{"database": "pelican", "table": "content", "is_view": false, "human_description_en": "where author = \"ryan\", category = \"musings\" and published_date = \"2025-01-02\"", "rows": [["ryan", "musings", "I did my first [Year in Review](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/12/31/year-in-\nreview-2023/) last year and have decided to carry on the tradition to make\nsure I know what I did!\n\nI've written about themes before, so I won't go over it again here. Below is a\nhigh level of what my 2024 themes were\n\n  * [Winter of Learning](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/03/19/winter-of-learning/)\n  * [Spring of Transition](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/06/20/spring-of-transition/)\n  * [Summer of Writing](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/10/03/summer-of-writing/)\n  * Fall of Mindfulness\n\nOverall my themes were pretty successful. I do wish I had been a bit more\nmindful, and am now left to wonder if I shouldn't have gone with Autumn of\nMindfulness instead of Fall of Mindfulness, because I seem to have taken a\nstep back on some of my hopes for mindfulness \ud83d\ude04\n\n## Professional\n\nLast year I said\n\n> In the moment it can feel like I don't really get anything done at work\n\nI've felt this way pretty much every year for probably since I first became a\nmanager, but I'm starting to embrace it a bit more as I get older I guess.\n\nFor some context, in 2024 I worked 2235 hours with the following breakdown:\n\nCategory | Hours | Percentage  \n---|---|---  \nAdministration | 1193.5 | 53.4  \nMeetings | 838.1 | 37.5  \nCoding | 93.5 | 4.2  \nConference | 55.5 | 2.39  \nCommuting | 54 | 2.42  \n  \nThere were a couple of highlights from work this year though that I wanted to\ncall out\n\nI celebrated 16 years with my current employer which means that my career is\nnow old enough to drive in the US!\n\nMy team finally was able to migrate our SQL Database version control from\nSubversion to Git. I wrote about the migration to git last year in my year in\nreview and this was the last project that needed to be migrated over.\n\nThere are still some things to do to help with the migration to make it easier\nfor the teams that work with this project, but the first couple of steps have\nbeen completed which is nice.\n\nOne of the big things I wanted to focus on was the validation issues that my\ncompany had with transmissions of claims data.\n\nWorking with a couple of smart and dedicated people we were able to do some\npretty amazing things.\n\nOne thing to keep in mind with the validation errors is that they have to be\ncorrected, by a person, in order to allow the claims to be transmitted to the\nHealth Plans (which is a major goal of my company)\n\nAt the start of the year, the validation error rate for Institutional Claims\nwas 13.7% while the rate for Professional Claims was 8.7%\n\nBy the end of the year those rates were down to 1.1% for Institutional Claims\nand 0.3% for Professional Claims. This represents decreases for 89% and 96.4%\nrespectively.\n\nI'm really proud of what the team was able to accomplish.\n\n## Personal\n\n### Health\n\nI usually like to run or walk to keep my cardio health up, but I seemed to\nkeep running into one injury or another with my knees, feet, ankles ...\nwhatever. In July I decided to give swimming a try.\n\nSince July 15 I've swum 83,650 yards / 76489.56 meters ... which is 47.5\nmiles. This absolutely blows my mind because my first swim was only 200 yards,\nlasted about 10 minutes and I thought I was going to die.\n\nI'm now consistently swimming 3 days a week for about 55 minutes and 2000\nyards / 1828.8 meters.\n\nAt about the same time I really doubled down on starting a meditation\npractice. I tend to do about 20 minutes of meditation each day. In 2024 I had\n54 hours of meditation.\n\nI wish I could split up my walking and running statistics, but Apple doesn't\nthink these are different and so they are combined in all of the health apps!\nMy combined Walking+Running stats came in at 1015 miles which looks like a\nlot, but is down significantly from my high in 2019 of nearly 2000 miles. It's\nalso the lowest annual total by far since 2015 (my first full year of\ntracking)\n\nI think I know what I'll need to focus on in 2025!\n\n### Writing\n\nIn June I started a writing group with [Mario\nMunuz](https://fosstodon.org/@pythonbynight) and [Trey\nHunner](https://mastodon.social/@treyhunner) and that helped to keep me\nmotivated and accountable for writing. I didn't write nearly as much as I\nhoped, but I was able to get out [18\narticles](https://ryancheley.com/archive/2024/). This is the most since\n[2021](https://ryancheley.com/archive/2021/) when I wrote 23, but about 1/3 of\nmy high mark in [2018](https://ryancheley.com/archive/2018/) when I somehow\nwas able to write 44 articles!\n\n### Open Source\n\nThis year I expanded the role I had in the Django community and I'm really\npleased with that.\n\nI started the year off as a Navigator for the amazing\n[Djangonaut.Space](https://djangonaut.space/) program in Session 1, and was\nable to fill that same role in Session 2.\n\nI joined the Django Commons admin group with Daniel, Lacey, Storm, and Tim.\nWe've been able to onboard 6 libraries!\n\nI also gave a talk at Django Con US in Durham titled [Error\nCulture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLYaAYY4JPc). As always, my time at\nDjangoCon US was a blast and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in [2025\nin\nChicago](https://www.defna.org/announcements/2024/12/31/djangoconus-2025-announced/)!\n\nI also ran for the [Django Steering\nCouncil](https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2024/dec/10/django-6x-steering-\ncouncil-candidates/). I wasn't successful in making it into the Steering\nCouncil, but [the five\nfolks](https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2024/nov/21/announcing-\nthe-6x-steering-council-elections/) that did are all amazing humans and I'm\nlooking forward to the work that they'll do over the course of the 6.x series.\n\nI've also really enjoyed [Jeff Triplett](https://mastodon.social/@webology)'s\nOffice Hours. I don't do nearly enough open source work during those office\nhours, but it's nice to see people and listen in on, and participate in, some\ngreat conversations. I'm looking forward to doing this again in 2025\n\nI've also been trying to attend the DSF Office hours hosted by [Jacob Kaplan-\nMoss](https://social.jacobian.org/@jacob) and [Thibaud\nColas](https://fosstodon.org/@thibaudcolas). These calls are really\ninteresting and allow a bit of a peek into the DSF Board and what's being\nworked on. Again, I'm excited about attending these in 2025 as well.\n\n### Sports Fandom\n\nI post on social media a lot about Hockey. Specifically the local team near my\nhome, the [Coachella Valley Firebirds](https://cvfirebirds.com/).\n\nThey made it to the Calder Cup Finals again this year. And again they played\nthe Hershey Bears. I [wrote about the 2022-23 season, and the Calder Cup\nfinals](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/07/01/firebirds-inaugural-season/) and\nthe heart break associated with losing in Overtime in Game 7 of a\nchampionship. I wish I could say that they were able to redeem themselves, but\nthe outcome was the same ... but losing in 6 games instead of 7. That being\nsaid, it wasn't nearly as painful this time around.\n\nIn all, I went to nearly 50 Firbirds Hockey games (a few on the road, but most\nat home) and can't really believe it. Watching Hockey live is a lot of fun!\n\nOne of the highlights of the off season was running into a few of the players\nat a local sandwich shop and getting to chat with the captain Max McCormick. I\ntried to 'be cool', and I think I might have mostly succeeded, but it was a\npretty surreal experience.\n\nI also had the luck to get tickets to a game at Crypto.com arena to see the LA\nKings play the Seattle Kraken (which is the NHL affiliate of the Firebirds).\nIt was an awesome game to watch due to many of the players for the Kraken\nbeing former Firebirds.\n\nThe Kraken ended up losing the game 3-2 but it was still a great time.\n\nFinally, the BIG sports win this year was the Dodgers winning their first Full\nSeason World Series since 1988. Because of life I didn't get to watch as many\ngames of the World Series as I would have liked, but I did get to watch game 5\nand that made up the missing game 1 ... I think.\n\n### Miscellaneous\n\n#### Music\n\nI got to see a few [Concerts in the\nPark](https://discoverpalmdesert.com/spring-concerts-2024/) which is always\nfun. It's free, and typically a pretty nice evening on some cool grass with a\nstunning view of the sunset over [Mt San\nJacinto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jacinto_Peak).\n\nI also got to see [Weezer](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/11/26/weezer-live/)\nand had a good time hanging out with my daughter.\n\nFinally I rediscovered the amazing music of [The Tragically\nHip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tragically_Hip) from a\n[toot](https://mastodon.social/@gvwilson/112666592482656620) by [Greg\nWilson](https://mastodon.social/@gvwilson) and it's brought me a lot of joy to\nlisten to them again. [Phantom\nPower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Power_\\(The_Tragically_Hip_album\\))\nis my favorite album of theirs with so many good songs.\n[Bobcaygeon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcaygeon_\\(song\\)) is probably my\nfavorite on the album, but it can change depending on my mood.\n\n#### Empty Nesting\n\nAs I wrote about [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/06/20/spring-of-\ntransition/) my daughter graduated from High School and started College in the\nfall. This has been a big change for my wife, Emily, and I. Our daughter is\npretty close by so we can visit easily, but we've tried to give her the space\nshe needs to adjust to college life. It's been pretty successful, but it's\nstill a weird experience to walk past her room and not see her.\n\n#### Home Garden\n\nI've been [posting pictures of my lemon tree on\nMastodon](https://mastodon.social/@ryancheley/113557183813506655) over the\nlast year. In November I was finally able to harvest about 30 or 35 lemons.\nThe great thing about a lemon tree is obviously all of the lemons. But the\nhard thing about all of the lemons is trying to figure out what to do with\nthem.\n\nEmily found a great recipe for Lemon & Chili infused Olive Oil so we used that\nrecipe to make about 12 bottles of our own custom olive oil and about 15 cups\nof Lemonade. [These](https://mastodon.social/@ryancheley/113580121231076190)\nmade some pretty amazing Christmas gifts.\n\n#### Reading\n\nLooking back at my reading for 2024 and I didn't do nearly as much as I would\nhave liked, or think that I should have.\n\nI was able to make it about 8 Chapters into [Software Design by\nExample](https://third-bit.com/sdxpy/). It's a great book, but it's definitely\nnot something you just breeze through.\n\nI was able to finish up [Practices of the Python\nPro](https://www.manning.com/books/practices-of-the-python-pro). I found it to\nbe a pretty comprehensive book. I'm not much of a book reviewer so I won't\nbother writing one here. I got value out of reading it, and I think others\nwill as well.\n\nWhat I am really missing from my reading list for 2024 is fiction. Like any\nfiction at all. It doesn't look like I read anything that wasn't technical so\nI'll be trying to focus on fixing that in 2025\n\n## Wrap up\n\nOverall 2024 was a pretty good year for me. There were some things that I\nwasn't and am still not excited about, but I have decided to try and make\nthings better where I can, stand up for what I believe is right, and just keep\non trying to be kind and make the world a better place in the ways that I can.\n\n", "2025-01-02", "year-in-review-2024", "I did my first [Year in Review](https://www.ryancheley.com/2023/12/31/year-in-\nreview-2023/) last year and have decided to carry on the tradition to make\nsure I know what I did!\n\nI've written about themes before, so I won't go over it again here. Below is a\nhigh level of what my 2024 themes were\n\n  * [Winter \u2026](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/03/19/winter-of-learning/)\n\n", "Year in Review 2024", "https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/02/year-in-review-2024/"]], "truncated": false, "filtered_table_rows_count": 1, "expanded_columns": [], "expandable_columns": [], "columns": ["author", "category", "content", "published_date", "slug", "summary", "title", "url"], "primary_keys": ["slug"], "units": {}, "query": {"sql": "select author, category, content, published_date, slug, summary, title, url from content where \"author\" = :p0 and \"category\" = :p1 and \"published_date\" = :p2 order by slug limit 101", "params": {"p0": "ryan", "p1": "musings", "p2": "2025-01-02"}}, "facet_results": {}, "suggested_facets": [{"name": "published_date", "type": "date", "toggle_url": "http://search.ryancheley.com/pelican/content.json?author=ryan&category=musings&published_date=2025-01-02&_facet_date=published_date"}], "next": null, "next_url": null, "private": false, "allow_execute_sql": true, "query_ms": 13.650032691657543}