chadkoh

Favourite photo of the year: The Nintendo World train in Osaka through cherry blossoms. Taken during April’s Micro.Blog photo challenge

What a year. 😫 Closed down a company. Pulled all roots out of Japan and moved to a new city in Canada. Began settling down. Kids in a new school. Started a consultancy. Engaged with local community. Reconnected with old friends and family. Deepened my intellectual development. Found new paths to explore. Lots of progress on all fronts I suppose… Phew! I needed this winter holiday 😅

40 Questions

Last year I started using Steph Ango’s 40 Questions framework for annual reflection. Here are a few for public consumption:

Did you keep your new year’s resolutions?

No, but completed more than I thought!

What cities/states/countries did you visit?

• Taiwan
• Germany
• Seattle

What was your greatest musical discovery of the year?

Not a musician, but the YouTube Reactor TeeGo Crxzy who introduced me to Pete & Bas and a number of other artists, got me back into listening to UK Drill and Grime. I have discovered tons of new areas of music to explore because of TeeGo. Glitch Gang! 🤘

What did you do on your birthday?

Went to a bistro close to Osaka Castle with my family and was served a dessert with the message “Happy Wedding” 😅 After that went home to a couple of policeman knocking on our door. But that is a story for another time.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Fiscal hosting opportunity in Canada, and it’s possible impact on open source in this country!

How would you describe your personal fashion this year?

New Air Force 1s, knit pullovers, light grey jeans… Dad-hop? Or… like… Ted Lasso?

What kept you sane?

Meditation.

Of my daily practice for the year I only missed 3 days, ending the year on a 282 session streak.

Who was the best new person you met?

Oh lordy, I met so many people this year I cannot just pick one. This year, especially the last quarter, I have been on a networking tear. There are so many comrades out there trying to good, if you just reach out. Now that I am meeting them I hope 2025 becomes a year for doing good together. 🥂💪

Best of Reading 📚

Each year I submit some of my best for Fiction and Non Fic. This year for Fiction hands down it goes to The First Law Series. My brother recommended this grimdark fantasy trilogy and I just ate it up. I listened to the audiobooks narrated by Steven Pacey who is on the level of Jim Dale for skills… just absolutely brilliant.

In non-fic, the book that made me the most angriest (and recommend the most) is  The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality which examines the legal methods used to secure capitalism as our society’s only mode of operation. I grouped this book with a few others in a post about economistic thinking if you are interested in knowing more about the world we live in.

An honourable mention goes to Governable Spaces (see my chapter notes). This book has given me a handy framework for thinking about how to make emancipatory online community.

As a last comment, this year I spent more time reading papers about Internet governance and policy which I have been sharing with a group of others. You can check those out at: lemmy.ml/c/mae

Best of Watching 📽

So much reading so I didn’t watch much film or television this year, and of my 23 watched films, half were re-watches. This year I really feel like I don’t know what is going on in popular film. The only two films I saw in the cinema were Dune 2 and Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.

Funnily enough, I watched three films starring Leo DiCaprio. Although it is not the highest rating, I still think about Killers of the Flower Moon a lot though.

For tv I went through Slow Horses seasons 2 to 4, and also finally caught up on the most recent Doctor Who. This year was more for the reading.

The Numbers for 2024

🖋 25 long-form posts on the blog

✉️ 12 email monthly newsletters sent

📸 1922 photos and vids on Flickr

📚 36 books read

🎞 23 films watched

🧘 362 days of meditation

Previous annual wrap-ups

• Best of 2023
• Best of 2022
• 2021 in Books
• Best of 2020
• The best of 2019
• A quick end of year roundup (2018)
• Best of 2016
• The best of 2015
• The best of 2014
• The best of 2013
• My year in film and books (2012)
• My year in books (2011)