Exit 2024, Enter 2025

This blog post is late, but 2024 neither ended well nor did 2025 start well. Once again WestJet and work are to blame. I can’t do much about the former, but I did fill out a form so I may get some money back, but the latter, I think I must do something about the latter in 2025.

My heart is not really in blogging anymore. I have not profited from it. I don’t have time for hobbies and I am so stressed out again my health is really suffering. I am forcing myself to type something, as people have come to expect some sort of year end summary, but I can’t really recommend blogging, especially after sinking as much time into it as I have. I never even had the energy to do #ArtVsArtist or #TopNine which I’ve used as the featured image for recent year end blog posts. I no longer use Last.FM so I don’t know how many images or infographics will appear in this post, definitely less than in the past.

Apple Music

We are working from the office more, so I am listening to less music. Usually I listen to Apple Music while working from home or while painting and blogging. Right now I have the hockey game on in the other room as I have players in the game on my fantasy team. That is another thing not going as well as it did last year. The other place I listen to music is at the gym, so my most popular songs are extremely eclectic. I still try to buy the odd vinyl record to support artists, but most artists I like are not popular and their records are getting harder and harder to find even for specialty retailers.

Blogging

As mentioned in the introduction blogging is not a priority. You wouldn’t know it from how much time I’ve sunk into it, but I guess I was more optimistic after my trip to Scotland. However, I really do need a new webhost or to just breakdown and give my current webhost more money. I’ve been waiting to see what would happen at work for over year and as mentioned above, I did not like what was decided upon at the end of 2024.

I did publish ten posts over on my miniature painting blog. However even though I’m doing yet another certificate from CFA® Institute I likely will not blog about that as they don’t want their intellectual property all over the Internet and my use of flashcards likely contains many, many direct quotations from their material.

Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest etc.

I can’t remember the last time I posted to Instagram. I devoted my account to miniature painting and haven’t touched the paints since October. Work is just too busy and stressful and I basically have sacrificed my hobbies again to pursue yet another piece of paper I’m not sure I want and won’t make one bit of difference to my current employer. My sister complained you can no longer get your #TopNine for free, but I swear I put together my featured image last year.

Instagram may still give me analytics, but I’m not sure how to access them. Twitter now only gives analytics to people who pay. Pinterest I use the least but last time I checked I still had analytics. I just stopped using that website after it was banned in China and made other policy changes. Instagram and Facebook are just more popular with the miniature painting community.

Flickr

I’ve always preferred Flickr to Instagram. I did upload some vacation photos and one briefly flirted with popularity. They did send me MyFlickrYear, I’ve just not been as organized as the previous year has ended and the new year has begun. Work has just been way too stressful.

Miniature Painting

My peak miniature painting days are behind me. My eyesight gets worse each year and my back and shoulder also remain a challenge. I did paint several models and may have even earned a badge online, but there are better miniature painters out there, however I have my own style and I keep sticking with enlarging my Chaos Space Marine collection particularly Nurgle Renegades aka the Plague Marines. There are two more on my miniature painting table right now, but they are just black and they will likely stay black until I finish the course I’ve started online.

Travel

I actually travelled more in 2024, though my recent trip to Palm Springs did not go well. No photos have been posted from that trip to Flickr yet, though my sister posted many to Instagram and Facebook. She is much more devoted to becoming popular online than me. I think I deliberately sabotage myself so I’ll have something to complain about in my own mind. Maybe in 2025, I can finally put some things behind me, but it will take a huge effort and travel plans are on hold until I finish a course and likely find a new job.

Beer and Whisky

I actually drank less beer this year, but as you may have guessed I definitely drank more whisky. In 2025 I plan to drink less. Usually when I blog or play guitar or watch hockey I’ll have a beer or a few. But today I’m trying not to. Untappd did send me my stats and I’m not giving up drinking entirely, I organized a whisky tasting for folks at work, but I really must lose weight and improve my health in 2025. I gained back all the weight I lost and then some, though I do continue to train.

Books

Every year I say I’m going to read more and every year GoodReads tells me I finished less books than I intended. Taking another course from the CFA Institute is going to cut into my reading, but I am trying to read more on the weekend and while lying in bed. I bought many books while in Scotland and since have bought a couple more about Scotland, whisky and even Robbie Burns. I tried to buy a book on my birthday at the Sentry Box but could not find anything on my list or that interested me. I just don’t read much genre fiction anymore.

Gigs

I actually saw a few, but one I was really looking forward to was the Roots at the Calgary Folk Festival, but I suffered a medical incident and had to go by ambulance to the hospital. I did get to see Lucinda Williams, John 5, Slick Rick, Zakk Sabbath, and the Devil Makes Three. Those were the headliners, I also saw various opening acts and supporting acts, one that really impressed me was The Umbrella Collective.

I am not sure I want to embed five YouTube videos, but I’ll embed one below. In 2025, I had planned to travel more, see some bands I like that never seem to come to Canada, alas work has basically forced my hand and most every plan I had is now on hold.

Family

This blog has been on the Internet a long time, almost twenty years and one type of content that has remained popular is the various family trees I’ve done up. The Dougan one may be the most popular. Other people have put more work into that family tree or other branches in my family tree. I’m not sure how much information of mine they used, but in my recent trip to Scotland I went to MacKay Country, I also was of course along the shores of the Moray Firth, about which I’m currently reading a book I picked up in Inverness. My grandma, Doreen Dougan, also had family which came from Scotland. Her family appears to have come from Ross-shire and that branch of the family and whatever her mother’s mother’s maiden name is where the shortbread recipe comes from that I introduced to my co-workers in preparation for Robbie Burns Day.

I wish I’d done more research on that branch of the family when my grandma was still alive. By the time I finally made it to Scotland she was gone and any connection we had to the old country. Maybe mentioning Helen Skinner in my blog will bring some eyeballs this way. She was born in Balintore Foam and her parents were Alexander Skinner and Annie. I do not know the maiden name of Annie, but her shortbread recipe is pictured below. It contains rice flour which I didn’t think would be common in Scotland 150 years ago, but rice was apparently imported to Scotland hundreds of years before that.

Wrapping Up

The UFC is on TV, but I’m trying to finish this blog post before 8pm so that I can watch some hockey, but I’ll probably just fall asleep. I’ll also probably play some guitar, I’ve been playing a lot of guitar and going to the gym much more since work got too stressful. I may even buy a new guitar in 2025, but work has made me not want to spend money frivolously. This has to end, so I’ll start applying for a new job tomorrow. First I have to review my notes and give my resume another once over. The other thing I’m going to do in 2025 is refresh some skills: Python, Data Science, Finance, maybe even some higher level programming. I’m tired of running the same 10-12 batch jobs over and over and cutting and pasting data from point A to point B.

If you have thoughts on 2024 or hopes and dreams for 2025 you can leave a comment below.

This entry was originaly posted on January 11th, 2025, it was last edited on January 13th, 2025 and is filed under: Rambles and tagged: Blogging, Music, Social Media.