anilist.co profile if you'd like to follow me there for my weird anime tastes

Manga

• Houseki no Kuni is my favorite read of the year by far. I plan to publish an article on this manga. I have even commissioned some artwork that I have yet to release.

Games

I'm counting the games that are "beatable." I didn't count multiplayer or live service games, I didn't count as those haven't finished.

• Cyberpunk 2077
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Helldivers 2
• Baba is you
• Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2
• Metal Gear Solid
• Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (Just the campaign)
• Balatro

My two favorite games from this year were Balatro and Cyberpunk 2077. While I enjoyed many of the games released this year, I also came back to play some games released in previous years, as I find them more enjoyable than some of the newer releases.

Fitness

• I started physiotherapy and improved my core and leg strength over the year.
• I rediscovered my passion for cross-country bike riding and rode way more consistently. I also broke a personal record, which was very cool.

Travel

These are the places I went to this year:

• Las Vegas
• Guadalajara
• Puerto Vallarta

Misc thoughts

• I consider 2024 the year that LLMs became mainstream. While I like Claude better than ChatGPT, the latter is undoubtedly better known among the general public.
• The Software Engineering market in its current state is the hardest it has ever been to get new jobs or if you're a recent graduate to join the workforce for the first time. I want to help people get jobs by helping review resumes, as my day job has me interview and look into candidates.
• Software Development has benefitted in some ways from using LLMs, but the UX can be hit or miss. I tried using Cursor, but I haven't found my footing yet. GitHub Copilot and GitLab Duo are among my favorite tools because they aren't as intrusive and work great as a better Autocomplete. Asking Claude questions is a great way to start a project without spending hours on Google before I can start working on prototypes.
• As a somewhat Apple fanboy, Apple had a weird year, the M4 Mac mini being my favorite release of the year, but the Apple Vision Pro, well, that was a rough launch.
• I started cooking more at home and have developed a liking for it. To the point that I own quite a bit of gear that helps me cook delicious meals, I like to splurge more on good ingredients instead of going out to eat meals that might not satisfy me as much.
• There are a few events that I'd like to do in 2025. They are life-changing and scary, but I hope to gather the courage to do them and share a bit more, whatever the result may be.

Life has its ups and downs, but I'm excited to see what 2025 holds for me; thank you for reading!