End Of 2024

Intro

I'm starting to write 'New Year results' blog post series in 2024 when I'm 35 years old and this is my first blog post. Why? Firstly, I imagine this as sort of diary and it's cool if you're able to take a look 10 years back. Secondly, 2 people inspired me for that:

Vas3k and his NY longreads about IT and his life which I read once a year
Nick Cave and his The Red Hand Files with a lot of compassion inside which I read from time to time

I don't have as much questions from readers as Nick, so I will stick for now to vas3k model and try to share my personal 2024 year overview.

War

I am strongly against Russia's (lived there for 30 years) invasion into Ukraine (born there) and still waiting this massacre to stop. In 2023 I went through psychotherapy, this year it still affects me, but now I understand this war is not my responsibility and this war is completely out of my control. As a knowledge migrant in the Netherlands, all I left to do is to donate money to Ukraine and to participate in protests against Putin's regime. This was a tough part of NY resolution, next parts will be more positive I promise.

What's going on

We've finally quitted after 16 years of smoking tobacco! The only question I have for myself -- why didn't we do this earlier? We've calculated we spend 400€ per person per month for cigarettes in the Netherlands. No more wasting money, healthier life and 1 more hour to live every day!
Though I still work for Semrush, but this year I switched the team! After I worked in GKT team for 8 years I moved to ClickHouse team. With a team of 4 we worked hard half a year on a project written purely in Rust and I find this awesome! Friendship ended with web crawlers development, now ClickHouse infrastructure development is my best friend!
We've managed to organize family gathering in Yerevan, Armenia. Didn't see our parents since the Russian invasion into Ukraine and now we did it! It was a tricky because we've agreed we're not gonna go to Russia/Belarus until the end of the war, and our parents did not want to apply for an foreign passport. So Armenia was the only option because you can enter it with Russian internal passport.
We started to look for the apartment to buy in the Netherlands to finally settle down here in Amsterdam. So far we
- looked through huge amount of offers on funda.nl, over 500 in last 2 months
- attended 12 viewings
- made and lost 1 bid

Game of the Year

This year I realized I have ~600 games in my steam library, from which ~400 is unplayed and I have to do something about it. I used to do alphabetical approach to try unplayed games, and this leads to the 2 problems. I will never play games that starts with "W", but there are must-played titles like Witcher 3. Somewtimes I run new unplayed game that was developed let's say in 2008 and it doesn't look great with 2024 hardware and software.

So I changed my approach to try first games were released first. It gives me more 'natural' titles distribution. Here is my personal top starting from the winner:

After completing Far Cry 3 I realized that I should not start a new game before I finish the book I started to read 7 months ago, so now I'm kinda mixing reading books and playing computer games.

Book of the Year

Here is my top 3 non-fiction books:

Мобилизованная нация. Германия 1939–1945

Very tough thing to read due to all the similarities between what's going on now in Russia-Ukraine and WWII, how both of wars were affecting us and destroying human nature inside of us.
Возвращение государства. Россия в нулевые 2000-2012
Откуда берутся дети? Краткий путеводитель по переходу из лагеря чайлдфри к тихим радостям семейственности

What's happening with woman's body during pregnancy? Rumors and recent researches on what helps and what not.

Best ~~and the only I've read this year~~ fiction book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Finished the first one in the series this year. Have never read it neither in Russian nor in English, but my wife is a big fan of all the series. Can recommend

Jim Kay illustrations paper edition

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Jim Kay illustrations edition

Board game of the Year

Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

We had 12 lovely game nights in 2024 with our frieds Kate and Kostya in Java-eiland! So if you have enough friends who will agree to spend this much time with you do not hesitate to buy this game immediately!

Movie of the Year

Inside Out, 2015

It's a great and even therapeutic in some sense movie about various emotions we have, highly recommended to anyone!
Poor Things, 2023

Best role of Emma Stone!
The Substance, 2024

This one reminded me The Neon Demon, 2016. The story begins with aesthetically good and attractive scenes, and after the half of the movie things are gonna get crazy. Amazing body horror!

TV show of the Year

Слово пацана. Кровь на асфальте, 2023

If you're interested in what was going on in Russia during 90s
Presumed Innocent, 2024

May be I'm just a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal?
Rabo de Peixe, 2023

Amazing plot based on real story, and the greatness of nature of the Azores! Was recommended to us by some guide on the Azores, he told us he played the policeman!

Album of the Year

Каста – Новинки Зарубежного Рэпа, 2024

Amazing anti-war album covers life of those who fled Russia since 2022 and those who stayed
Монеточка – Молитвы. Анекдоты. Тосты, 2024

One more anti-war, the third album of Monetochka
Clint Mansell Featuring Kronos Quartet – Requiem For A Dream, 2000

Best OST of all times

Museum of the Year

We're continue to explore Dutch museums with museum card. This year we've visited 16 museums in Nord Holland comparing to 18 in 2023.

Best exhibition:

Kandinsky - H'ART Museum

Kandinsky Exhibition in the H'ART Museum

Trip of the Year

14 days in Azores, September, 19 - October, 03

We tried yachting for the first time of our lives! We sailed a week on a boat Bavaria 46, we were team of 9 brave crew members fighting the Atlantic ocean waves. One day we saw dolphins on the sunset, on our way to the Terceira island!