Reflecting on 2024
Clembot, Ski trips, Travel noms, Portgual, Belgium, Japan, Bangkok
Random Observation/Comment #862: Self reflection brings me joy. Oh how far we’ve come and how much farther we’ll go. Time to write a Dr Seuss book about it.
In 2024, markets ripped while the country continued to divide. I resumed my travel schedule and proof of selfie projects with a splash of Clembot taking over my menial tasks.
Traveled to: Aspen/Basalt friends trip, Copper Mountain Cooper and Family trips, Florida (Tampa, Naples, Marcos Island) for grandparents time, NYC for an impromptu trip packed with activities, Switzerland (Amanda’s Wedding in Zurich), Portugal (Krish-wan vacation in Lagos and Lisbon), London (8 days in Soho), Brussels for EthCC, Keystone summer camp, Telluride (blues and brews festival), Japan (Nara, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo) for a traditional wedding, and Thailand (Bangkok) for Devcon, Copper Mountain for Evie ski lessons
Triumphantly: Published Our Life in Lists of 30 and made a ton of random author assets, Published ~60 blogposts (recaps and monthly) on this blog and refactored to remove costs for hosting seelemons.com, Got a new job as a Solutions Architect, Completed a full drawing book (100 pages) of black and white sketches, Made 30+ clembot interview videos and got 42k+ views on TikTok (and then immediately stopped using TikTok), Created weekly NotebookLM Audio Overviews and Heygen videos, Launched a bunch of DIN exciting products at work with a whitepaper, Saw some dolphins in Marcos Island, Went to 4 Secret Food Tours (Brussels, Osaka, Tokyo, and Bangkok), Made a lot more face swap selfies with consistent characters, Made some S24 Ultra zoom-in and zoom-out videos, Built a Clembot with memory and actions, Went on a romantic boat ride around Central Park with Jake and Johnson, Met Jake Gyllenhaal at a party in NYC, did a bunch of road trips in the Cybertruck, went to a beautiful wedding in Switzerland, Kayaked with Evie in Lagos, road a trolley and took a tuk-tuk around Lisbon, Saw some peacocks in a castle, visited a huge castle in Sentra, acted like a local in Soho London, visited Westminster Abbey, took the London Eye for some beautiful views, saw the Crown Jewels inside Tower of London, visited Windsor castle, camped in Buena Vista and mini hiked Mount Yale, did my first Escape room with the DIN team!, hung out in Keystone as a local with a cute hibachi date, Successfully made proof of selfies at conferences (EthDenver, EthCC, Devcon), watched a fubol Euro Cup Game in Europe with a bunch of cheering fans, played disc golf in Telluride and subsequently many more times at Owls Den, made my own cutting board (yay date night), had an incredible fun dad’s weekend in Telluride, Witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding inside a shrine, built a new gundam model, ran a 5k, Watched Muay Thai fight live, Finished the work in our backyard (finally!), watched Botafogo win a championship!, played disc golf with Mom, Listened to 687+ hours of podcasts (I have a problem)
Read / Listened to / Podcasted (I’ve consciously tried to reduce my podcast intake, but here are some new ones): Diary of a CEO, a16z Podcast, All the Hacks with Chris Hutchins, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Possible, Bad Dates, JJHO, Sitcom D&D (sad that this is finished), SmartLess, Shell Game, The Word Association
Live shows (20+): Vinessa’s Matriarch showcase at RISE comedy, Hayden James at Church Nightclub, Black Coffee at Red Rocks, Matilda in London, Shrek at Red Rocks, Stick Figure with surprise appearance by Sublime, Comedy show at Church of Cannabis, Evie’s Performance as the pink crayon in Roaming Gnome, 4-day Phish-mas (always a transcendent experience), Telluride Blues festival (favorites were Mother Blues, Piper and the Hard Times, Eddie Robinson and the Lucky Strokes, and Ben Harper), Tinlicker at Mission Ballroom, Seven Lions at Red Rocks, Live Jazz at Nocturne, Muay Thai fight in Bangkok, Abandoned Mansion at 1AM live songs in Bangkok, Candlelight Anime music string quartet in a church, Markus Schulz at Church Nightclub, Candlelight tribute to Adele
Neighborhood parties: Feb Lunar New Years with roulette, July 4th celebrations, Harvest moon party, mid-autumn festival, Diwali, Halloween, Thanksgiving multiple parties, Friendsgiving, “I’m frying a turkey”, movie nights (testing Santosh’s new outdoor projector setup), randomly visiting because wife is working late, “we gotta cook this pork belly I just bought at an Asian market”, “I opened a bottle of wine last night that we have to finish”, “come see my new backyard”, “I have a friend from out of town”, “I have too much sushi”, “it’s past 5pm”, “let’s play poker. I promise we’ll only have one Goldschlager shot”
Experienced / Cooked / Ate: Had some of the best Italian food while in Brussels, drank a Westvleteren in an old Belgian pub, delicious seabass in Portugal, made an excellent French onion soup, made a few versions of a Mexican lasagna, perfected making fried dumplings, had an excellent tomato-soy-ginger drink in Portugal, Skied some bowls with Cooper friends, visited a lot of harvest festivals (yay smoked turkey legs), Belgian waffle blew my mind, Honestly the best tater tots from Telluride blues festival (may have also been some other influences), a dozen or so kids birthday parties, lots of $1.50 Thai street noodles, best 12:30AM ramen, amazing 2-hour Thai massages for $20, absolutely the best omurice in Nara, many many 7-11 onigiris and egg sandos, almost had chicken sashimi, Katsu curry deliciousness, fancy drinks in Tokyo and Bangkok, hung out with the shibby doge, saw an amazing koi fish museum, ate all the mangoes in Thailand, Went to a lot of conference parties
[New section] Rewatchable Movie/Show Recommendation from this year: Brother’s sun (short and intense), Band of Brothers (staple), True Detective Season 1 (excellent), Midnight Gospel (it’s like a podcast with some of the weirdest animations), Ted Lasso, Paddington 2, Mashale (hilarious), Samurai Jack, Delicious in Dungeon, Blue Eye Samurai, Chernobyl (+the accompanying podcast), Green Mile, Payback, Donnie Darko, Designated Survivor (24 but with Jack Bower as the president - first season was good, but the rest felt very West Wing-y), Cooking class wars (I love the drama from Korean shows), Gangs of London (a bit violent, but a definite guy show), Man on the Inside (hilarity ensues with lots of cries, reminds me of Good Place), Dinner Time Live with David Chang (so good!)
Played way too many hours of: Eleven Table Tennis (2933 but I don’t play ranked anymore, 924 hours played!), Chess Royale (I love the checkmate puzzles), Mariocart for fun with Evie, Balatro (like poker for Solitaire - crushed most of these levels), Call of Duty Mobile (still have a 3ish K/D ratio with best score at 31:1)
Clembot and NotebookLM helped me put some of these reflections together by ingesting my year of random notes and triumph moments, but honestly the reading and actual reflection is more rewarding than the summary. After automating so many things, I’ve realized that some things in life are worth not automating. Also, what do I do with all these photos?
This year was pretty crazy scratching my travel itch, spoiling my tastebuds with great food, building more with AI, and growing with this team building out the Decentralized Infrastructure Network (DIN). I’m unapologetically productive and driven with no other motive than to live my life to its fullest potential. What I’d like to do is expand this perspective with my family and close friends, but I don’t think I have given myself enough time to change my perspective to add our Wan Family unit team goals. I am still this Individual Contributor just stuck in flow.
I love Evie at this age range (right before puberty) and seeing her brain reason through this world. She’s doing so many firsts and I’ll continue documenting them for her. Next year is where I get her to be a little more independent. For now, I’ll let take advantage of all moments I can carry her to her bedroom and on my shoulders.
Trump won again. I don’t want to overly wane on this, but at the end of the day I’m not against democracy nor do I have strong ties to political parties. I don’t want Trump to run this country to the ground, so honestly I wish the country well. It’s imperative we address the US deficit problem. Sometimes tearing down old regulation makes space for new beginnings. Let’s not burn it all down, but the phoenix rising from the ashes may be stronger. Also, wtf.
At least twice a week, I draw in a notebook with my 0.5mm Muji black pen. I’ve been doing this since early 2016. It’s pretty random. Sometimes I copy some inspirational Instagram post. Other times I draw a cartoon version of an activity I did. There was a point where I built a custom GPT draw a random thing based on my day’s experiences. Here are some of my faves.
In 2025, I’m predicting …
The Continued Integration of Clembot in Daily Life – Clembot will become even more ubiquitous, streamlining tasks and opening new avenues in both professional and personal realms. I’ll be refactoring based on some updates to new models. What’s important is categorizing the data you create.
Market correction - Still going to call it each year. We do seem like we’re in a state of market euphoria.
Web3 and Restaking– Old ideas, but new token opportunities. There’s still some crazy things happening in this space that makes me happy I’m driving these projects from behind the scenes. MetaMask Card. So hot right now.
Focus on Health and Wellness – Personal goals mainly focus on a healthier lifestyle through more VR table tennis, rock climbing, and regular exercise challenges (Maybe I’ll bring palates back). Aiming to lose 20 lbs and improve core strength.
Working on my 40-under-40 - This is going to sneak up on me, so I might as well start doing more. I’ve updated it earlier in the month.
I’m looking forward to a few high level 2025 triumph moments:
Travel - At least 5 - This is always an easy one to plan considering how much I love traveling and do so for work. I’d also just go to Japan 5 times next year.
Ski trips for the Ikon pass – Planning at least 5 times (already planned Jan/Feb activities). I love doing weekday trips.
Disc golf adventures - At least 20 times (I really want to get better at this). I’ll keep track of this on my UDisc account. I’ve already gone a dozen times between the first time in Telluride in September.
Conferences – At least 2. EthDenver, EthCC, and Devconnect are probably on the list already.
Live shows – At least 5 (definitely Phish again). I kind of crushed this one this year with 20+ live events.
Comedy or podcast recording shows – At least 2. I’d like to visit NY just to go to some more of these.
Visit In-laws with Evie in March – This is always a good time.
Daddy-daughter trip with neighbors – At least 1. Let’s aim for some place warm? California? Or a trip to NY?
Road trip somewhere (State park) – We need to use that national park pass. Maybe drive East to Iowa? South to Arizona for Sedona?
Parties with Northend Neighbors/Beefcakes – At least 50. This seems like a lot, but actually easy to do if you know how much we party. I think this year was at least 50 (once a week) hang outs.
Previous Year’s Reflections:
Year-End Reviews
(or some direct links)
~See Lemons Look Forward to 2025